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Emerging Adults in America Coming of Age in the 21st Century

Edited by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Jennifer Lynn Tanner

7.00 0v *

DECADE o/BEHAVIOR

o

°

American Psychological Association Washington, DC

Copyright © 2006 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to scanning or digitization, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Emerging adults in America: coming of age in the 21st century / edited by Jeffery Jensen Arnett and Jennifer Lynn Tanner.— 1st ed. p. cm.— (Decade of behavior) Based on a conference held Nov. 2003 at Harvard University.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-59147-329-2 1. Young adults—United States—Social conditions—21st century—Congresses.

2. Young adults—United States—Psychology—Congresses. 3. Developmental psychology—Congresses. I. Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. II. Tanner, Jennifer Lynn.

III. Series.

HQ799.7.E63 2005 305.242'0973—dc22 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record is available from the British Library.

Printed in the United States of America First Edition

2005015946

APA Science Volumes

Attribution and Social Interaction: The Legacy of Edward E. Jones Best Methods for the Analysis of Change: Recent Advances, Unanswered Questions, Future Directions Cardiovascular Reactivity to Psychological Stress and Disease The Challenge in Mathematics and Science Education: Psychology's Response Changing Employment Relations: Behavioral and Social Perspectives Children Exposed to Marital Violence: Theory, Research, and Applied Issues Cognition: Conceptual and Methodological Issues Cognitive Bases of Musical Communication Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology Conceptualization and Measurement of Organism-Environment Interaction Converging Operations in the Study of Visual Selective Attention Creative Thought: An Investigation of Conceptual Structures and Processes Developmental Psychoacoustics Diversity in Work Teams: Research Paradigms for a Changing Workplace Emotion and Culture: Empirical Studies of Mutual Influence Emotion, Disclosure, and Health Evolving Explanations of Development: Ecological Approaches to Organism-Environment Systems Examining Lives in Context: Perspectives on the Ecology of Human Development Global Prospects for Education: Development, Culture, and Schooling Hostility, Coping, and Health Measuring Patient Changes in Mood, Anxiety, and Personality Disorders: Toward a Core Battery Occasion Setting: Associative Learning and Cognition in Animals Organ Donation and Transplantation: Psychological and Behavioral Factors Origins and Development of Schizophrenia: Advances in Experimental Psychopathology The Perception of Structure Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition Psychological Testing ofHispanics Psychology of Women's Health: Progress and Challenges in Research and Application Researching Community Psychology: Issues of Theory and Methods The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures Sexism and Stereotypes in Modern Society: The Gender Science of Janet Taylor Spence

Sleep and Cognition Sleep Onset: Normal and Abnormal Processes Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Differences Stereotyped Movements: Brain and Behavior Relationships Studying Lives Through Time: Personality and Development The Suggestibility of Children's Recollections: Implications for Eyewitness Testimony Taste, Experience, and Feeding: Development and Learning Temperament: Individual Differences at the Interface of Biology and Behavior Through the Looking Glass: Issues of Psychological Weil-Being in Captive Nonhuman Primates Uniting Psychology and Biology: Integrative Perspectives on Human Development Viewing Psychology as a Whole: The Integrative Science of William N. Dember APA Decade of Behavior Volumes

Acculturation: Advances in Theory, Measurement, and Applied Research Animal Research and Human Health: Advancing Human Welfare Through Behavioral Science Behavior Genetics Principles: Perspectives in Development, Personality, and Psychopathology Categorization Inside and Outside the Laboratory: Essays in Honor of Douglas L. Medin Children's Peer Relations: From Development to Intervention Computational Modeling of Behavior in Organizations: The Third Scientific Discipline Developing Individuality in the Human Brain: A Tribute to Michael I. Posner Emerging Adults in America: Coming of Age in the 21st Century Experimental Cognitive Psychology and Its Applications Family Psychology: Science-Based Interventions Memory Consolidation: Essays in Honor of James L. McGaugh Models of Intelligence: International Perspectives The Nature of Remembering: Essays in Honor of Robert G. Crowder New Methods for the Analysis of Change On the Consequences of Meaning Selection: Perspectives on Resolving Lexical Ambiguity Participatory Community Research: Theories and Methods in Action Personality Psychology in the Workplace Perspectivism in Social Psychology: The Yin and Yang of Scientific Progress Principles of Experimental Psychopathology: Essays in Honor of Brendan A. Maher

Psychosocial Interventions for Cancer Racial Identity in Context: The Legacy of Kenneth B. Clark The Social Psychology of Group Identity and Social Conflict: Theory, Application, and Practice Unraveling the Complexities of Social Life: A Festschrift in Honor of Robert B. Zajonc Visual Perception: The Influence of H. W. Leibowitz

Contents

Contributors

xi

Foreword

xv

Preface

xvii

Part I. Theoretical Foundations

1

1. Emerging Adulthood: Understanding the New Way of Coming of Age Jeffrey Jensen Arnett

3

2. Recentering During Emerging Adulthood: A Critical Turning Point in Life Span Human Development Jennifer Lynn Tanner

21

Part II. Individual Characteristics 3. Emerging Structures of Adult Thought Gisela Labouvie-Vief 4. Emerging Adulthood as an Institutionalized Moratorium: Risks and Benefits to Identity Formation James E. Cote 5. Ethnic Identity Exploration in Emerging Adulthood Jean S. Phinney

