Developmental Psychology Chapter 9

graduated driver licensing (GDL)

(GDL) government program in which young people obtain driving privileges gradually, contingent on a safe driving record, rather than all at once

Some evidence shows that substance use is also high among emerging adults in other developed countries.

-A study of Spanish adults reported that among 18- to 24-year-olds, rates of binge drinking in the past 30 days were 31% for men and 18% for women, far higher than in any other age group -A peak in binge drinking in emerging adulthood has been found in other European countries as well -For example, among female college students in Scotland, most reported regular weekend binge drinking and regarded it as "harmless fun" -However, binge drinking and other types of substance use in emerging adulthood are related to a wide variety of negative consequences, from fatal car crashes to unintended pregnancy to criminal activity to physical fights

One of the most deadly diseases, HIV/AIDS, is extremely difficult to treat because the virus has the ability to change itself and thus render medications ineffective.

-AIDS has been most devastating in southern Africa, where 10 of every 11 new HIV infections worldwide take place -Botswana has the highest rates of HIV in the world, with 22% of persons ages 15-49 infected -even in Botswana and other countries in southern Africa, rates of new infections are declining. Incidence of new HIV infections decreased 35% among young people worldwide from 2000 to 2015, due to a decline in risky sexual practices such as having multiple sexual partners

This individualized approach to religion led to great religious diversity in emerging adulthood, which can be classified into four categories, listed here from least to most religious

-Agnostics/atheists (40%): This includes emerging adults who do not believe in God (atheists) or who believe it is not possible to know if there is a God or not (agnostics), along with emerging adults who say they have no opinion on religion or do not think about it. Some are strongly anti-religious, but to most young people in this category religion is simply irrelevant to their lives. -Theists (15%): Emerging adults in this category believe that there is "something out there," a God or spiritual force of some kind, but beyond this they are not sure what to believe. -Liberal Believers (30%): When it comes to religion, these emerging adults take what they want and ignore the rest. That is, they believe only the parts of their denominational faith that appeal to them, and they often add other elements from sources including other religions and popular culture. - Conservative Believers (15%): These are emerging adults who hold to a traditional, conservative faith.

Like other identity issues, ethnic identity comes to the forefront in adolescence and continues to grow in importance into emerging adulthood

-As part of their growing cognitive capacity for self-reflection, adolescents and emerging adults who are members of ethnic minorities are likely to have a sharpened awareness of what it means for them to be a member of their minority group. -Bicultural identities such as African American, Chinese Canadian, and Turkish Dutch take on a new significance, as adolescents and emerging adults can now think about what these terms mean and how the term for their ethnic group applies to themselves. -Also, as a consequence of their growing capacity to think about what others think about them, adolescents and emerging adults become more acutely aware of the prejudices and stereotypes about their ethnic group that others may hold. -For emerging adults, ethnic identity issues are likely to take on a greater prominence as they enter new social contexts such as college and the workplace, which usually entail meeting a broader range of people from different ethnic backgrounds -As children and adolescents they may have been mostly around people of their own ethnic group, but emerging adulthood is likely to take them into new contexts with greater ethnic diversity, sharpening their awareness of their ethnic identity -For example, when you entered your college environment, it is likely that you came into contact with persons from a greater variety of ethnic backgrounds than you had known previously -Because adolescents and emerging adults who are members of ethnic minorities have to confront ethnic identity issues, their identity development is likely to be more complex than for those who are part of the majority culture

emerging adulthood also make it a time of instability

-As they explore different possibilities in love and work, emerging adults' lives change frequently -residential change in American society are much higher at ages 18-29 than at any other period of life -This is a reflection of the explorations going on in emerging adults' lives. Some move out of their parents' household for the first time in their late teens to attend a residential college, others move out simply to be independent -They may move again when they drop out of college or when they graduate. They may cohabit with a romantic partner, then move out when the relationship ends. Some move to another part of the country or the world to study or work. For nearly half of American emerging adults, their residential changes include moving back in with their parents at least once -In countries where most emerging adults remain home rather than moving out, such as in southern European countries, they nevertheless experience instability in other key areas such as education, work, and love relationships

Media are a big part of the lives of today's emerging adults. They have grown up in a time of extraordinary innovation in the way media products are delivered and consumed

-Educator and writer Marc Prensky (2010) calls them "digital natives," entirely at home in the digital world from infancy onward, in contrast to the "digital immigrants," their parents, many of whom never feel quite at home with all the new media. -All together, American emerging adults are estimated to be engaged with media of some kind even more than adolescents are: 12 hours per day, or three-fourths of their waking hours -Emerging adults' media use is diverse, from television and recorded music to electronic games, the internet, and texting, with content for all these forms increasingly delivered via their digital devices -There is surprisingly little research on emerging adults' uses of television and music, perhaps because of an assumption that the effects of these media are more profound for children and adolescents. Instead, research has focused mainly on social media and texting.

There is more to the changes in relationships with parents from adolescence to emerging adulthood than simply the effects of moving out, staying home, or moving back in.

-Emerging adults also grow in their ability to understand their parents -Adolescence is in some ways an egocentric period, and adolescents often have difficulty taking their parents' perspectives. They sometimes evaluate their parents harshly, magnifying their deficiencies and becoming easily irritated by their imperfections. As emerging adults mature and begin to feel more adult themselves, they become more capable of understanding how their parents look at things. They come to see their parents as persons and begin to realize that their parents, like themselves, have a mix of merits as well as faults.

in Europe there are distinct differences in cohabitation between north and south

-Emerging adults in southern Europe are considerably less likely than their counterparts in the north to cohabit; most emerging adults in southern Europe live at home until marriage, especially females -Perhaps due to the Catholic religious tradition in the south, cohabitation carries a moral stigma there that it does not have in the north. Cohabitation is even rarer in Asian cultures, most of which have a long tradition of sexual conservatism and virginity at marriage

The use of social media such as Facebook is highly popular among emerging adults.

-Facebook was originally developed by and for college students, and college students and other emerging adults are still the main users, although it has rapidly become widely used by adolescents and adults as well. Facebook is by far the most popular social-networking website, with more than two billion users worldwide in 2018 -nearly 90% of American 18- to 29-year-olds use social-networking websites, the same rate as for teens and nearly twice the rate for persons age 30 and older -Although Facebook is the most popular social network format among adolescents and emerging adults, its prominence is being challenged by Instagram, Snapchat, FaceTime, WhatsApp, and others. One recent study indicates that many emerging adults prefer Snapchat over Facebook as a more intimate and personal mode of communication, because content sent over Snapchat is available for only a short time before it becomes inaccessible

There are three elements essential to developing an identity, according to Erikson.

-First, adolescents assess their own abilities and interests. By this age, most people have a growing sense of what their strengths and weaknesses are and what they most and least enjoy doing. -Second, adolescents reflect on the identifications they have accumulated in childhood. Children identify with their parents and other loved ones as they grow up—that is, children love and admire them and want to be like them. Thus, adolescents create an identity in part by modeling themselves after parents, friends, and others they have loved in childhood, not simply by imitating them but by integrating parts of their loved ones' behavior and attitudes into their own personality. -Third, adolescents assess the opportunities available to them in their society. Many dream of a fabulous career in sports, music, or entertainment, yet there are relatively few opportunities for people to make a living in these areas. Sometimes opportunities are restricted due to discrimination. -Until fairly recently, women were discouraged or even barred from professions such as medicine and law. -Today, ethnic minorities in many societies find that the doors to many professions are barred to them. In every society, adolescents need to take into account not only what choices they would like to make but what choices are possible

the benefits of tertiary education are great.

-For societies, an educated population is crucial to economic growth in a knowledge economy based increasingly on information, technology, and services. -This is why countries are willing to make such a large investment in the tertiary education of their emerging adults. -For emerging adults themselves, the benefits are also clear. Emerging adults who obtain tertiary education tend to have considerably higher earnings, occupational status, and career attainment over the long run, compared to those who do not attend college -Over a lifetime of working, Americans with a college degree or more make far more than those who only obtain a high school education or less -College graduates are also much more likely to be employed; their unemployment rate is consistently less than half the rate for people with a high school degree or less

One area of particular interest with regard to emerging adulthood is research on college students' gender stereotypes involving work.

-Generally, this research indicates that college students often evaluate women's work performance less favorably than men's. In one classic study, college women were asked to evaluate the quality of several articles supposedly written by professionals in a variety of fields -Some of the articles were in stereotypically female fields such as dietetics, some were in stereotypically male fields such as city planning, and some were in gender-neutral fields. There were two identical versions of each article, one supposedly written by, for example, "John McKay," and the other written by "Joan McKay." -The results indicated that the women rated the articles more highly when they thought a man was the author. Even articles in the "female" fields were judged as better when written by a man. Other studies have found similar results with samples of both male and female college students -Although not all studies have found a tendency for men's work to be evaluated more favorably, when differences are found they tend to favor men. -One study reported that gender stereotypes can be especially harsh for persons who have high status in gender-incongruent occupations, for example a woman who has become head of an engineering department

There has been little research on sibling relationships in emerging adulthood

-However, one study of adolescents and emerging adults in Israel found that emerging adults spent less time with their siblings than adolescents did but also felt more emotional closeness and warmth toward them -Conflict and rivalry were also reported to be less intense by emerging adults than by adolescents. Qualitative analyses showed that emerging adults had a more mature perception of their relationship with their siblings than adolescents did, in the sense that they were better able to understand their siblings' needs and perspective

Developed countries vary widely in how they structure tertiary education

-In Europe, students specialize in one topic area from the time they enter university. Traditionally, university education in Europe often lasted 6 or more years, culminating in a degree similar to American advanced degrees (master's or doctoral degree). However, the European system has changed recently to match the American system, with separate bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. This was done to shorten the time European emerging adults spend in university, and to promote the development of coordinated programs between European and American universities. It also reflects the growing globalization of education. -Even as the Europe's advanced degrees have recently changed, the tertiary system in the United States, Canada, and Japan is still quite different from the European one. Instead of requiring a specialization or "major" from the outset, colleges begin with 2 years of general education, which allows for the exploration of topics that may be unrelated to any occupational future. You may be a business major and nevertheless enjoy courses on literature or art or philosophy that lead you to explore a variety of ideas about what it means to be human. You may be a psychology major and yet find it engaging to explore ideas in courses on astronomy or chemistry.

