On the Frontier of Adulthood: Theory, Research, and Public Policy
Richard A. Settersten Jr., Frank F. Furstenberg, and Ruben G. Rumbaut
Abstract
This book reveals a new fact: adulthood no longer begins when adolescence ends. A lengthy period before adulthood, often spanning the twenties and even extending into the thirties, is now devoted to further education, job exploration, experimentation in romantic relationships, and personal development. Pathways into and through adulthood have become much less linear and predictable, and these changes carry tremendous social and cultural significance, especially as institutions and policies aimed at supporting young adults have not kept pace with these changes. This book considers the nature an ... More
This book reveals a new fact: adulthood no longer begins when adolescence ends. A lengthy period before adulthood, often spanning the twenties and even extending into the thirties, is now devoted to further education, job exploration, experimentation in romantic relationships, and personal development. Pathways into and through adulthood have become much less linear and predictable, and these changes carry tremendous social and cultural significance, especially as institutions and policies aimed at supporting young adults have not kept pace with these changes. This book considers the nature and consequences of changes in early adulthood by drawing upon a wide variety of historical and contemporary data from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Especially dramatic shifts have occurred in the conventional markers of adulthood—leaving home, finishing school, getting a job, getting married, and having children—and in how these experiences are configured as a set. These accounts reveal how the process of becoming an adult has changed over the past century, the challenges faced by young people today, and what societies can do to smooth the transition to adulthood.
Keywords:
adulthood,
further education,
job exploration,
romantic relationships,
personal development,
young adults,
leaving home,
finishing school,
getting a job,
getting married
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2005 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226748894 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: February 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226748924.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Richard A. Settersten Jr., editor
Frank F. Furstenberg, editor
Ruben G. Rumbaut, editor
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