57 59

85 117

6. Mental Health During Emerging Adulthood: Continuity and Discontinuity in Courses, Causes, and Functions John E. Schulenberg and Nicole R. Zarrett

135

1. Resilience in Emerging Adulthood: Developmental Perspectives on Continuity and Transformation Ann S. Masten, Jelena Obradovic, and Keith B. Burt

173

Part III. Contexts 8. Family Relationships and Support Systems in Emerging Adulthood William S. Aquilino

191 193

x

CONTENTS

9. Friendships and Romance in Emerging Adulthood: Assessing Distinctiveness in Close Relationships W. Andrew Collins and Manfred van Dulmen

219

10. "Sex Is Just a Normal Part of Life": Sexuality in Emerging Adulthood Eva S. Lefkowitz and Meghan M. Gillen

235

11. School, Work, and Emerging Adulthood Stephen F. Hamilton and Mary Agnes Hamilton

257

12. Emerging Adults in a Media-Saturated World Jane D. Brown

279

Part IV. Conclusion 13. The Psychology of Emerging Adulthood: What Is Known, and What Remains to Be Known?

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett

301 303

Index

331

About the Editors

341

Contributors Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Clark University, is the lead editor of the book and the originator of the term emerging adulthood. He is the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research and the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Adolescence (Vols. 1—4). He has published numerous empirical articles on emerging adulthood and is the author of the book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road From the Late Teens Through the Twenties (2004).

William S. Aquilino is a professor of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. His research explores transformations in parent-child relationships during the emerging adulthood phase.

Jane D. Brown, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the James L. Knight Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

She studies the role the mass media play in the lives of adolescents and emerging adults. She currently is principal investigator of one of the first longitudinal studies on the uses and effects of sexual content in the media funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

She is coeditor of Sexual Teens, Sexual Media (2002).

Keith B. Burt is a doctoral candidate in clinical and developmental psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is involved with two studies encompassing the transition to adulthood, the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and Project Competence. His research interests include continuity and change in behavior problems over time, relations between competence and psychopathology, and methodological issues in the analysis of longitudinal data.

W. Andrew Collins, University of Minnesota, is the Morse-Alumni Distinguished Professor of Child Development. He is a principal investigator of the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, following a sample of individuals from birth to age 28. Past president of the Society for Research on Adolescence, he is coauthor of a textbook on adolescence and numerous empirical and review articles and chapters on adolescence and young adulthood.

James E. Cote is a professor of sociology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He is the founding editor of Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research and past-president of the Society for Research on Identity Formation. Dr. Cote is also on the Executive Board of RC34 (Sociology of Youth) of the International Sociological Association, and editor of the International Bulletin of Youth Research. He has authored or coauthored five books in identity studies and youth studies, including Critical Youth Studies: A Canadian Focus;

xii

CONTRIBUTORS

Identity Formation, Agency, and Culture: A Social Psychological Synthesis; Arrested Adulthood: The Changing Nature of Identity and Maturity in the LateModern World; Adolescent Storm and Stress; and Generation on Hold.

Meghan M. Gillen, Pennsylvania State University, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. Her research interests include body image development in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Mary Agnes Hamilton, Cornell University, studies the ecology of youth development in communities: the principles for youth development; its contexts, activities, and relationships; and the implications for community planning and program implementation. Her ethnographic research focuses on how mentoring relationships build character and competence.

Stephen F. Hamilton, Cornell University, engages in outreach and research on the transition from school to work during emerging adulthood. His 1990 book, Apprenticeship for Adulthood, contrasted the apprenticeship system in Germany with the absence of a comparable support system for young people in the United States who do not complete college degrees. In addition to studying education and employment, he does research on service learning and mentoring.

Gisela Labouvie-Vief, Wayne State University, is a pioneer in the area of development of cognition and emotion across the life span. A distinguished researcher in the field, she has had continuous funding through the National Institute on Aging. She has published widely in the area of cognitive, emotional, and self-development and recently received the Distinguished Research Achievement Award from Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of the American Psychological Association.

Eva S. Lefkowitz, Pennsylvania State University, is an associate professor of human development and family studies. Her research and publications focus on sexuality and relationships during adolescence and emerging adulthood.

She has most recently examined gender role development and sexual behaviors and attitudes during the transition to university among European Americans, African Americans, and Latino Americans.

Ann S. Masten, University of Minnesota, has studied competence and resilience in this period of development in diverse samples, including the Project Competence longitudinal cohort followed for 20 years, who were assessed before, during, and after the emerging adult transition years. She has published numerous theoretical, review, and methodological articles about the meaning and measurement of developmental tasks, risk, and protective processes, including articles in 1998 and 2001 in the American Psychologist.

Jelena Obradovic is a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota. Her research

CONTRIBUTORS

interests include understanding the effects of extreme life adversity on social and emotional development. She is interested in investigating developmental mechanisms underlying processes of resilience and psychopathology from a dynamic longitudinal perspective.

Jean S. Phinney is a professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles. For the past 20 years she has been studying ethnic identity and adaptation among adolescents and emerging adults from diverse ethnic and immigrant groups and has published widely on ethnic identity. She is part of an international team studying adjustment of immigrant adolescents in 13 countries. She is currently conducting a longitudinal study of college persistence among ethnic minority first-generation college students, supported by the National Institutes of Health.