Emerging adults who have moved out of their parents' household often use their digital devices to keep in contact with their parents

-In a national study of American emerging adults and their parents, over half reported being in contact "every day or almost every day," usually via media -When parents use texting as a form of control, emerging adults often perceive such involvement as overly intrusive -most emerging adults value texting as a way to keep in touch with their parents as they go about their busy days, allowing for parental support while also giving them room to run their own lives

Ethnic Identity

-In addition to the complex identity issues that arise as a consequence of globalization, many people experience the challenge of growing up as a member of an ethnic minority group -In fact, more people than ever experience this challenge, as worldwide immigration has climbed to unprecedented levels in recent decades

political involvement tends to be very low among emerging adults

-In most countries, 18 is the age when people first receive the right to vote, so political development might be expected to be an important issue in emerging adulthood -In Europe, as well as in Canada and the United States, emerging adults' political participation is strikingly low by conventional measures such as voting rates and involvement in political parties -Emerging adults tend to have lower political participation not only in comparison to adults, but also in comparison to previous generations of young people. They tend to be skeptical of the motivations of politicians, and to see the activities of political parties as irrelevant to their lives. One study of young people in eight European countries found that low levels of trust in political authorities and political systems were consistent across countries from adolescence through emerging adulthood

The young people of today, in contrast, see adulthood and its obligations in quite a different light.

-In their late teens and early 20s, marriage, home, and children are seen by most not as achievements to be pursued but as perils to be avoided -It is not that they reject the prospect of marriage, home, and (one or two) children—eventually. It is just that, in their late teens and early 20s, they ponder these obligations and think, "yes, but not yet." Adulthood and its commitments offer security and stability, but also represent a closing of doors—the end of independence, the end of spontaneity, the end of a sense of wide-open possibility.

Why so many accidents?

-Inexperience certainly plays a large role. Rates of accidents and fatalities are extremely high in the early months of driving, but fall dramatically by 1 year after licensure -Studies that have attempted to disentangle experience and age in young drivers have generally concluded that inexperience is partly responsible for young drivers' accidents and fatalities. After all, the fatality rate is higher for 21- to 24-year-olds in the United States than for 16- to 20-year-olds. -Compared to older drivers, young drivers—especially males—are more likely to drive at excessive speeds, tailgate, violate traffic signs and signals, take more risks in lane changing and passing other vehicles, allow too little time to merge, and fail to yield to pedestrians -A recent added risk is that young drivers are more likely than older drivers to combine texting and driving, which sharply raises their crash risk

online learning offers several promising advantages

-Instructors and students can communicate at any time, rather than being restricted to weekly meetings in a specific time and place. -Lively discussions may continue throughout the week, rather than being limited to class time. -Assessments of student learning, too, do not have to be in the form of scheduled exams but can be completed whenever students consider themselves to be ready. -Students may be able to engage in collaborative learning more easily outside of class. -Instructors can minimize or eliminate the traditional lecture format and instead develop innovative content delivery methods for the online venue, such as gaming, simulations, and multi-user virtual environments -Online learning also seems to offer the possibility of vastly reducing the costs of obtaining a college degree. -For students who have little or no money, whether they are among the lower social classes in developed countries or live in developing countries where universities are few, online learning may open doors to knowledge that would otherwise be closed to them.

students say that the most important things they learn in the course of their college education are interpersonal

-Instructors are more than simply founts of information, they are—at least some of them are, some of the time—figures of admiration and inspiration who can influence students in profound ways. -Beyond the classroom, being in college also teaches students how to work with others, how to organize their time, and how to carry out responsibilities -It also helps them clarify their identities and lays out an array of possibilities that often allows students to find one that fits just right with their abilities and interests -The potential of online courses may be greatest for ambitious, highly motivated emerging adults in developing countries, for whom such courses may prove to be a valuable—and their only—road to knowledge.

What kinds of things do emerging adults do with their friends?

-Much of their time together is unstructured socializing in activities such as visiting each other informally and going out together. Some drink alcohol or use drugs together -Emerging adults also participate in media-related activities together, such as watching TV or playing electronic games -Many enjoy playing sports or exercising together -In the course of the 20s, however, leisure activities with friends decline steadily as emerging adults form close romantic relationships and begin to enter adult responsibilities such as stable work, marriage, and parenthood

However, the rejection of conventional politics should not be construed as a lack of interest in improving the state of their communities, their societies, and the world.

-On the contrary, emerging adults in many countries are more likely than older adults to be involved in organizations devoted to particular issues, such as environmental protection and efforts against war and racism -In one nationwide survey of college freshmen in the United States, only 24% said they were interested in politics, but 84% had done volunteer work, and 50% had participated in a political demonstration -Emerging adulthood is also the time when people in the United States are most likely to devote a year or two of their lives to volunteer programs such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America -Often frustrated by conventional political processes, emerging adults choose instead to direct their energies toward specific areas of importance to them, where they believe they are more likely to see genuine progress.

What explains the higher rates of substance use among emerging adults?

-One sociological theory explains illicit substance use and other forms of deviance on the basis of propensity and opportunity -People behave deviantly when they have a combination of sufficient propensity (that is, motivation for behaving deviantly) along with sufficient opportunity -Compared to other age groups, emerging adults have an unusually high degree of opportunity for engaging in substance use and other deviant behavior, as a result of spending a high proportion of their time in unstructured socializing

Gender-related evaluations may also depend on the age of the evaluator

-One study compared males who were early adolescents, late adolescents, or college students -Participants were given a description of either an average or outstanding male election candidate behaving gender-stereotypically or counter-stereotypically and were asked to indicate their personal election choice, to estimate the likelihood that others would choose each candidate, and to speculate how successful the candidate would be if he were elected. Adolescents were more likely than the emerging adult college students to favor the gender-stereotypical candidate. No differences were found between the two stages of adolescence. This suggests that gender stereotypes may wane from adolescence to emerging adulthood.

Americans are highly ambivalent about premarital sex, and consequently, emerging adults who are sexually active often lack adequate knowledge of and access to contraception.

-Only about 10% of sexually active emerging adults report never using contraception, but an additional 35% of them report inconsistent or ineffective contraceptive use -As a romantic relationship develops between emerging adults, they often move from condom use to oral contraceptives, because they believe sex feels better without a condom or because switching to oral contraceptives signifies a deeper level of trust and commitment

there was a decline in religiosity from adolescence to emerging adulthood, both in behavior and in beliefs.

-Only about 30% of emerging adults attended religious services at least once a month; over half attended only a few times a year or less. Beliefs were stronger than behavior; 44% reported that religious faith is "very" or "extremely" important in their lives, and 75% reported believing in God. Nevertheless, these percentages were lower than they had been in adolescence. -Just as in adolescence, in emerging adulthood religious beliefs were highly individualized. -Few emerging adults accepted a standard religious doctrine; instead, most adopted a make-your-own approach to their religious beliefs, constructed partly from what they had learned from their parents but also from many other sources. Consequently, religious denomination did not hold much meaning for most of them. They could state they were "Catholic" or "Presbyterian" or "Jewish" without actually believing much of what is stated in the traditional doctrine of that faith and without participating in it. In fact, 38% of "Protestants" and 35% of "Catholics" reported that they never attend religious services.

A substantial proportion of young people in the United States are unemployed

-Over half of high school dropouts ages 18 to 21 are unemployed -There are also variations in youth unemployment by ethnic group -As you can see from the figure, unemployment is especially high among African American emerging adults. the explanation for the change lies in shifting employment patterns in the American economy. The days of plentiful, stable, high-paying factory jobs in the United States are gone. -oday, most of the new jobs, and certainly the best jobs, require people to have at least a minimal level of information skills such as basic math knowledge and the ability to use a computer. Those skills come from education, and young African Americans tend to obtain less education than young Asian Americans, Latinos, or Whites -Without educational credentials, gaining access to jobs in the knowledge economy is difficult

Online learning is so new that there is little research yet on its effectiveness

-Perhaps the main reason is that online learning requires a great deal of personal motivation, focus, and self-discipline on the part of the students, to a degree that most people may not possess—and certainly not at the "college age" of the late teens and early 20s when, as most of them acknowledge, they have not yet attained an adult level of maturity and responsibility -It is true that online courses have the potential to offer an astonishing range of information, but so do encyclopedias, and without some kind of formal structure, students are no more likely to make a complete education out of online courses than they would be to make it past "aardvark" in the encyclopedia. -It is estimated that over 90% of students who sign up for online courses fail to finish

There are a number of reasons why self-esteem increases during emerging adulthood.

