Emerging Adulthood

Emerging adulthood is a proposed life stage, roughly spanning the late teens through the twenties, in which young people have left adolescence but have not yet taken on the stable commitments traditionally associated with adulthood, such as permanent work, marriage, and parenthood. The concept was developed by the psychologist Jeffrey Arnett, who characterized the period by identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in between, and a sense of possibility. It builds on Erik Erikson’s account of identity formation and the psychosocial moratorium, and on Daniel Levinson’s work on early adult transition. Sociologists have highlighted structural causes. Andy Furlong and Fred Cartmel analyzed extended and fragmented youth transitions shaped by education expansion and labor market insecurity, while Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens described individualized biographies and reflexive life planning. Frank Furstenberg and colleagues documented delayed milestones, and Jennifer Silva’s research on working-class youth showed how precarity shapes adult identity. Critics argue that emerging adulthood is a privileged, culturally specific stage that overlooks young people who take on adult responsibilities early because of class, migration, or caring duties. Emerging adulthood remains central to research on youth, life course, work, family formation, and inequality.