Emerging Adulthood

434 Words2 Pages
People go through many different stages in life. Each life stage has its own requirements, age group, and characteristics. Throughout history, many of these life stages have been consistent, infancy, adulthood, and the like, but some life stages are changing with changes in society. Emerging Adulthood is an example of a new life stage that has developed with the industrialization of society. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett as has defined Emerging Adulthood, “a new period of life for young people in the United States and other industrialized societies, lasting from the late teens through the mid- to later twenties.” This new life stage, Emerging Adulthood, delays traditional makers of adulthood, such as marriage, the beginning of a family, a stable career, and financial independency. Instead, such characteristics as identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in between, and new possibilities have been implemented into the lives of emerging adults. There have been six distinct changes in society that have led to the development of Emerging Adulthood. These factors include growth of a higher education, delay…show more content…
Christian Smith directed the National Study of Youth and Religion. His study resulted in his book, Lost in Transition, which draws upon in-depth interviews with adults aged 18-23. Emerging Adults are morally adrift, captive to consumerism, frequently intoxicated, and suffer from hurts and regrets from sexual experiences. Emerging Adults are not always able to differentiate between right and wrong. Most emerging adults base the value of their lives on the consumption of material goods, the more material goods, the higher the value of life. Emerging adults do not look beyond themselves. Many emerging adults pay little to no attention to politics, because they do not believe that it will greatly affect their lives. For the same reasons, they are unlikely to volunteer or give to

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