-Physical appearance is important to adolescents' self-esteem, but by emerging adulthood most people have passed through the awkward changes of puberty and may be more comfortable with how they look -feeling accepted and approved by parents contributes to self-esteem, and from adolescence to emerging adulthood relationships with parents generally improve, while conflict diminishes -Peers and friends are also important to self-esteem, and entering emerging adulthood means leaving the social pressure cooker of secondary school, where peer evaluations are a part of daily life and can be harsh -more control over the social contexts of everyday life, which makes it possible for emerging adults to seek out the contexts they prefer and avoid the contexts they find disagreeable, in a way that adolescents cannot. For example, adolescents who dislike school and do poorly have little choice but to attend school, where poor grades may repeatedly undermine their self-esteem. However, emerging adults can leave school and instead engage in full-time work that they may find more gratifying and enjoyable, thus enhancing their self-esteem

Surveys have been conducted in numerous countries that demonstrate the wide variability in cultural approaches to premarital sexuality around the world

-Rates of premarital sex are highest in Australia, Canada, the United States, and European countries. -Rates are somewhat lower in the countries of South America, although the large differences in reported premarital sex by male and female emerging adults in countries such as Brazil and Chile suggest that males exaggerate their sexual activity or females underreport theirs or both. -Finally, premarital sex is least common in Asian and Middle Eastern countries, where the emphasis on female virginity before marriage is still very strong

Just as in adolescence, religious faith in emerging adulthood tends to be associated with a variety of positive characteristics

-Smith and Snell (2010) found religious belief and participation among emerging adults to be related to higher well-being and lower rates of participation in a variety of types of risk behavior. -Another study, comparing African American and White emerging adults, reported that African Americans were more likely to cope with stress by relying on their religious beliefs, and in turn they experienced fewer anxiety symptoms than White emerging adults did -This is consistent with studies in other age periods showing that African Americans tend to be more religious than Whites are -uropeans tend to be considerably less religious than Americans are. In a recent interview study with emerging adults in Denmark, only 24% indicated that they held religious or spiritual beliefs. The rest described themselves as either agnostic, atheist, or as having no religious beliefs. Nevertheless, 62% of the Danish emerging adults believed in some form of afterlife. They were vague about what form it might take. To some, it seemed illogical that death should be the end of existence ("I find it difficult to accept that it's just over and done"). For others, it was emotionally unpalatable to believe that there is no life after death ("I can't tolerate the idea that if someone in your family dies, there's nothing more"). Still others stated a belief in a soul that goes on in some form ("Our soul can't just disappear. It lives on, in one place or another, but I don't know how").

The symptoms and consequences of STIs vary widely, from the merely annoying (pubic lice or "crabs") to the deadly (HIV/AIDS)

-Some STIs, such as chlamydia and HPV, increase the risk of infertility for women -chlamydia can be treated effectively with antibiotics. Also, a vaccine for HPV is now available, and public health advocates in many Western countries are vigorously promoting that adolescents be vaccinated before they become sexually active. In the United States, about half of adolescents have been vaccinated against HPV, and across Europe vaccination rates are even higher -Herpes simplex 2 cannot be cured, but medications can relieve the symptoms and speed up the healing process when an episode occurs.

In the United States, although most emerging adults move out of their parents' home in their late teens, a substantial proportion (over one third) stay home through their early 20s

-Staying at home is more common among African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos than among White Americans -The reason for this is sometimes economic, especially for African Americans and Latinos, who have high rates of unemployment in emerging adulthood. However, another important reason appears to be the greater emphasis on family closeness and interdependence in minority cultures, and less emphasis on being independent as a value in itself. -For example, one emerging adult in Jeff's research lived with her Chinese American mother and Mexican American father throughout her college years at the University of California-Berkeley. She enjoyed the way staying home allowed her to remain in close contact with them. "I loved living at home. I respect my parents a lot, so being home with them was actually one of the things I liked to do most," she said. "Plus, it was free!" -For Asian Americans and Latinos, an additional reason for staying home is specific to young women, and concerns the high value placed on virginity before marriage.

emerging adults have often been involved in movements at the political extremes, including protests, revolutionary movements, and terrorism.

-The leaders of politically extreme groups are usually in midlife or later, but many of their most zealous followers are often emerging adults. There are many recent historical examples of this. The Cultural Revolution that took place in China from 1966 to 1975 and involved massive destruction and violence toward anyone deemed to be a threat to the "purity" of Chinese communism was instigated by Chairman Mao and his wife Jiang Ching, but it was carried out almost entirely by fervent Chinese emerging adults -Terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists against Western targets—such as the attacks of September 11, 2001—have been planned by older men but executed almost entirely by young men in the 18-29 age range -Within the United States, racial violence by white nationalists and white supremacists has most often been committed by emerging adult men -These examples involve destruction and violence, but emerging adults have also been prominent in peaceful political movements. For example, when the collapse of communism began in eastern Europe in 1989, it was initiated by emerging adults through strikes, demonstrations, and the formation of new youth-oriented political parties -More recent protests against governments in the Middle East have also involved emerging adults more than any other age group

Emerging adults in Western countries may view sex as a normal and enjoyable part of life, but that does not mean it is unproblematic.

-The long period between the initiation of sexual activity in adolescence and the entry into marriage in young adulthood typically includes sex with a series of romantic partners as well as occasional episodes of hooking up. Consequently, emerging adulthood is the peak period for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which are infections transmitted through sexual contact, including chlamydia, human papilloma virus (HPV), herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2), and HIV/AIDS. -One half of STIs in the United States occur in people who are ages 15-24 -Rates of STIs are higher in emerging adulthood than in any other life stage, in both the United States and Europe -Even if sex takes place in a committed relationship, most youthful love relationships do not endure for long and partners eventually break up and move on. In this way, young people gain experience with love and sex and see what it is like to be involved with different people. However, having sex with a variety of people, even within a series of relationships, carries with it a substantial risk for STIs.

Europe is the region where emerging adulthood is longest and most leisurely

-The median age of entering marriage and parenthood is around 30 in most European countries -Europe today is the location of the most affluent, generous, egalitarian societies in the world—in fact, in human history -Governments pay for nearly all the costs of tertiary education, assist young people in finding jobs, and provide substantial unemployment benefits for those who cannot find work. In northern Europe, many governments also provide housing support. Emerging adults in European societies make the most of these advantages.

In most Western majority cultures, most young people move out of their parents' home sometime during emerging adulthood.

-The most common reasons for leaving home stated by emerging adults are going to college, cohabiting with a partner, or simply the desire for independence -relationships between parents and emerging adults improve once the young person leaves home -Numerous studies have confirmed that emerging adults report greater closeness and fewer negative feelings toward their parents after moving out -emerging adults who move out tend to get along better with their parents than those who remain at home. For example, in one study of 18- to 30-year-olds, the emerging adults who lived with their parents more often felt irritated by them and wished they would change, compared to those who did not, although they also more often had positive experiences with them

Finances for college

-Tuition rates have increased to a shocking extent and were over four times higher (even taking into account inflation) in 2013 than they were in 1982 in both public and private colleges and universities -Financial aid has also shifted markedly from grants to loans, which has led many students to work long hours while attending college in order to avoid accruing excessive debt before they graduate. African Americans especially struggle to fund their college educations -and lack of money is one of the key reasons why they are less likely to obtain a college degree than Asian Americans or Whites are

split between urban and rural areas in whether emerging adulthood is experienced at all

-Young people in urban areas of countries such as China and India are more likely to experience emerging adulthood, because they marry later, have children later, obtain more education, and have a greater range of occupational and recreational opportunities than young people in rural areas have -Young people in urban areas of countries such as China and India are more likely to experience emerging adulthood, because they marry later, have children later, obtain more education, and have a greater range of occupational and recreational opportunities than young people in rural areas have

Young drivers are more likely than older drivers to believe their friends would

-approve of risky driving behavior such as speeding, closely following another vehicle, and passing another car in risky circumstances

Youth Movement

-denigrated adulthood and exalted being, acting, and feeling young -As a consequence of the Youth Movement, there has been a profound change in how young people view the meaning and value of becoming an adult and entering adult roles of spouse, parent, and employee. Young people of the 1950s were eager to enter adulthood and "settle down" -Perhaps because they grew up amid the upheavals of the Great Depression and World War II, achieving the stability of a secure job, marriage, home, and children seemed like great achievements. Also, because many planned to have three, four, or even five or more children, they had good reason to get started early in order to have all the children they wanted and space them out at reasonable intervals

Like social media, the pervasiveness and popularity of text messaging has skyrocketed in the past decade, and like social media, texting is especially popular among adolescents and emerging adults.

-emerging adults (ages 18-29) in France send an average of nearly 40 text messages a day, which is over five times as many as older adults -Texting resembles social media as a way for emerging adults to remain in contact with each other when they are apart, virtually all day long. The social worlds of young people are no longer neatly divided into time with family and time with friends or at school. Rather, the new media allow the world of friends to be a nearly constant presence in their lives. -The evidence so far indicates that new media technology most often enhance rather than replace social relationships. For example, one study found that for each hour increase on average in social media use or texting, average face-to-face social interaction increased about 10-15 minutes -A study of emerging adults in Sweden reported that they were in contact with friends and family throughout the day via texting -. In a national study of American 18- to 29-year-olds, 51% agreed that "I rely a lot on the support I get from family and friends through email, texting, and social networking web sites"

In one recent book, Fernando Reimers and Connie Chung (2016)

-examined how six different countries—Chile, China, India, Mexico, Singapore, and the United States—have defined the core competencies and skills young people will need for the workforce, and how they are adjusting their school curricula to teach those competencies and skills. There are many differences among the countries -For example, China allows less individual choice of educational paths than the United States does, and India devotes more resources to helping adolescents achieve basic literacy and numeracy than the other countries do, because it is currently the least developed of the six countries and has the weakest educational system. -However, in all countries there is a shared awareness that the economy of the future will be a knowledge economy, and all countries will need to devote a greater share of their resources to education if they are to prosper in the century ahead

Frank Levy (a scholar on education) and Richard Murnane (an economist)

-have researched the job skills needed by these emerging adults in order to succeed in the workplace -Levy and Murnane conducted observations in a variety of factories and offices to gain information about the kinds of jobs now available to high school graduates and the kinds of skills those jobs require. They focused on the most promising new jobs available to high school graduates in the changing economy—jobs that offer the promise of career development and middle-class wages

identity versus identity confusion

-in Erikson's theory, the crisis of adolescence, with two alternative paths: establishing a clear and definite identity, or experiencing identity confusion, which is a failure to form a stable and secure identity -The healthy path in adolescence involves establishing a clear and definite sense of who you are and how you fit into the world around you. -The unhealthy alternative is identity confusion—a failure to form a stable and secure identity. -The key areas in which identity is formed are love, work, and ideology (beliefs and values). -In Erikson's view, a failure to establish commitments in these areas by the end of adolescence reflects identity confusion.