John E. Schulenberg is a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Michigan and a research professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and Center for Human Growth and Development.

He has published widely on several topics concerning adolescent development and the transition to adulthood, focusing most recently on how developmental transitions and tasks relate to substance use, health risks, and adjustment difficulties.

Jennifer Lynn Tanner is a coeditor of the book and a research assistant professor at Simmons College. Her doctoral work investigated relationships between midlife parents and emerging adults. She was an organizer of the Transition to Adulthood Conference in 1997 at Pennsylvania State University and author of the chapter, "The Economies of Young Adulthood: One Future or Two?" in the book that came out of that conference. Her research focuses on trajectories of development and mental health of emerging adults. She serves on the Executive Council of the Special Interest Group on Emerging Adults.

Manfred van Dulmen is an assistant professor of psychology at Kent State University. His research focuses on understanding behavioral continuity and change from adolescence into young adulthood as well as methodological issues in developmental psychology. His current research program investigates the role of adolescent close relationships as antecedents of continuity and change of antisocial behavior. He is involved as a collaborator in several research projects that study behavioral continuity and change with regard to adolescent competence, adolescent and young adulthood romantic relationships, and the adjustment of adopted children and adolescents. He is coeditor of the Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology (2005).

Nicole R. Zarrett is currently a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Michigan, specializing in the study of human development across the life span and within the context of social change. Current research interests include the examination of psychological, social—cultural, and biological factors that influence individuals' interest, achievement, and long-term engagement in both academic and nonacademic activities.

Foreword In early 1988, the American Psychological Association (APA) Science Directorate began its sponsorship of what would become an exceptionally successful activity in support of psychological science—the APA Scientific Conferences program. This program has showcased some of the most important topics in psychological science and has provided a forum for collaboration among many leading figures in the field.

The program has inspired a series of books that have presented cuttingedge work in all areas of psychology. At the turn of the millennium, the series was renamed the Decade of Behavior Series to help advance the goals of this important initiative. The Decade of Behavior is a major interdisciplinary campaign designed to promote the contributions of the behavioral and social sciences to our most important societal challenges in the decade leading up to 2010. Although a key goal has been to inform the public about these scientific contributions, other activities have been designed to encourage and further collaboration among scientists. Hence, the series that was the "APA Science Series" has continued as the "Decade of Behavior Series." This represents one element in APA's efforts to promote the Decade of Behavior initiative as one of its endorsing organizations. For additional information about the Decade of Behavior, please visit http://www.decadeofbehavior.org.

Over the course of the past years, the Science Conference and Decade of Behavior Series has allowed psychological scientists to share and explore cutting-edge findings in psychology. The APA Science Directorate looks forward to continuing this successful program and to sponsoring other conferences and books in the years ahead. This series has been so successful that we have chosen to extend it to include books that, although they do not arise from conferences, report with the same high quality of scholarship on the latest research.

We are pleased that this important contribution to the literature was supported in part by the Decade of Behavior program. Congratulations to the editors and contributors of this volume on their sterling effort.

Steven J. Breckler, PhD Executive Director for Science

Virginia E. Holt Assistant Executive Director for Science

Preface This is an exciting time for those interested in the study of emerging adulthood.

The field is very young, but it has expanded quickly and already has begun to take shape as a distinct area of scholarship. The concept of emerging adulthood was first described in Arnett's (2000) article in the American Psychologist. That article described a theory of development from the late teens through the 20s (mainly ages 18-25) and proposed the term emerging adulthood for this period.

The article was fairly short, and only the outline of a comprehensive theory was presented, but the timing was right. There was a widespread sense among scholars of a need for a developmental understanding of this age period, and a new term for it. Consequently, in a short time emerging adulthood has become widely known and used among scholars studying this age period.

In 2004 Arnett published a book-length exposition of the theory, based on research conducted with emerging adults over the past decade (Arnett, 2004).

There are numerous other indications of lively scholarly activity on this topic.

Many longitudinal studies that began in infancy, childhood, or adolescence now have samples that have reached emerging adulthood (e.g., Aseltine & Gore, 2003; Bachman et al., 2002; Caspi, 2000; Cohen, Kasen, Chen, Hartmark, & Gordon, 2003; Reinherz, Paradis, Giaconia, Stashwick, & Fitzmaurice, 2003; Shiner, Hasten, & Tellegen, 2002), and they are providing rich information about the extent to which earlier development is related (or is not related) to development during emerging adulthood. The first emerging adulthood conference, on which most of the chapters in this book are based, was held in November 2003 at Harvard University and drew over twice as many scholars as expected. The second conference on emerging adulthood was held in February 2005 and attracted even more scholars. An Emerging Adulthood Special Interest Group has been established through the Society for Research on Adolescence and is providing a useful venue for scholars interested in emerging adulthood to exchange information and ideas (see http://www.s-r-a.org/easig.html).

