Emerging Adulthood

Question 1

What is Emerging Adulthood?

Answer 1

Emerging adulthood – a new life stage between adolescence and young adulthood, usually from ages 18 to 25

Question 2

What are the 5 main features of emerging adulthood?

Answer 2

Five Main Characteristics:

1) Identity Exploration
2) Instability
3) Feeling “in-between”
4) Self-focus
5) Sense of possibility

Question 3

1) Identity Exploration

Answer 3

1. Exploration of possible identities before making enduring choices
   - Who are you? Capabilities? Limitations? Beliefs? Values?

Question 4

2) Instability

Answer 4

2. Instability in work, romantic relationships, living arrangements
   - Go to college, live with partner or friends, move back in with parents (~40% EA move back in with parents at least once)
   - Rates of residential change highest between ages of 18-29
   - Average number of job changes between ages 20-29 is seven

Question 5

3) Feeling “in-between”

Answer 5

3. The subjective feelings of being between adolescence and adulthood
   - “Do you feel like you have reached adulthood?” Most say: “in some ways yes, in other ways no.”

-Not until late 20s/early 30s that clear majority feel like they are adults.

Question 6

4) Self-focus

Answer 6

4. A focus on oneself; on functioning as independent person
   - Focus on self to develop knowledge, skills, self-understanding needed for adult life
   - Focus on making independent decisions – everything from what to eat for dinner to what whether or not to get married
   - Normal, healthy, temporary

Question 7

5) Sense of possibility

Answer 7

5. The subjective sense that life holds many possibilities
   - Survey of 18-29-year-olds in US (Arnett, 2014)
   - –89% agreed with “I am confident that someday I will get want I want out of life.”
   - –83% agreed with “At this time of my life, anything is possible.”
   - –No one imagines dead-end jobs, bitter divorces, disrespectful children

Question 8

Is Emerging Adulthood Universal?

Answer 8

• Exists in SOME cultures – US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, western Europe
• Seen more often in cultures that allow young people to postpone entering adult roles (marriage, parenting)
• Increasingly common as a result of industrialization and globalization

Question 9

Is Emerging Adulthood Universal? PT.2

Answer 9

Great deal of variability with regard to dimensions of Emerging Adulthood

• Different degrees of commitment to work, romantic, residential
• One example: Finances
• –Western Europe & US: Emphasis on financial independence (individualism)
• –Japan & South Korea: Emphasis on financially supporting parents (collectivism)
• Another example: pre-marital sex before age 20
• –Western Europe & US: 3/4s of all emerging adults
• –Japan & South Korea: Less than 1/5 of all emerging adults

Question 10

Is Emerging Adulthood Universal? PT.3

Answer 10

• In developing countries, seen only in wealthiest members of society
• In developed countries, not entirely economic: more conservative states are less likely to have individuals experience emerging adulthood

Question 11

Negative Identity

Answer 11

chooses an identity that isn’t really acceptable by family and society EX: bank robber