In most cultures, until recently, the self has been understood as

-interdependent, defined in relation to others, rather than as independent. -Even today, Erikson's assertions of the prominence of identity issues in adolescence may apply more to modern Western adolescents than to adolescents in other cultures. -For example, explorations in love are clearly limited or even nonexistent in cultures where dating is not allowed and marriages are either arranged by parents or strongly influenced by them. -Explorations in work are limited in cultures where the economy offers only a limited range of choices.

Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of emerging adulthood is

-is that it is the age of identity explorations—an age when people explore various possibilities in love and work as they move toward making enduring choices -Through trying out different possibilities, emerging adults develop a more definite identity; that is, an understanding of who they are, what their capabilities and limitations are, what their beliefs and values are, and how they fit into the society around them. -Erik Erikson (1950), who was the first to develop the idea of identity, asserted that it is mainly an issue in adolescence, but that was over 50 years ago, and today it is mainly in emerging adulthood that identity explorations take place

Limitations on explorations in both love and work tend to be

-narrower for girls in developing countries than they are for boys. -With regard to love, some degree of sexual experimentation is encouraged for adolescent boys in most cultures, but for girls sexual experimentation is more likely to be restricted or forbidden -With regard to work, in most traditional cultures today and for most of human history in every culture, adolescent girls have been designated by their cultures for the roles of wife and mother, and these were essentially the only choices open to them

Women's Movement

-of the 1960s and '70s vastly expanded the opportunities available to young women -Women's roles have changed in ways that make an early entry into adult obligations less desirable now compared to 50 years ago. The young women of the 1950s and early 1960s were under a great deal of social pressure to find a husband. Being single was simply not a viable social status for a woman after her early 20s. Relatively few women attended college, and those who did were often there to meet their future husbands. The range of occupations open to young women was severely restricted, as it had been traditionally—secretary, waitress, teacher, nurse, perhaps a few others. Even these occupations were supposed to be temporary. Young women were really supposed to focus on finding a husband and having children. -In nearly every developed country, at every level of education from grade school through graduate school, girls now excel over boys.Young women's occupational possibilities are now virtually unlimited, and although men still dominate in engineering and some sciences, women are equal to men in obtaining law, business, and medical degrees. With so many options open to them, and with so little pressure to marry in their early 20s, the lives of young women in developed countries today have changed almost beyond recognition from 50 years ago. Like young men, women typically spend their late teens through at least their mid-20s trying out various possible options in love and work before making definite choices.

Sexual Revolution

-sparked by the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the birth control pill for contraceptive use in 1960, was another important contributor. -Widespread use of "the Pill," in combination with less stringent standards of sexual morality, meant that young people no longer had to enter marriage in order to have a regular sexual relationship -Now most young people have a series of sexual relationships before entering marriage, and there is widespread tolerance for premarital sex in the context of a committed, loving relationship.

systematic exploration

-they look for a career path that they wish to settle into for the long term -They think about what they want to do, they try a job or a college major in that area to see if the fit is right, and if it is not they try another path until they find something they like better. -But for many others, exploration is a bit too lofty a word to describe their work history during their late teens and early 20s. Often it is not nearly as systematic, organized, and focused as "exploration" implies -Meandering might be a more accurate word, or maybe drifting or even floundering -Many emerging adults express a sense that they did not really choose their current job, they just one day found themselves in it. In interviews with emerging adults, "I just fell into it" is a frequently used phrase when they describe how they found their current job -Yet even the meandering process of trying various jobs often serves the function of helping emerging adults sort out what kind of work they want to do. When you are in a dead-end job, at least you find out what you do not want to do. And there is also the possibility that as you drift through various jobs you may happen to drift into one you enjoy, one that unexpectedly clicks.

Emerging adulthood is an important time for gender development, because this is the life stage when many people become involved full time in the workplace

-they may encounter more vividly during this stage their society's beliefs about gender in relation to occupational roles and aspirations -The results of the General Social Survey (GSS), an annual national survey of American adults, indicate a clear trend toward more egalitarian gender attitudes in recent decades -Compared to 1977, American adults today are less likely to believe men are better politicians, less likely to see women as the ones who should take care of the home, more likely to believe working mothers can have warm relationships with their children, and less likely to believe preschoolers would suffer if mothers work. However, the results of the GSS also show that a considerable proportion of Americans—from about one fourth to over one third, depending on the question—continue to harbor beliefs about gender roles not unlike the ones we have seen in traditional cultures: Men should hold the power and be out in the world doing things, and women should focus on caring for children and running the household.

What are the work prospects like for these emerging adults without tertiary education, and how successfully are they able to make the transition from school to the workplace?

-they struggle to find work that pays enough to live on, much less the identity-based work that is the ideal for many emerging adults -hose who lack the training, knowledge, and credentials conferred by tertiary education are at a great disadvantage in the modern economy. By the last decade of the 20th century, emerging adults with no tertiary education were "in a free-fall of declining earnings and diminished expectations" -and their prospects have not improved in the early years of the 21st century.

Emerging adulthood is also the age of possibilities because it is

-time that holds the potential for dramatic changes. For those who have come from a troubled family, this is their chance to try to straighten the parts of themselves that have become twisted. No longer dependent on their parents, and no longer subject to their parents' problems on a daily basis, they may be able to make independent decisions—perhaps to move to a different area or go to college—that turn their lives in a dramatically different direction -even for those who have come from families that are relatively happy and healthy, emerging adulthood is an opportunity to transform themselves so that they are not merely made in their parents' images but have made independent decisions about what kind of person they wish to be and how they wish to live. For this limited window of time—7, perhaps 10 years—the fulfillment of all their hopes seems possible, because for most people the range of choices for how to live is greater than it has ever been before and greater than it will ever be again

The transition to young adulthood was assumed:

-to be marked by entry to adult roles, specifically marriage, parenthood, and stable work. For most people, entry into these roles took place around the age of 20 or shortly thereafter. By their early 20s, most people had formed the stable structure of an adult life -traditional stage models no longer fit the pattern of development that most people experience, especially in developed countries. The 20s are not a time of settling into a stable occupational path but a time of exceptional instability in work, as the completion of education and training is followed by multiple job changes, for most people. Similarly, most people marry and become parents in their late 20s or early 30s rather than in their early 20s -As a consequence of these changes, scholars in human development increasingly recognize a new life stage between adolescence and young adulthood

Sleep experts recommend the following practices to promote sleep hygiene

-waking at the same time each day; -getting regular exercise; -limiting caffeine intake; -avoiding excessive alcohol intake; -turning off all technology at night.

Technology Revolution

-we do not mean iPads and iPhones, but rather the manufacturing technologies that transformed the world economy. -In the past half century, developed countries have shifted from a manufacturing economy to a knowledge economy requiring information and technology skills. -Within the United States, participation in tertiary education (any education or training past high school) has risen dramatically over the past century -Most young people wait until they have finished school before thinking seriously about making adult commitments such as marriage and parenthood. For many, this means postponing those commitments until at least their late 20s.

emerging adulthood is likely to become more pervasive worldwide in the decades to come

-with the increasing globalization of the world economy -Participation in tertiary education and the median marriage age are rising in developing countries, especially in the urban middle class. -These changes open up the possibility for the spread of emerging adulthood in developing countries. -It seems possible that by the end of the 21st century emerging adulthood will be a normative period for young people worldwide, although it is likely to continue to vary in length and content both within and between countries.

Unemployment

-work status of adults who are not in school, are not working, and are looking for a job -In both Europe and the United States, the unemployment rate for emerging adults is consistently twice as high as for adults beyond age 25 -In both Europe and the United States, unemployment has been found to be associated with higher risk for depression, especially for emerging adults who lack strong parental support -A large proportion of young people in their late teens and early 20s are attending school, but they are not classified as unemployed because school is considered to be the focus of their efforts, not work. People whose time is mainly devoted to caring for their own children also are not classified as unemployed.

Emerging adulthood is a time of:

1. identity explorations; 2. instability; 3. self-focus; 4. feeling in-between; and 5. possibilities/optimism.

Levy and Murnane concluded that six basic skills are necessary for success at these new jobs:

1. reading at a 9th-grade level or higher; 2. doing math at a 9th-grade level or higher; 3. solving semistructured problems; 4. communicating orally and in writing; 5. using a computer for word processing and other tasks; 6. collaborating in diverse groups.

Nearly all research on sleep in emerging adulthood has focused on college students in developed countries

According to this research, college students' sleep patterns are distinctive in ways that undermine their cognitive functioning and their emotional well-being. -College students are more than twice as likely as other adults to report the symptoms of delayed sleep phase syndrome. This syndrome entails a pattern of sleeping far longer on weekends and holidays than on school or work days, which leads to poor academic and job performance as well as excessive sleepiness during school and work days. -College students tend to accumulate a sleep debt during the week as they sleep less than they need, then they try to make up their lost sleep when they have time off, with negative consequences for their cognitive and emotional functioning

foreclosure

Adolescents who are in the foreclosure status have not experimented with a range of possibilities but have nevertheless committed themselves to certain choices—commitment, but no exploration. This is often a result of their parents' strong influence. Marcia and most other scholars tend to see exploration as a necessary part of forming a healthy identity, and therefore see foreclosure as unhealthy. This is an issue we will discuss further shortly.

