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I would like to see how this change in society is correlated with changes in the economy.

During the 40's to 60's when median wages (in real terms) rose, did the age of adulthood drop? Unfortunately it may be hard to see such effects with census data - the data is just too coarse I suspect. Data on 1930 would reflect the roaring 20's and data on 1940 would reflect a half decade of recovery and the expectation of war in the near future.

With median wages stagnating for the last 20 years while the economy grew significantly a lot of people have had to arrange their life plans in ways that they hope will better their economic situation over the long term. Delaying marriage and child bearing, seeking more education, and (primarily for women) being willing to raise a child without being attached to a spouse with lower earning potential than yourself can all be seen as ways to invest in long term economic betterment.

Certainly societal norms changed in the last half of the 20th century. In the 1950's it was not considered unusual for high school girls to get married. Today getting married at 17 is seen as more constricting of a person's future choices than having a child out of wedlock.

The "defense of marriage" people target the societal changes of divorce, abortion, cohabitation and see the causes in such things as support for gay marriage. I wonder if support for a tax policy benefitting the lower half of American wage earners would do much more for strengthing the institution of marriage.