Nevertheless, theory and research on emerging adulthood are still in their nascent stages, and much remains to be done to reach the goal of building a new paradigm of emerging adulthood, that is, a shared way of thinking about this age period, including a widely accepted body of knowledge that can guide research and theoretical development. This book represents a major step toward this goal. Twelve scholars present chapters in their area of expertise. All were asked to summarize what is known and to present theoretical ideas about what a paradigm of emerging adulthood might look like with respect to their area. The result is a rich panorama of perspectives on emerging adulthood, covering a wide range of topics.

The book is divided into three main sections—theoretical foundations, individual characteristics, and contexts—followed by a summary chapter. This preface summarizes the chapters briefly to provide an overview of the content of the book.

xviii

PREFACE

Part I: Theoretical Foundations The first two chapters of the book provide an introduction to the theory of emerging adulthood and thereby lay the foundation for the chapters to come.

In the first chapter, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett presents a demographic outline of the age period and how it has changed in recent decades (e.g., rising marriage age, broader participation in higher education). He follows this outline with a summary of his theory of emerging adulthood, describing five features he believes distinguish emerging adulthood from other developmental periods (the age of identity explorations, the age of instability, the self-focused age, the age of feeling in-between, and the age of possibilities). Toward the end of the chapter he addresses the challenging issue of the heterogeneity of emerging adulthood.

The age period from the late teens through the mid-20s is a time when young people's lives take a great variety of paths, in their living situations, their social relationships, and their status in terms of school and work. Is it possible, then, to characterize emerging adulthood as a developmental period, overall?

Arnett answers affirmatively, arguing that the theory of emerging adulthood provides a paradigm that is useful in guiding thinking and research on the age period, as long as the heterogeneity of the age period is kept in mind and investigated as well.

Jennifer Lynn Tanner's chapter focuses on the contribution that the theory of emerging adulthood makes to a general understanding of life span human development. Drawing on life span research, she emphasizes the unique nature and tasks of the years between 18 and 25 compared with the childhood and adolescence that precedes it and the young and later adulthood that follows it.

Tanner presents the concept of recentering as the defining process of emerging adulthood from a life span developmental perspective. Bringing together literatures on ego development, separation-individuation, and college student development, she argues that emerging adulthood is not only a stage of human development but a critical turning point in the life span.

Part II: Individual Characteristics The next five chapters take on issues of cognitive and identity development, ethnic identity, and resilience and mental health during emerging adulthood to provide a window into the individual characteristics that shape the lives of emerging adults. In chapter 3, Gisela Labouvie-Vief introduces the notion that the same contextual and social forces that gave rise to emerging adulthood also created a need for a level of postadolescent cognitive development. This intriguing hypothesis is supported by empirical evidence for a level of adult cognitive development, characterized by abstraction and intersubjectivity, that first appears during the emerging adult years. Included in this chapter are Labouvie-Vief s insights into questions such as, What contexts give rise to this potential for mature levels of adult thinking? and What individual-level factors contribute to this potential?

In chapter 4, James E. Cote examines the extent to which contemporary emerging adulthood represents an extended identity moratorium. Cote draws

PREFACE

xix

on Eriksonian theory in his consideration of why and how identity development, once considered the cornerstone of adolescence, has shifted into center stage during emerging adulthood. Cote cites the decline in institutional structures and supports it as the force that has given rise to the exploratory nature of these years. Emphasizing the point that the uncommitted nature of emerging adulthood is an opportunity for some and a challenge or even a morass for others, this chapter highlights the heterogeneity in the experiences of emerging adults.

Jean S. Phinney, in chapter 5, addresses the important issue of differences in the experiences of American ethnic minority groups during emerging adulthood. Phinney explores individual differences in the timing of emerging adulthood by considering how variation in cultural background and immigration status influences how people experience emerging adulthood. Moreover, Phinney addresses how ethnic identity may be shaped by emerging adult experiences. She presents the compelling hypothesis that emerging adulthood may be a time when ethnic identity reaches a new and higher level of awareness because social contexts in emerging adulthood tend to change in ways that may make ethnic identity more salient.

John E. Schulenberg and Nicole R. Zarrett address mental health during emerging adulthood in chapter 6. The authors focus on an interesting question: Why does well-being increase across emerging adulthood for most people in the United States, even though this is the same developmental period during which psychiatric disorders peak? Merging developmental and mental health theories, the authors reframe this question using a person-context interaction perspective to define and discuss adaptation and maladaptation across emerging adulthood. Schulenberg and Zarrett stress the potential for both continuity and discontinuity of trajectories of mental health during turning points in life span human development, and specifically during emerging adulthood. A discussion of the methodological challenges of studying adjustment and wellbeing across these years is integrated throughout this chapter.

Ann S. Masten, Jelena Obradovic, and Keith B. Burt also address pathways of mental health and well-being in chapter 7 but focus specifically on the potential for resilience during emerging adulthood. The challenge of defining competence and resilience during emerging adulthood is one of the issues these authors address. In addition, Masten and her colleagues offer insight into mechanisms that may be associated with resilience during emerging adulthood.

Empirical findings from Masten and colleagues' studies of resilience indicate that emerging adulthood is a developmental period that affords the opportunity for resilience to continue or for new evidence of resilience to appear.