Emerging adulthood is a period when emotional and self-development turn more favorable in a variety of ways

After declining in adolescence, self-esteem now rises steadily. Identity development advances and reaches fruition in some ways, as young people move toward making enduring choices in love and work. Gender issues are confronted in new ways as emerging adults enter the workplace and encounter occupational gender expectations and sometimes gender stereotypes.

Erikson designated adolescence as the stage of the identity crisis

Although Erikson designated adolescence as the stage of the identity crisis, and research using Marcia's model has mostly focused on adolescence, studies indicate that it takes longer than scholars had expected to reach identity achievement, and in fact for most young people this status is reached—if at all—in emerging adulthood or beyond rather than in adolescence. -Studies comparing adolescents from ages 12 through 18 have found that although the proportion of adolescents in the diffusion category decreases with age and the proportion of adolescents in the achievement category increases, even by early emerging adulthood less than half are classified as having reached identity achievement

Some scholars have suggested that leaving home leads young people to appreciate their parents more

Another factor may be that it is easier to be fond of someone you no longer live with. Once emerging adults move out, they no longer experience the day-to-day friction with their parents that inevitably results from living with others. They can now control the frequency and timing of their interactions with their parents in a way they could not when they were living with them. They can visit their parents for the weekend, for a holiday, or for dinner, enjoy the time together, and still maintain full control over their daily lives.

For some, especially those in movements that promote an extreme ideology, their involvement may be identity-related.

As we have seen, one aspect of identity explorations is ideology or worldview. Emerging adulthood is a time when people are looking for an ideological framework for explaining the world, and some emerging adults may be attracted to the definite answers provided by extreme political movements. Embracing an extreme political ideology may relieve the discomfort that can accompany the uncertainty and doubt of ideological explorations. Still, these explanations raise the question, since only a small minority of emerging adults are involved in these extreme movements: Why them and not the others?

Tertiary education is perhaps most relaxed and undemanding in Japan.

Beyond college and university, the Japanese workplace is notoriously demanding as well, requiring long hours and mandatory after-hours socializing. For the Japanese, their time of leisure and fun comes during their college years. Once they enter college, grades matter little and standards for performance are relaxed. Instead, they have "four years of university-sanctioned leisure to think and explore" -Japanese college students spend a great deal of time walking around the city and hanging out together. Average homework time for Japanese college students is half the homework time of middle school or high school students -For most Japanese, this brief period in emerging adulthood is the only time in their lives, from childhood until retirement, that they are allowed to enjoy extensive hours of leisure

For most young Americans, tertiary education takes longer now than it did 2 or 3 decades ago

Currently, it takes an average of 6 years for students to obtain a "4-year" degree. -Furthermore, only 57% of students who enter a 4-year college or university have graduated 6 years later -A number of factors explain why it takes students longer to graduate and nearly half never graduate at all. Some students prefer to extend their college years to switch majors, add a minor field of study, or take advantage of internships or study-abroad programs. However, financial concerns are the main reason that a 4-year degree is so elusive for many emerging adults -A number of factors explain why it takes students longer to graduate and nearly half never graduate at all. Some students prefer to extend their college years to switch majors, add a minor field of study, or take advantage of internships or study-abroad programs. -However, financial concerns are the main reason that a 4-year degree is so elusive for many emerging adults

Diffusion

Diffusion is an identity status that combines no exploration with no commitment. For adolescents in a state of identity diffusion, no commitments have been made among the choices available to them. Furthermore, no exploration is taking place. The person in this status is not seriously attempting to sort through potential choices and make enduring commitments.

Emerging adults are also more likely than older drivers to report driving under the influence of alcohol.

Drivers ages 21 to 24 involved in fatal accidents are more likely to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident than persons in any other age group -Nearly half of American college students report driving while intoxicated within the past year -Young people are also less likely than older drivers to wear seat belts, and in serious car crashes, occupants not wearing seat belts are twice as likely to be killed and three times as likely to be injured, compared to those wearing seat belts

Have you noticed that nearly all the athletes in the Olympics are ages 18-29

Emerging adulthood is the life stage of peak physical functioning, when the body is at its zenith of health, strength, and vigor -Reaction time is also faster in the early 20s than at any other time of life. Studies of grip strength among men show the same pattern, with a peak in the 20s followed by a steady decline -The strength of the bones increases during this time as well. Even after maximum height is attained in the late teens, the bones continue to grow in density, and peak bone mass is reached in the 20s

age of identity explorations

Emerging adulthood is when most people move toward making definite, long-term choices in love and work. Making these choices often involves thinking about who you are, where you want your life to go, what you believe in, and how your life fits into the world around you. During this time, explorations are made into various aspects of identity, especially love and work, culminating in commitments that set the foundation for adult life. ***However, for most of the history of research on identity, the focus was on adolescence—mainly due to Erik Erikson's influence, but also because adolescence was once the life stage when people made the main choices in love and work

The finding that resilience is possible in emerging adulthood is new and exciting. It may be that opportunities to promote resilience would be greater in emerging adulthood than in childhood or adolescence

Families of children and adolescents who are at high risk for problems are often unstable and dysfunctional, which can make it difficult to gain parents' cooperation for participation in an intervention. However, emerging adults are legally adult and can make their own decision to take advantage of an opportunity to turn their lives in a different direction.

achievement

Finally, the classification that combines exploration and commitment is achievement. Identity achievement is the status of young people who have made definite personal, occupational, and ideological choices. By definition, identity achievement is preceded by a period of identity moratorium in which exploration takes place. If commitment takes place without exploration, it is considered identity foreclosure rather than identity achievement

There are a number of possible outcomes when emerging adults move back home

For some, the return home is welcome and the transition is managed easily. A successful transition home is more likely if parents recognize the change in their children's maturity and treat them as adults rather than adolescents. For others, however, the return home is a bumpy transition. Parents may have come to enjoy having the nest all to themselves, without children to provide for and feel responsible for. Emerging adults may find it difficult to have parents monitoring them daily again, after a period when they had grown used to managing their own lives. -For many emerging adults, moving back home results in ambivalence. They are grateful for the support their parents provide, even as they resent returning to the subordinate role of a dependent child. Perhaps because of this ambivalence, the return home tends to be brief, with two-thirds of emerging adults moving out again within 1 year

About 40% of American emerging adults "return to the nest" to live at least once after they leave

For those who left home for college, moving back home may be a way of bridging their transition to post-college life after they graduate or drop out. It gives them a chance to decide what to do next, be it graduate school, a job near home, or a job farther away. For those who left home for independence, some may feel that the glow of independence dims after a while as the freedom of doing what they want when they want becomes outweighed by the burden of taking care of a household and paying all their own bills. An early divorce or concluding a period of military service are other reasons emerging adults give for returning home -Under these circumstances, too, coming home may be attractive to young people as a transition period, a chance to get back on their feet before they venture again into the world.

why the dramatic rise in the typical ages of entering marriage and parenthood?

Four revolutionary changes took place in the 1960s and '70s that laid the foundation for the new life stage of emerging adulthood: the Technology Revolution, the Sexual Revolution, the Women's Movement, and the Youth Movement

The relationship between unstructured socializing and deviance holds not only for substance use but for other types of risk behavior such as crime and dangerous driving

Furthermore, the relationship between unstructured socializing and deviance holds for both genders, for a variety of ethnic groups, and across a wide range of developed and developing countries. Research also shows that substance use and other types of risk behavior decline in the mid- to late 20s, as role transitions such as marriage, parenthood, and full-time work cause a sharp decline in unstructured socializing

Even 50 years ago, Erikson observed that identity formation was taking longer and longer for young people in developed countries

He commented on the "prolonged adolescence" that was becoming increasingly common in such countries and how this was leading to a prolonged period of identity formation, "during which the young adult through free role experimentation may find a niche in some section of his society" -Considering the changes that have taken place since he made this observation in the 1960s, including much later ages of marriage and parenthood and longer education, Erikson's observation applies to far more young people today than it did then -Indeed, the conception of emerging adulthood as a distinct period of life is based partly on the fact that, over recent decades, the late teens and early 20s have become a period of "free role experimentation" for an increasing proportion of young people -The achievement of an adult identity comes later, compared with earlier generations, as many emerging adults use the years of their late teens and 20s for identity explorations in love, work, and ideology.

Some of the most important protective factors identified in resilience research in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood include:

High intelligence. Young people with high IQs have a better chance than others of overcoming the challenges of a difficult environment. For example, high intelligence may allow children, adolescents, and emerging adults to perform well academically despite going to low-quality schools and growing up in a disorderly household One caring adult. Family disruption and conflict are key contributors to the risk of externalizing and internalizing problems. However, one good relationship with a parent or an adult outside the family can act as a protective factor, making problems less likely. Effective parenting may help a child have a positive self-image and avoid antisocial behavior despite growing up in poverty and living in a rough neighborhood. A mentor may foster high academic goals and good future planning in an adolescent or emerging adult whose family life is characterized by abuse or neglect. A healthy school environment. Children and adolescents spend much of their time in school, and if the school climate is positive, it can overcome risk factors they may be experiencing at home. A classic study of British schools by Michael Rutter and his colleagues first showed how a positive school climate can be a protective factor. They studied early adolescents in 12 schools in London, beginning at age 10 and following them for 4 years. The results indicated that school climate had a significant effect on rates of delinquency, even after controlling for such influences as social class and family environment. Many other studies in the subsequent decades have confirmed the importance of school climate in promoting resilience. For emerging adults, going to college may serve as a protective factor. Religious beliefs and practices. Religiosity has become recognized as an especially important protective factor. Adolescents and emerging adults who have a strong religious faith are less likely to have problems such as substance abuse, even when they have grown up in a high-risk environment. Numerous studies have found that religiosity is inversely related to participation in risk behavior in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Erikson's theory and traditional research on identity development in adolescence and then discuss the more recent turn to identity development

In Erikson's theory of development, each stage of life has a central crisis, and in adolescence the crisis is identity versus identity confusion (1950)

College students' self-reports of their sleep patterns indicate that problems are common

In a national study of American college students, 43% reported sleep problems, such as insufficient sleep or difficulty falling asleep -An international study of over 20,000 students in 26 countries found a rate of about 10% of students across countries who had "severe or extreme" sleep problems -Sleep disturbances are in turn related to a wide variety of other problems, such as depression and anxiety -Poor sleeping habits also cause cognitive deficits in attention, memory, and critical thinking.

