Why are 20-somethings delaying adulthood? The media have flooded us with negative headlines about this generation, from their sense of entitlement to their immaturity. Drawing on almost a decade of cutting-edge research and nearly five hundred interviews with young people, Richard Settersten, Ph.D., and Barbara E. Ray shatter these stereotypes, revealing an unexpected truth: A slower path to adulthood is good for all of us. Their surprising findings include
Young adults who finish college and delay marriage and child-rearing get a much better start in life.
• Few 20-somethings who live at home are mooching off their parents. More often, they are using the time at home to gain necessary credentials and save money for a more secure future. • Helicopter parents aren't so bad after all. Involved parents provide young people with advantages, including mentoring and economic support, that have become increasingly necessary to success.
Not Quite Adults is a fascinating look at an often misunderstood generation. It's a must-read for parents, teachers, psychologists, sociologists, and anyone interested in today's youth culture.
This article is one of many focused on parenting education in Special Issue: Parenting Education and Support: Advances in Theory and Research in Child Welfare 85 (5) 853-866
Recently the lives of people from age 18 to 29 have changed so dramatically that a new stage of life has developed, emerging adulthood, that is distinct from both the adolescence that precedes it and the young adulthood that comes in its wake. Rather than marrying and becoming parents in their early twenties, most people in industrialized societies now postpone these transitions until at least their late twenties, and instead spend the time in self-focused exploration as they try out different possibilities in their careers and relationships.
In Emerging Adulthood, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett identifies and labels, for the first time, this period exploration, instability, possibility, self-focus, and a sustained sense of being in limbo.
Why do youth abuse alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs? How can you tell when a young person is using, and how should you respond? What if a student tells you that someone else is using drugs? This hands-on resource provides an overview of the substances kids are most likely to use (including over-the-counter drugs and increasingly popular inhalants), concise descriptions of effects and warning signs, and a guide to working with youth, parents, the school, social workers, and law enforcement. Comprehensive, realistic, and optimistic, it follows the entire cycle of substance abuse, from experimentation to recovery.
Child Trends analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Results of our analyses indicate that young adult relationships are fairly diverse; that these relationships have both positive and negative dimensions; and that partner and relationship characteristics and patterns of contraceptive use vary considerably by relationship type, gender, and race/ethnicity.
Responding to increasing awareness and concerns, the MIT Young Adult Development Project was created in 2005 to analyze, distill, and disseminate key findings about young adult development, findings that shed light on the unique strengths and dramatic challenges for this extraordinary period.
The MIT Young Adult Development Project was created to capture the powerful new research findings that are emerging about young adulthood and to make these insights more accessible to those who need them, including colleges and universities, employers, parents, human service providers, and young adults themselves.
Why do youth abuse alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs? How can you tell when a young person is using, and how should you respond? What if a student tells you that someone else is using drugs? This hands-on resource provides an overview of the substances kids are most likely to use (including over-the-counter drugs and increasingly popular inhalants), concise descriptions of effects and warning signs, and a guide to working with youth, parents, the school, social workers, and law enforcement. Comprehensive, realistic, and optimistic, it follows the entire cycle of substance abuse, from experimentation to recovery.
NCFR