Part III: Contexts The next five chapters focus on salient contexts of emerging adulthood: family, romantic relationships and peers, sexuality, school and work, and media. William S. Aquilino, in chapter 8, takes a look at the ways family relationships and family supports are important to emerging adult development. Familiesof-origin continue to influence development through the emerging adult years.

xx

PREFACE

To some extent parent-child relationships reflect the established patterns of childhood and adolescence but simultaneously transform into something more mutual and adultlike. Aquilino covers a wide range of family characteristics that influence the ways that emerging adults relate to their parents, such as parental divorce, marital conflict, family support, and family socioeconomic status. He concludes with a discussion of the frontier of research in the area of family relationships during emerging adulthood, with an emphasis on the need for work that investigates the diversity of family experiences during this developmental period.

Chapter 9 focuses on emerging adults' relationship experiences with friends and romantic partners. W. Andrew Collins and Manfred van Dulmen provide evidence that emerging adult relationships with friends and romantic partners are both similar and dissimilar from adolescent relationships. Collins and van Dulmen highlight the role of cognitive development underlying changes and shifts that make emerging adult relationships distinct from adolescent relationships. However, continuity in relationship motives, concerns, and expectations reveals connections between interpersonal relationships from adolescence through emerging adulthood.

Sexuality during emerging adulthood, covered by Eva S. Lefkowitz and Meghan M. Gillen in chapter 10, is a central but understudied feature of this age period. This chapter presents empirical data on the norms of sexual behavior in American society during the emerging adult years, including the average number of sexual partners, frequency of sexual relations, and gender differences in sexual behaviors. Sexual attitudes and predictors of sexual attitudes and behavior are discussed. Ethnic differences in sexual behaviors and experiences are addressed, as well as the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender emerging adults.

Stephen F. Hamilton and Mary Agnes Hamilton, in chapter 11, reflect on how the transition from school to work is a key part of the passage through emerging adulthood. The many divergent paths in school and work that people take after high school in the United States are vividly portrayed. They review the literature on the transition to work and identify the key predictors of productive and satisfying career paths established by emerging adults. Alternatives to current American educational and training programs that might better facilitate the transition from school to work are proposed and discussed.

In chapter 12, Jane D. Brown addresses a unique feature of contemporary emerging adulthood, observing that this cohort of 18- to 25-year-olds is the first to have come of age in a media-saturated world. The mediated lives of American emerging adults include computers, Internet access, magazines, television, and portable electronic music, all of which are part of their daily experience in their homes, schools, and leisure activities. Brown applies the media practice model as a framework for understanding how identity development, a core feature of emerging adulthood, affects and is affected by media use.

After laying the groundwork for future research on media use and its effects on emerging adult development and adjustment, Brown concludes the chapter with an international perspective on media use in emerging adulthood.

In the final chapter, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett offers some concluding observations about the field of emerging adulthood as it currently stands. Most of the

PREFACE

chapter is devoted to a commentary on each of the preceding chapters of the book, making connections across chapters and identifying new research questions. However, the final section of the chapter focuses on two new issues: emerging adulthood as a worldwide phenomenon and the importance of using qualitative methods in the study of emerging adults. The chapters in this volume focus almost exclusively on emerging adults in the United States and Canada, but here Arnett focuses on how similar demographic patterns are taking place in many other countries with respect to this age period, and how this situation presents the opportunity for and indeed the necessity of studying emerging adulthood worldwide to identify similarities and differences crossnationally and cross-culturally.

Arnett then argues for the importance of using qualitative methods when studying emerging adults. He cautions against simply taking questionnaires developed for adolescents and applying them to emerging adults, as doing so ignores the potentially important developmental differences between them.

The use of qualitative methods can be a way of developing questionnaires that more accurately assess emerging adults. More important, however, the use of qualitative methods allows investigators to make the most of the capacity for self-reflection that is such a notable characteristic of emerging adulthood and to learn from the insights emerging adults have to offer on their lives.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the William T. Grant Foundation, the University of Maryland, Simmons College, and the Science Directorate of the American Psychological Association for their support of the first conference on emerging adulthood that was the launching pad for this book. We also wish to thank the persons at the American Psychological Association who were involved in the editorial process and production of the book, specifically Lansing Hays; Mary Lynn Skutley; the development editor, Emily Leonard; and the production editor, Genevieve Gill. Most of all, we would like to thank the authors who contributed to the book. They provided chapters that are remarkably informative, thoughtful, and original. We hope the readers of this book will find their chapters to be as inspiring as we have.

References Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469-480.

Arnett, J. J. (2004). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties.

New York: Oxford University Press.

Aseltine, R. H., & Gore, S. (2003). Race and ethnic differences in depressed mood following the transition from high school. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44, 370—389.

Bachman, J. G., O'Malley, P. M., Schulenberg, J. E., Johnston, L. D., Bryant, A. L., & Merline, A. C. (2002). The decline of substance use in young adulthood: Changes in social activities, roles, and beliefs. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Caspi, A. (2000). The child is father to the man: Personality continuities from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 158—172.

PREFACE Cohen, P., Kasen, S., Chen, H., Hartmark, C., & Gordon, K. (2003). Variations in patterns of developmental transmissions in the emerging adulthood period. Developmental Psychology, 39, 657-669.

Reinherz, H. Z., Paradis, A. D., Giaconia, R. M., Stashwick, C. K., & Fitzmaurice, G. (2003).

Childhood and adolescent predictors of major depression in the transition to adulthood. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 2141-2147.