American college students are generally pleased with the quality of the education they receive, and their satisfaction is higher today than in past decades.

In a national survey of more than 9,000 students, Arthur Levine and Diane Dean (2012) found that 87% indicated that they were "Satisfied with the teaching at your college." Also, 76% indicated that there were faculty at their college who took a special interest in students' academic progress, and 78% had instructors who had "greatly influenced" their academic career. More than half also had instructors whom they felt they could turn to for advice on personal matters. In all respects, students' satisfaction with their academic experience at college had increased compared to earlier surveys Levine and colleagues conducted in 1969, 1976, and 1993. While most American students are pleased with their college education, satisfaction is particularly high among students at small colleges with small classes -The Pew Research Center (2011) found that 84% of American college grads said that their degree had been a good investment; only 7% said it had not. Some may be frustrated when they have trouble finding a good job in their field in the first year or two after graduating, but they recognize that a college education nearly always pays off over the course of a career.

In terms of ideology, too, a psychosocial moratorium has been the exception in human cultures rather than the standard.

In most cultures, young people have been expected to grow up to believe what adults teach them to believe, without questioning it. It is only in recent history, and mainly in Western developed countries, that these expectations have changed, and that it has come to be seen as desirable for adolescents and emerging adults to think for themselves, decide on their own beliefs, and make their life choices independently

A key part of emerging adulthood involves moving away from one's family, not just geographically but socially and emotionally, and toward a new love partner, in marriage or another long-term romantic partnership

Jennifer Tanner (2006, 2015) calls this process "recentering." For children and adolescents, the center of their emotional lives is within their family, with their parents and siblings. For adults, the center of their emotional lives is usually with a new family constellation, mainly a romantic partner, and usually children as well. Emerging adulthood is when the change takes place, as the center of emotional life is transferred from the original family to a long-term romantic partner. Parents and siblings remain important, of course, but the center of emotional life usually moves to a romantic partner.

new basic skills

Levy and Murnane concluded that the new basic skills could be taught to adolescents by the time they leave high school. -The bad news is that many American adolescents currently graduate from high school without learning them adequately. Levy and Murnane focused on reading and math skills because those are the skills on which the most data are available. -They concluded that the data reveal a distressing picture: Close to half of all 17-year-olds cannot read or do math at the level needed to succeed at the new jobs. The half who do have these skills are also the most likely to go to college rather than seek full-time work after high school. -More recently, Levy and Murnane (2012) focused on the growing importance of computer skills, again concluding that high schools are failing to provide adolescents with the knowledge they need to succeed in the new economy. Other recent books on this topic make a similar argument -The results of Levy and Murnane's research suggest that it may be wise for administrators of high schools and job-training programs to revise their curricula to fit the requirements of the knowledge economy.

Erikson's most influential interpreter has been James Marcia

Marcia constructed a measure called the Identity Status Interview that classified adolescents into one of four identity statuses: diffusion, moratorium, foreclosure, or achievement. -This system of four categories, known as the identity status model, has also been used by scholars who have constructed questionnaires to investigate identity development rather than using Marcia's interview

Moratorium

Moratorium involves exploration but no commitment. This is a status of actively trying out different personal, occupational, and ideological possibilities, in order for adolescents to determine which of the available possibilities are best suited to them.

Given the differential gender socialization that people in American society experience in childhood and adolescence, it should not be surprising to find that by the time they reach emerging adulthood, they have different expectations for females and males

Most research on gender expectations in adulthood has been conducted by social psychologists, and because social psychologists often use college undergraduates as their research participants, much of this research pertains to emerging adults' views of gender. Social psychologists have especially focused on gender stereotypes -A stereotype occurs when people believe others possess certain characteristics simply as a result of being a member of a particular group. -Gender stereotypes, then, attribute certain characteristics to others on the basis of whether they are female or male

Transition into work in emerging adulthood

Often that idea dissolves in the course of emerging adulthood, as they develop a clearer identity and discover that their high school aspiration does not align with it. -In place of their high school notions, many emerging adults seek identity-based work, something they enjoy and really want to do -For most American emerging adults the road to a stable job is long, with many brief, low-paying, dreary jobs along the way. The average American holds eight different jobs between the ages of 18 and 30

morningness vs eveningness

One massive study of over 55,000 Europeans from childhood through late adulthood concluded that children tend toward morningness, but in the course of adolescence and the early part of emerging adulthood the balance shifts toward eveningness, with the peak of eveningness coming at about ages 20-21 -After ages 20-21, the balance steadily shifts again toward morningness for the remainder of the life span. -Other studies have found similar relations between age and sleep preferences -your 60-year-old professors may schedule their classes for 8:00 or 9:00 a.m., because that is a time of day when they feel alert and ready to go, whereas if you are in your early 20s that may well be a time of day when you feel like something scraped off the bottom of the garbage can.

Most of the research inspired by Erikson's theory has taken place among White middle-class adolescents in the United States, Canada, and Europe

One observation is that although Erikson sought to ground his theory in historical and cultural context, his discussion of identity development nevertheless assumes an independent self that is allowed to make free choices in love, work, and ideology -The focus of Erikson's identity theory is on how young people develop an understanding of themselves as unique individuals. However, as we have discussed in earlier chapters, this conception of the self is distinctively Western and is historically recent

Why are emerging adults especially likely to be involved in revolutionary and extreme political movements?

One reason is that they have fewer social ties and obligations than people in other age periods. Children and adolescents can be restrained from involvement that is dangerous by their parents. Young, middle, and older adults can be deterred from involvement by their commitments to others who depend on them, especially a spouse and children. However, emerging adulthood is a time when social commitments and social control are at their low point. Emerging adults have more freedom than people at other age periods, and this freedom allows some of them to become involved in revolutionary and extreme political movements.

What can be done to reduce the rates of automobile accidents and fatalities among young drivers?

Parental monitoring of adolescents' driving behavior has been shown to be especially important in the early months of driving, and interventions to increase parental involvement can be effective -So far, there has been no research on how parental involvement with novice emerging adult drivers might be effective in reducing crashes, even though it is becoming increasingly common in the United States for young people to begin driving in emerging adulthood.However, by far the most effective approach is a government program called graduated driver licensing (GDL)

Driver characteristics matter, too

Personality characteristics such as sensation seeking and aggressiveness promote risky driving and subsequent crashes, and these characteristics tend to be highest in young male drivers

"Thirty is the new 20," as a popular American saying puts it.

Rather than making the transition from adolescence to young adulthood quickly at around age 20, most people in developed countries experience a stage of emerging adulthood from their late teens to at least their mid-20s, before entering a more stable young adulthood around age 30 -Emerging adulthood lasts roughly from age 18 to about age 25 -Age 18 works well as the end of adolescence and the beginning of emerging adulthood, as it is the age of reaching legal adulthood in most countries and the age when most people finish secondary school. -The end of emerging adulthood is more difficult to specify; it could be defined as the age when people first "feel adult" completely, which for most people in most developed countries happens by around age 25. -Or, it could be defined as the age when people have made the major transitions traditionally associated with adult status—marriage, parenthood, and stable work—which are reached for most people in most countries by around age 30.

Why do some people take advantage of, and benefit from, turning point opportunities in emerging adulthood, whereas others do not?

Some research examining resilience in emerging adulthood suggests the key may lie in "planful competence," which includes realistic goal setting, dependability, and self-control -However, this begs the question of why some emerging adults exhibit planful competence in response to adverse conditions whereas others do not. The stories of resilient emerging adults are fascinating and inspiring, and there is much more to be learned from them.

When they talk about what they are looking for in a romantic partner, emerging adults around the world mention a wide variety of ideal qualities

Sometimes these are qualities of the individual person: intelligent, attractive, or funny. But most often they mention interpersonal qualities; qualities a person brings to a relationship, such as kind, caring, loving, and trustworthy. Emerging adults hope to find someone who will treat them well and who will be capable of an intimate, mutually loving, durable relationship. -In romantic relationships as in friendships, intimacy becomes more important in emerging adulthood than it had been in adolescence -In addition to looking for intimacy, emerging adults also seek a romantic partner who will be like themselves in many ways -Opposites rarely attract; on the contrary, birds of a feather flock together. A long line of studies has established that emerging adults, like people of other ages, tend to have romantic relationships with people who are similar to themselves in characteristics such as personality, intelligence, social class, ethnic background, religious beliefs, and physical attractiveness -Scholars attribute this to what they call consensual validation, which means that people like to find in others a match, or consensus, with their own characteristics. Finding this consensus reaffirms, or validates, their own way of looking at the world. The more similar your love partner is to you, the more likely you are to reaffirm each other, and the less likely you are to have conflicts that spring from having different views and preferences.

In recent years effective drug treatments for slowing the progress of HIV have been developed.

The cost of these drug treatments was initially extremely high, but now the cost has declined and the drugs are widely available even in developing countries, mainly through international aid organizations -Prevention programs to reduce HIV risk among adolescents and emerging adults have been conducted in many developing countries and have been successful in changing young people's behavior to reduce their HIV risk

Being self-focused does not mean being selfish, and emerging adults are generally less egocentric than adolescents and more capable of taking the perspectives of others

The goal of being self-focused is learning to stand alone as a self-sufficient person, but emerging adults do not see self-sufficiency as a permanent state. Rather, they view it as a necessary step before committing themselves to lasting relationships with others, in love and work.

