Emerging adulthood

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Emerging adulthood is a phase of the life span between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood, proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in a 2000 article in the American Psychologist (summary of article). A quote from this article that concisely summarizes the main ideas of emerging adulthood is as follows:

"Having left the dependency of childhood and adolescence, and having not yet entered the enduring responsibilities that are normative in adulthood, emerging adults often explore a variety of possible life directions in love, work, and worldviews" (p. 469).

As such, emerging adulthood can be studied within Developmental psychology. The concept of emerging adulthood is also closely related to the idea of a "Twixter."

The study of emerging adulthood appears to be grounded within particular economic and historical contexts. Within industrialized economies at the present time, young people need increasing amounts of education to obtain jobs in many technical/professional fields. The pursuit of postgraduate training thus tends to delay marriage and permits added years of exploration (i.e., "finding oneself") compared to earlier generations. Historical statistics on Americans' median age at first marriage have been compiled by the United States Census Bureau.

[edit] External links

• Jeffrey Arnett's homepage
• Emerging Adulthood blog