Shiner, R. L., Masten, A. S., & Tellegen, A. (2002). A developmental perspective on personality in emerging adulthood: Childhood antecedents and concurrent adaptation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1165-1177.

Parti Theoretical Foundations

Emerging Adulthood: Understanding the New Way of Coming of Age Jeffrey Jensen Arnett Not long ago an article appeared on the Internet entitled "Top 10 Things to Do Before You Turn 30" (Brodrick, 2003). The list included the following: • • •

• •

See the world. It's much easier to do when you're 22 and footloose than 35 with two bawling babies in your backpack.

If you're going to drink a lot, do it when you're young. Get this experimentation out of your system.

Take risks with your job. Aim for the career you've dreamed of doing.

Or just have fun for now. Later, when you've got the mortgage and 2.3 kids and a time share in Cocoa Beach, fun will be the last thing on your mind.

Do volunteer work. You may be broke, but you can give your sweat and earnestness to a cause in which you believe.

Use this decade to go to extremes. Climb the tallest mountain you can find. Learn to sail. Road trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. [By age 30] people will really be expecting you to act like a grown up. So, you will need some experiences to teach you how to get there.

The article concluded, Sounds like your 20s are pretty fun. But don't think this means the rest of your life will be a drag. My point is to take advantage of what you have: energy, idealism, enthusiasm, a willingness to experiment, a lack of encumbrances, a desire to learn and grow. (Broderick, 2003, 1 21) Forty years ago, by age 22 or 23 the typical person in industrialized societies was married, had at least one child, and was well on the way to a mortgage (and perhaps even a time share in Cocoa Beach). It is clear that a great deal has changed in recent decades in what people expect their lives to be like during their 20s. Of course, it has long been true that some young people have been unencumbered and footloose during their 20s (White, 1993). In Europe during the 19th century, at the height of Romanticism, there was an ideal,

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especially in Germany, of young men having a Wanderschaft (traveling period), that is, a period in their late teens or early 20s devoted to travel and selfexploration before they settled into adult commitments. In a similar manner, in Britain many upper-class young men had a "continental tour" or "grand tour" of Europe before entering long-term adult roles. However, these experiences were reserved mainly for the elite and solely for young men (young women would not have been allowed to travel without a chaperone). What is different today is that experiencing the period from the late teens through the mid-20s as a time of exploration and instability is now the norm, something that applies to the majority of young people in industrialized societies, young women as well as young men.

The timing and meaning of coming of age—that is, reaching full adult status—is different today than it was 50 or 100 years ago, different in fact than it has ever been before. The social and institutional structures that once both supported and restricted people in the course of coming of age have weakened, leaving people with greater freedom but less support as they make their way into adulthood. As sociologists have observed, the entry into adulthood has become deinstitutionalized and individualization has increased, meaning that people are required to rely on their own resources and their own sense of agency, for better or worse (Cote, 2000; Heckhausen, 1999; Mayer, 2004). More than ever before, coming of age in the 21st century means learning to stand alone as a self-sufficient person, capable of making choices and decisions independently from among a wide range of possibilities (Arnett, 1998).

In part because the changes in the nature of young people's experiences from their late teens through their mid-20s have happened so recently, this period of life has been little studied by scholars interested in human development. Of course, studies of college students are innumerable, but these studies are usually done without a coherent developmental framework. There have been some notable theoretical efforts by scholars such as Erik Erikson (1950, 1959, 1968), Kenneth Keniston (1971), Gene Bockneck (1986), and James Cote (2000; Cote & Allahar, 1994). However, with the exception of Cote's work, these efforts are decades old and have limited applicability to today's young people.

The theory of emerging adulthood has been offered as a way of conceptualizing the development of today's young people, in American society and in other industrialized societies. It does this in part by recognizing the years from (roughly) 18 to 25 as a distinct period of the life course, different in important ways from the adolescence that precedes it or the young adulthood that follows it. Although numerous articles using the emerging adulthood theory have been published since I first presented an outline of the theory in 2000 (Arnett, 2000a), and I have written a book expanding on the theory and presenting the findings from my own research (Arnett, 2004), this book represents the first attempt to draw together a wide range of scholars in order to provide a comprehensive portrait of development during emerging adulthood.

In this first chapter, I begin by presenting a demographic outline of emerging adulthood. Then I summarize my theory of emerging adulthood by presenting the five features that distinguish it as a developmental period. Finally, I consider the special challenges involved in building a new paradigm of emerging adulthood, given that emerging adults are such a diverse group.

EMERGING ADULTHOOD

The Demographic Outline of Emerging Adulthood Fifty years are but a moment in historical terms, so historians of the future will no doubt be amazed when they consider the demographic changes that took place in the last half of the 20th century with respect to the age period from the late teens through the 20s. Especially striking were the changes in the timing of marriage and parenthood, and in participation in higher education.

The median age of marriage rose steeply in every industrialized society from 1960 to the mid-1990s before leveling out. Figure 1.1 shows the pattern for the United States. The pattern for men is parallel to that of women but consistently 2 years later. The pattern for both men and women in other industrialized countries is later than that of the United States, but for them as well marriage usually occurs at some point in the late 20s (Arnett, 2004).