In a number of ways, friendships may be especially important in emerging adulthood

The majority of emerging adults move away from home and so lose the daily social support they may have received from their parents and siblings. Even for the ones who return home or remain home, they may rely less on their parents for social support as they strive toward becoming self-sufficient and making their own decisions. Consequently, they may turn more to friends than to parents for companionship and support.

sexual behavior as in other aspects of their lives, there is a great deal of diversity among emerging adults.

The most common pattern among American 18- to 23-year-olds is to have had one partner in the past year -emerging adults are more likely than adults in older age groups to have had either more or fewer sexual partners. About one third of 18- to- 23-year-olds report having had two or more partners in the past year, but about one fourth report no sex at all in the past year -At the beginning of emerging adulthood, age 18, about half of Americans have had intercourse at least once, and by age 25 nearly all emerging adults have had intercourse at least once, but those who have their first episode of intercourse relatively late tend to be "active abstainers" rather than "accidental abstainers" -That is, they remain virgins longer because they have chosen to wait rather than because they had no opportunity for sex. Common reasons for abstaining are fear of pregnancy, fear of sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), religious or moral beliefs, and the feeling one has not yet met the right person

In European countries, emerging adults tend to live with their parents longer than in the United States, especially in southern and eastern Europe

There are a number of practical reasons why European emerging adults stay home longer. European university students are more likely than American students to continue to live at home while they attend university. European emerging adults who do not attend university may have difficulty finding or affording an apartment of their own. However, also important are European cultural values that emphasize mutual support within the family while also allowing young people substantial autonomy. Italy provides a good case in point. Ninety-four percent of Italians ages 15 to 24 live with their parents, the highest percentage in the European Union (EU), and many of them continue to live with their parents even into their late 20s and early 30s -only 8% of them view their living arrangements as a problem—the lowest percentage among EU countries. Many European emerging adults remain at home contentedly through their early 20s, by choice rather than necessity.

What are the main features of emerging adulthood?

There are many cultural variations in how emerging adulthood is experienced -However, across developed countries, there are five characteristics that distinguish emerging adulthood from other age periods -All of these features begin to develop before emerging adulthood and continue to develop afterward, but it is during emerging adulthood that they reach their peak

Having a profile also allows users to maintain and expand their social networks. Emerging adults use the sites mainly to keep in touch with old friends and current friends and to make new ones

This function is especially important in emerging adulthood, because emerging adults often leave home and the network of friends they formed in secondary school -emerging adults frequently change educational settings, jobs, and residences. Social-networking websites allow them to keep in contact with the friends they leave behind as they move through emerging adulthood, and to make new friends in each new place

Emerging adulthood is also the period of the life span with the least susceptibility to physical illnesses

This is especially true in modern times, when vaccines and medical treatments have dramatically lowered the risk of diseases such as polio that used to strike mainly during these years. Emerging adults are no longer vulnerable to the illnesses and diseases of childhood, and with rare exceptions they are not yet vulnerable to diseases such as cancer and heart disease that rise in prevalence later in adulthood. Because the immune system is at its most effective during emerging adulthood, the late teens and early 20s are the years of fewest hospital stays and fewest days spent sick in bed.

Even among those who finish an online course, it is not clear how many of them actually read and understood the materials

This raises a second problem with online learning: evaluation and assessment. How can instructors verify that students taking an online course have completed assessments such as exams, projects, and papers themselves, rather than having someone else do it for them? College cheating on assessments is a problem even in a traditional classroom vigilantly monitored by an instructor, so it would be a stiff challenge to make online evaluation methods effective.

emerging adulthood has been proposed as a key period for the expression of resilience

Unlike children and adolescents, emerging adults have the ability to leave an unhealthy, high-risk family environment. Unlike older adults, emerging adults have not yet made the commitments that structure adult life for most people. Consequently, emerging adulthood is a period when there is an unusually high scope for making decisions that could turn life in a new and better direction. Experiences such as military service, romantic relationships, going to college, development of religious faith, and work opportunities may provide turning point opportunities during emerging adulthood

Work in emerging adulthood focuses on identity questions:

What do I really want to do? What am I best at? What do I enjoy the most? How do my abilities and desires fit in with the kinds of opportunities that are available to me? -In asking themselves what kind of work they want to do, emerging adults are also asking themselves what kind of person they are ***In the course of emerging adulthood, as they try out various jobs, they begin to answer their identity questions, and they develop a better sense of what work suits them best.

Reasons for cohabitation

Young people choose to cohabit sometimes for practical reasons—two together can live more cheaply than two separately—and sometimes because they wish to enhance the likelihood that when they marry, it will last. Indeed, in a national (American) survey of 20- to 29-year-olds, 62% agreed that "Living together with someone before marriage is a good way to avoid eventual divorce" -Emerging adults from divorced families are especially likely to cohabit, because they are especially determined to avoid their parents' fate -Although living together before marriage is motivated partly by the fear of divorce, the divorce rate is higher for American couples who cohabit than those who do not -This may be because cohabiting couples become used to living together while maintaining separate lives in many ways, especially financially, so that they are unprepared for the compromises required by marriage. Also, even before entering cohabitation, emerging adults who cohabit tend to be different from emerging adults who do not, in ways that are related to higher risk of divorce—less religious, more skeptical of the institution of marriage, and more accepting of divorce -one analysis concluded that cohabitation itself increases the risk of divorce, because it leads some couples who are not compatible to marry anyway, out of "the inertia of cohabitation"

Emerging adulthood is also a self-focused life stage

a time in between adolescents' reliance on parents and young adults' long-term commitments in love and work. During these years, emerging adults focus on themselves as they develop the knowledge, skills, and self-understanding they will need for adult life. In the course of emerging adulthood they learn to make independent decisions small and large, about everything from what to have for dinner to whether or not to marry their current partner

VO2 max

ability of the body to take in oxygen and transport it to various organs; also called maximum oxygen uptake -Physical stamina is often measured in terms of maximum oxygen uptake, which reflects the ability of the body to take in oxygen and transport it to various organs -VO2 max peaks in the early 20s

Among emerging adults who face unusually difficult circumstances, such as

abusive families, poverty, or a history of adolescent delinquency, it is notable that many manage to adapt and function well -Resilience is the term for this phenomenon, defined as "good outcomes in spite of serious threats to adaptation and development" Sometimes "good outcomes" are measured as notable academic or social achievements, sometimes as internal conditions such as well-being or self-esteem, and sometimes as the absence of notable problems. Young people who are resilient are not necessarily high achievers who have some kind of extraordinary ability. More often they display what resilience researcher Ann Masten calls the "ordinary magic" of being able to function reasonably well despite being faced with unusually difficult circumstances

knowledge economy

an economy based on information, technology, and services, with most new jobs requiring people to have education or training beyond secondary school

blended learning

an educational approach in which students learn partly online and partly through face-to-face learning in the classroom -There is also a great deal of potential in using electronic methods to make the traditional college classroom more interactive, for example by having students give immediate electronic feedback to instructors. A great deal of educational research demonstrates that students learn far more through active learning than through passively listening to a lecture, and electronic methods can promote active learning

the most obvious indicator of the emergence of emerging adulthood

as a normative life stage in developed countries is the rise in the ages of entering marriage and parenthood. -As recently as 1960 the median age of marriage in most developed countries was in the very early 20s, around 21 for women and 23 for men -Now the median age of marriage is 28 in the United States, and close to 30 in most other developed countries -Age at entering parenthood followed a similar rise.

tertiary education is becoming increasingly important around the world

as manufacturing becomes more mechanized and the new jobs created are mostly in areas such as health, education, and business, which require young people to gain knowledge and skills in these areas

Across developed countries, the most serious threat to the lives and health of adolescents and emerging adults comes from

automobile driving -In the United States, young people ages 16 to 24 have the highest rates of automobile accidents, injuries, and fatalities of any age group -In other developed countries, a higher minimum driving age (usually 18) and less access to automobiles have made rates of accidents and fatalities among young people substantially lower than in the United States, but motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death during emerging adulthood in those countries as well

In a study of American emerging adults, afterlife beliefs were diverse,

but 68% believed in an afterlife of some kind, strikingly close to the proportion in the Danish study. Beliefs among that 68% were diverse, from those who believed in traditional views of heaven and hell to those who believed in reincarnation to those who simply believed that "the soul lives on" somehow.

Emerging adulthood is not a universal period of human development

but a period that exists under certain conditions that have occurred only quite recently and only in some cultures. As we have seen, what is mainly required for emerging adulthood to exist is a relatively high median age of entering marriage and parenthood, in the late 20s or beyond. Postponing marriage and parenthood until the late 20s allows the late teens and most of the 20s to be devoted to other activities, such as the identity explorations just described. So, emerging adulthood exists today mainly in developed countries, but it is growing in developing countries

protective factors

characteristics of young people that are related to lower likelihood of problems despite experiencing high-risk circumstances

binge drinking

consuming five or more drinks in a row for men, four in a row for women

intimacy becomes more important to friendships in adolescence than it had been in middle childhood, and that trend may continue into emerging adulthood

early adolescents (ages 12-13) and emerging adults (ages 18-20) described a time when they felt especially close to a friend. Emerging adults' accounts contained more self-disclosure and fewer shared activities, compared to early adolescents. Among the emerging adults (but not the early adolescents) there was a gender difference. Self-disclosure promoted emotional closeness for young women, whereas for young men shared activities were usually the basis of feeling emotionally close.

tertiary education

education or training beyond secondary school -a majority of emerging adults across a wide range of developed countries now obtain tertiary education -which includes any kind of education or training program beyond secondary school. This has been a remarkably rapid historical change. One hundred years ago, few young people—less than 10%—obtained tertiary education in any developed country; in fact, the majority did not even attend secondary school. -those who did attend college or university were mostly men. Historically, women were deemed to be cognitively inferior to men and therefore not worthy of higher education. A hundred years later, tertiary education is now a normative experience, and in most countries women are more likely than men to obtain it

Sexual behavior in emerging adulthood most commonly takes place in the context of a close romantic relationship

emerging adults are more likely than adults in older age groups to engage in recreational sex or "hooking up." In American college surveys, about 80% of students report having had at least one casual sexual experience, and about 60% state that they have had an ongoing "friends with benefits" sexual relationship with someone they knew but were not romantically involved with -Young men are more likely than young women to have sexual attitudes that favor recreational sex -They tend to be more likely than young women to be willing to have intercourse with someone they have known for only a few hours, to have sex with two different partners in the same day, and to have sex with someone they do not love -In a national survey of 18- to 29-year-olds, about half (52%) of males but only one third of females (33%) agreed that it was okay for two people to have sex when they are not emotionally connected

By age 18, people reach their

full height. -Puberty is over, and sexual maturity is sufficient to allow for reproduction -strength and endurance continue to grow into the 20s for most people, -and illness rates are especially low as the immune system reaches peak effectiveness -On the other hand, health risks continue to loom in some areas, most notably automobile accidents and substance abuse.

