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11 - Transition to Adulthood: Linking Late-Adolescent Lifestyles to Family and Work Status in the Mid-Twenties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2009

By
Jessica L. Garrett  and
Jacquelynne S. Eccles
Edited by
Ingrid Schoon  and
Rainer K. Silbereisen
Ingrid Schoon
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
Rainer K. Silbereisen
Affiliation:
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany
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Summary

The transition to adulthood should no longer be conceptualized as a predetermined passage from one social institution to another, like school to workplace or singlehood to marriage (Andres, 1999). There is a need for new perspectives that look more broadly at the transition to adulthood, taking into account the multiple contexts that affect and are affected by the transition, and a broader definition of successfully reaching “adulthood.” Such a perspective requires a focus on patterns of functioning across multiple domains (i.e., school, family, peers, dating, and work roles) as well as on continuity and change across time. We consider the transition to adulthood to be a continuous process grounded in the daily choices youth make regarding the focusing of their energies across the multiple social contexts of family, friends, school, work, and romance. We believe that the level and quality of functioning in each of these contexts during adolescence have implications for the skills and the educational, occupational, and familial plans that youth acquire and then act out. We explore these fundamental propositions using a person-centered analytical approach.

Primary Domains of Functioning During Late Adolescence

Most psychologists point to family, school, work, romantic relationships, peers, and extracurricular activities as critical contexts of development (Brown, 1990; Eccles, Barber, Stone, & Templeton, 2002; Elder & Conger, 2000; Jessor, 1993; Larson, 2000).

Type
Chapter
Information
Transitions from School to Work
Globalization, Individualization, and Patterns of Diversity
 , pp. 243 - 264
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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