Not only has the median age of marriage risen, but the variance has expanded (Modell, 1989). Some people still do get married in their late teens or early 20s, perhaps because of exceptional maturity, conservative religious beliefs, or the spur of an unintended pregnancy, but it is also not unusual for people to marry in their very late 20s or their early 30s, and they are not considered abnormal or even unusual for doing so.

Age at first childbirth has followed a pattern similar to marriage in the United States and other industrialized countries, rising steadily beginning in 1960 and leveling out in the 1990s (Arnett & Taber, 1994). For age at first childbirth as well as for marriage, the variance has expanded as the median age has risen. Some women (although relatively few) still have their first child Median U.S. Marriage Age 1950-2000

1950

1960

1980

1970

Year

Figure 1.1.

Median U.S. marriage age, 1950-2000.

1990

2000

JEFFREY JENSEN ARNETT 70

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5 60 o a) o>50

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2 O £ 30 0)

2 20

10 0.

1900

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Figure 1.2.

College enrollment, 1900-2000.

in their late teens or early 20s, but now it is not uncommon for a woman's first birth to take place in her 30s. Furthermore, marriage has ceased to be the nearly exclusive context for childbirth. In the United States, in 1960 only 7% of children were born to an unmarried mother, but by 2000 this figure had risen to 33% (Bianchi & Casper, 2000). In northern European countries, the percentages of children born to unmarried mothers are even higher (Kiernan, 2002).

Another key part of the demographic outline of emerging adulthood is participation in higher education. One reason many people now wait until at least their late 20s to marry and have their first child is that they are focused before that time on obtaining higher education and then finding a desirable occupation. Participation in higher education has risen substantially during the past century, especially over the past 50 years, as Figure 1.2 shows. The rise of women's participation has been especially notable. Early in the 20th century, young women were discouraged from attending college, no matter how smart they were (Kerber, 1997). Even as recently as 1970, substantially more men than women attended college. Since the late 1980s, however, women have exceeded men in entering college following high school, and today 57% of the undergraduates in American higher education are female (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002). A similar pattern has taken place in other industrialized countries.

One other noteworthy element of the demographic outline of emerging adulthood is the rate of residential change, that is, how often people move from one residence to another. As illustrated in Figure 1.3, the rate of residential change peaks sharply from age 20 to 24, right in the heart of emerging adult-

EMERGING ADULTHOOD

10-14

Figure 1.3.

15-19

20-24

25-29

30-34

45-54

55+

Rates of moving by age.

hood. Emerging adults move around a lot in the course of changing their plans regarding love, work, and education.

Overall, what we see from the demographic outline is that in the past half century, the age period from about 18 through the mid-20s has changed from being a time of settling down into adult roles of marriage, parenthood, longterm work, and a long-term residence to being a time that is exceptionally unsettled, a period of exploration and instability, as young people try out various possible futures in love and work before making enduring commitments.

What Is Emerging Adulthood? Five Features Five main features make emerging adulthood distinct as a developmental period from the adolescence that precedes it or the young adulthood that follows it. These features are based on my research with emerging adults over the past decade (Arnett, 2004): It is the age of identity explorations, especially in the areas of love and work; it is the age of instability; it is the most self-focused age of life; it is the age of feeling in-between, neither adolescent nor adult; and it is the age of possibilities, when optimism is high and people have an unparalleled opportunity to transform their lives. In the following sections I examine each of these features in turn.

JEFFREY JENSEN ARNETT

The Age of Identity Explorations Psychologists generally think of identity explorations as a developmental task of adolescence. In his theory of the life course, Erik Erikson (1950) proposed a distinctive crisis for each stage, and identity versus role confusion was the crisis of adolescence. However, even 40 years ago Erikson commented on what he called the "prolonged adolescence" typical of industrialized societies, and the psychosocial moratorium granted to young people in such societies, "during which the young adult through free role experimentation may find a niche in some section of his society" (1968, p. 150). Decades later, this description applies to many more young people than when he wrote it. If adolescence is the period from age 10 to 18 and emerging adulthood is the period from (roughly) age 18 to the mid-20s, most identity exploration now takes place in emerging adulthood rather than adolescence.

Emerging adulthood is the age of identity explorations in the sense that it is the period when people are most likely to be exploring various possibilities for their lives in a variety of areas, especially love and work, as a prelude to making the enduring choices that will set the foundation for their adult lives.

In the course of exploring possibilities in love and work, emerging adults clarify their identities, that is, they learn more about who they are and what they want out of life. Emerging adulthood offers the best opportunity for such selfexploration. Emerging adults have become more independent of their parents than they were as adolescents and most of them have left home, but they have not yet entered the stable, enduring commitments typical of adult life, such as a long-term job, marriage, and parenthood. During this interval of years when they are neither beholden to their parents nor committed to a web of adult roles, they have an exceptional opportunity to try out different ways of living and different possible choices in love and work.