The importance of emerging adulthood was demonstrated in a classic study of resilience. It is known as the Kauai (Ka-WHY-ee) study, after the Hawaiian island where the study took place.

he Kauai study focused on a high-risk group of children who had four or more risk factors by age 2, such as problems in physical development, parents' marital conflict, parental drug abuse, low maternal education, and poverty. Among this group, there was a resilient subgroup that showed good social and academic functioning and few behavior problems by ages 10 to 18. Compared with their less resilient peers, adolescents in the resilient group were found to benefit from several protective factors, including one well-functioning parent, higher intelligence, and higher physical attractiveness. -In the Kauai study, a surprise finding was that many of the participants who had been placed in the nonresilient category in adolescence turned out to be resilient after all in emerging adulthood. The experiences that helped them change their lives for the better included participation in higher education, learning new occupational skills through military service, and conversion to a religious faith that provided a community of support.

bicultural identity

identity with two distinct facets, for example one for the local culture and one for the global culture, or one within one's ethnic group and one for others -with one part of their identity rooted in their local culture, while another part stems from an awareness of their relation to the global culture. For example, India has a growing, vigorous high-tech economic sector, led largely by young people. However, even the better-educated young people, who have become full-fledged members of the global economy, still mostly prefer to have an arranged marriage, in accordance with Indian tradition -They also generally expect to care for their parents in old age, again in accordance with Indian tradition. Thus they have one identity for participating in the global economy and succeeding in the fast-paced world of high technology, and another identity, rooted in Indian tradition, that they maintain with respect to their families and their personal lives

One of the changes that has led to the development of a new life stage of emerging adulthood in recent decades is

increasing participation in education and training beyond secondary school. -The challenges of providing tertiary education to all who want it and need it is growing, as it becomes more and more necessary for success in the changing world economy.

it is not just physiological changes that contribute to college students' sleep disturbances, but also

lifestyle factors, such as partying late at night or waiting until the day before an exam to begin studying seriously. -Among American college students, such "all-nighters" are quite common. In one study of students at a 4-year liberal arts college, 60% had pulled at least one all-nighter since coming to college -Those who had pulled an all-nighter tended to have a greater preference for eveningness and had poorer overall academic achievement. Another study of all-nighters found that students who stayed up all night before exams self-rated their exam performance as better than students who slept 8 hours, but their actual performance turned out to be much worse -This may seem like common sense advice, but the actual behavior of many students contradicts these guidelines. Many drink coffee frequently during the day to stay alert, not realizing that frequent caffeine use will make it more difficult to sleep at night. Many drink alcohol excessively, with sleep hygiene the last thing on their minds. And, of course, many find it difficult to turn off their digital devices, even at night

emerging adulthood in Asian developed countries is

markedly different than in Europe. Europe has a long history of individualism, dating back at least 500 years, and today's emerging adults represent that legacy in their focus on self-development and leisure -In contrast, Asian cultures have a shared history emphasizing collectivism and family obligations. Although Asian cultures have become more individualistic in recent decades as a consequence of globalization, the legacy of collectivism persists in the lives of emerging adults -They pursue identity explorations and self-development during emerging adulthood, like their American and European counterparts, but within narrower boundaries set by their sense of obligations to others, especially their parents. -For example, emerging adults in the United States and Europe consistently rank financial independence among the most important criteria for becoming an adult. In contrast, emerging adults with an Asian cultural background emphasize being capable of supporting parents financially as among the most important criteria -This sense of family obligation may curtail their identity explorations in emerging adulthood to some extent, as they pay more heed to their parents' wishes about what they should study and what job they should take and where they should live than emerging adults do in the West

identity status model

model for researching Erikson's theory of identity development, classifying identity development into four categories: diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, or achievement

emerging adulthood is that it is a time of feeling in-between,

no longer an adolescent but not fully an adult. When asked, "Do you feel that you have reached adulthood?" the majority of emerging adults respond neither "yes" nor "no" but with the ambiguous "in some ways yes, in some ways no" -it is only when people reach their late 20s that a clear majority feel they have reached adulthood. Most emerging adults have the subjective feeling of being in a transitional period of life, on the way to adulthood but not there yet. This "in-between" feeling has been found in a wide range of countries including Argentina, China, and Israel

The national Monitoring the Future study, which has followed several American cohorts from high school through middle age, shows that substance use

of all kinds rises through the late teens and peaks in the early 20s before declining in the late 20s -Substance use, especially alcohol use, is higher among college students than among emerging adults who do not attend college -It also tends to be somewhat higher among men than among women.

The lifestyles of many emerging adults often include a variety of factors that undermine health, such as

poor nutrition, lack of sleep, and the high stress of trying to juggle school and multiple jobs -Longitudinal studies in Finland and the United States have found that physical activity, sports participation, and exercise decline from adolescence through emerging adulthood -These lifestyle factors often make emerging adults feel tired, weak, and depleted, despite their bodies' potential for optimal health. Furthermore, in many countries the late teens and early 20s are the years of highest incidence of a variety of types of injury, death, and disease due to behavior -The areas of heightened risk in emerging adulthood include automobile accidents and substance abuse, as we'll see shortly. The risks associated with sexual activity, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

cardiac output

quantity of blood flow from the heart -the quantity of blood flow from the heart, peaks at age 25

unstructured socializing

socializing with friends without any specific goal or activity; includes behavior such as riding around in a car for fun, going to parties, visiting friends informally, and going out with friends -Unstructured socializing includes behavior such as riding around in a car for fun, going to parties, visiting friends informally, and going out with friends. This kind of behavior is highest in the late teens and early 20s, and emerging adults who are highest in unstructured socializing are also highest in use of alcohol and marijuana -Rates of most types of substance use are especially high among emerging adults who are college students because they have so many opportunities for unstructured socializing.

Is tertiary education worth the time and money it requires?

t is certainly a substantial investment. Participation in tertiary education requires a great deal of money per year, paid mainly by emerging adults and their parents in the United States, and mainly by the government in other developed countries. Furthermore, the years in which emerging adults are focused on obtaining tertiary education are also years when most of them are not contributing to full-time economic activity. Not only are governments in many developed countries paying much or all of the costs of financing emerging adults' tertiary education, they are also losing the economic activity and tax revenue emerging adults would be contributing if their time and energy were devoted to working full time.

About half of emerging adults in developed countries obtain

tertiary education and training, but that leaves half who do not, and their experience of emerging adulthood is much different. -Specifically, they are likely to have a much more difficult time finding a decent job in a knowledge economy that rewards educational credentials. -There are other important differences across countries and cultures, such as in the degree of tolerance for premarital sex and cohabitation, as we will see later in the chapter. -So, there is not just one experience of emerging adulthood worldwide, but many emerging adulthoods with distinctive cultural characteristics

One reason college students and other emerging adults often have sleep problems is

that their daily routines are set mostly by older adults who are likely to have different sleep preferences than they do. Sleep researchers have established that people vary in their morningness and eveningness; that is, their preference for either going to bed early and waking up early (morningness) or going to bed late and waking up late (eveningness). -these preferences change with age, due to hormonal changes that are part of normal physical development, specifically, levels of growth hormone. -

how most colleges and universities educate students

the internet, which has changed so much in our lives in recent decades, seems poised to change tertiary education as well. If instructors and students can communicate online, is it really necessary anymore for students to live on or near a campus and go to a classroom? -Currently there is much excitement about the potential of online learning, in which all or most of the course content is delivered electronically. Worldwide, tens of millions of students have enrolled in online college courses, including one third of American college students

social control

the restraints on behavior imposed by social obligations and relationships—individuals are more likely to take certain kinds of risks -Because emerging adulthood is the low point of social control -

Cohabitation

unmarried romantic partners living together -In the United States and Canada, as well as in northern European countries, cohabitation before marriage is now experienced by at least two-thirds of emerging adults -The percentage is highest in the Scandinavian countries, where nearly all young people cohabit before marriage -Cohabitation tends to be brief and unstable for young Americans, rarely lasting more than 5 years -In contrast, cohabiting couples in European countries tend to stay together as long as married couples

emerging adulthood is often a time of experiencing a sense of wide-open possibilities

when many different futures remain possible, when little about a person's direction in life has been decided for certain. -It tends to be an age of heightened optimism, in part because few dreams have been tested in the fires of real life. -In one national survey of 18- to 29-year-olds in the United States, nearly all—89%—agreed with the statement "I am confident that eventually I will get to where I want to be in life" -This optimism in emerging adulthood has been found in other countries as well, such as China