Until recently, my research on emerging adults did not include questions or measures on identity, because like most psychologists I was used to thinking of identity formation as an issue pertaining mainly to development during adolescence. However, in my interviews with emerging adults, identity issues have come up over and over again in various forms. In seeking a long-term romantic partner, emerging adults inevitably address identity issues, because to know what person they want to commit themselves to, they have to know what kind of person they are—that is, what their likes and dislikes are and what they want their daily lives to be like in adulthood. In deciding what kind of education to pursue and in looking for a desirable job, identity issues also arise for emerging adults, because in order to know what kind of work will suit them, they have to know who they are—that is, what they enjoy doing and what they are good at. In forming a worldview that addresses questions about values and religious beliefs, emerging adults also address identity issues in these areas, because deciding on their values and beliefs also means deciding who they are and how their worldview is similar to and different from the one held by their parents.

Identity issues may be expected to arise in response to questions about love, work, and ideology or worldviews, the three pillars of identity in Erikson's (1950, 1968) theory, but identity issues come up in response to many other

EMERGING ADULTHOOD

9

types of questions as well. For example, here is a portion of a 25-year-old African American woman's response to a question about what makes a person an adult (Arnett, 2004): Learning about yourself is something that is a really emotional thing because it's like you wake up one day and you think that you're doing this right and you think that you're living the way you want to live, and then the next day you get up and it's like, wait a minute, I'm doing everything wrong. I don't know who I am. And you have to be willing to take that step forward and say, okay, I'm going to get to know myself no matter if it's painful or if it's going to make me happy. I have to dig deep within myself and figure out who I am. And this is a learning process every day. (p. 197)

Identity issues also commonly arise in responses to questions about relationships with parents, expectations for the future, characteristics desired in a romantic partner, and religious beliefs. In short, identity issues are such a salient part of development in emerging adulthood that they arise in response to a wide range of questions, including many that are not directly related to identity.

The Age of Instability The explorations of emerging adulthood make it not only an exceptionally stimulating and eventful period of life but also an exceptionally unstable one.

Figure 1.3, which shows that residential changes in the United States peak during emerging adulthood, illustrates the instability of the age period. Emerging adults' numerous moves reflect their explorations of different possibilities and their frequent changes of direction with respect to love, work, and education.

The high rate of residential change from the late teens through the mid208 reflects the many profound changes that take place in the lives of emerging adults. For most, the first residential change comes at about age 18 or 19 when they move out of their parents' home, either to go to college or simply to be independent (Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1999). Other changes soon follow.

Those who attend a residential college may move from a dormitory into an apartment after their first year. Many leave college after 1 or 2 years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004), and when they do a residential change is likely. Most American emerging adults cohabit at some point during their 20s, and residential changes may take place when they initiate cohabitation and when it ends (as happens in 9 out of 10 cohabiting relationships within 5 years; Bumpass & Liu, 2000). About 40% of emerging adults move back home at some point in their early 20s (Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1999), usually for only a temporary period, after which they move out again. Some emerging adults move to a different part of the country or the world to pursue opportunities in education or work, to accompany a romantic partner, or simply to pursue adventure. The statistic on residential changes during the 20s is emblematic of the instability of emerging adults' lives.

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The Self-Focused Age Emerging adults are not selfish or self-centered, by and large. Having interviewed both adolescents and emerging adults in various studies, I have been struck by how much less egocentric emerging adults are, compared with adolescents. Emerging adults are more considerate of other people's feelings and better at understanding others' point of view. This quality comes out especially in their relationships with their parents. In emerging adulthood they come to see their parents as persons, not merely parents, and they empathize with them more than they did as adolescents (Arnett, 2004, chap. 3). A change in social cognition seems to take place in the move from adolescence to emerging adulthood that makes people less self-centered.

Nevertheless, emerging adulthood is a distinctly self-focused time of life, which is different than being self-centered. Emerging adults are self-focused in the sense that they have little in the way of social obligations, little in the way of duties and commitments to others, which leaves them with a great deal of autonomy in running their own lives. Children and adolescents typically live with their parents and have to abide by the household rules and routines the parents establish; they spend a substantial proportion of their time in school, where they have to follow the rules and routines set by teachers and school officials. Beyond age 30, most adults have commitments to a spouse, children, and a long-term employer, and all these relationships entail daily requirements and obligations. But in between, during emerging adulthood, most people are relatively free to make independent decisions about their lives (Arnett, 1998).

In one sense, being self-focused is part of the fun of being an emerging adult. They recognize this period as the one time in their lives when they do not have to answer to anyone and can essentially do what they want with their lives, before they enter the permanent (or at least enduring) obligations of adult roles. However, being self-focused has a serious purpose as well. Emerging adults are self-focused with the goal of attaining the self-sufficiency that is at the heart of their view of what it means to be an adult (Arnett, 1998,2004). Only after attaining self-sufficiency do they feel like they have reached adulthood and begin to view themselves as ready to become more other-focused by entering marriage and parenthood. Identity issues are relevant here; being self-focused allows emerging adults the psychological space to contemplate the "who am I?" questions that are at the heart of identity and to pursue opportunities in love, work, and education that will promote their self-knowledge.

The self-focused quality of emerging adulthood makes it arguably the freest time of life, at least in terms of freedom from social obligations and expectations.

However, the flip side of this freedom is that emerging adults spend a considerable amount of time alone during these self-focused years. According to timeuse studies across the life span, emerging adults aged 19 to 29 spend more of their leisure time alone than any other persons except the elderly, and more of their time in productive activities (school and work) alone than any age group under 40 (Larson, 1990). Although most people enjoy having the freedom to be self-focused during their emerging adult years, they do not expect or even