Search

Across the country, foster care caseloads continue to rise. At last count, there were nearly 443,000 children and youth in the U.S. foster care system, with more than 123,000 waiting [...]

Prior empirical research on intimate partner violence (IPV) in adolescence and young adulthood often focuses on exposure to violence in the family-of-origin using retrospective and cross-sectional data. Yet individuals' families matter beyond simply the presence or absence of abuse, and these effects may vary across time. To address these issues, the present study employed five waves of longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) to investigate the trajectory of IPV from adolescence to young adulthood (N = 950 respondents, 4,750 person-periods) with a specific focus on how familial factors continue to matter across the life course. Results indicated that family-of-origin violence and parent-child relationship quality were independent predictors of IPV. The effect of parent-child relationship quality on IPV also became greater as individuals aged. These results have implications for policies targeted at reducing IPV., Author(s): Angela M. Kaufman-Parks [sup.1] , Alfred DeMaris [sup.2] , Peggy C. Giordano [sup.2] , Wendy D. Manning [sup.2] , Monica A. Longmore [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) Assumption College, 0000 [...]

Abstract: Emerging adults (EAs) have been theorized as an intensely self-focused and sexually experimental cohort. The aim of this study was to examine the sexual motivations of heterosexual EA couples [...]

In this longitudinal study, we examined identity development using the life story model (McAdams, 2001), in addition to a traditional identity status approach, in order to explore the association between perceived parenting in adolescence and the subsequent quality of life story narration in emerging adulthood. Participants (N = 100) were given a battery of questionnaires at ages 17 and 26 years and were asked to narrate a story at age 26 about their most difficult life experience. Low point narratives were analyzed for evidence of concluding clarity, resolution, and affective tone, termed coherent positive resolution (Pals, 2006). Structural equation modeling showed that participants who experienced more positive parenting at age 17 narrated their low points with clearer evidence of coherent positive resolution at age 26. Coherent positive resolution of the low point was also related to concurrent measures of identity achievement and emotional adjustment at age 26. Discussion centers on the potential impact of positive parenting as a contributor to healthy low point narration and identity in emerging adulthood. Keywords: narrative, identity, adolescence, emerging adulthood, parenting DOI: 10.1037/a0017360

The study examines whether social capital fosters resilience among individuals who are at a high risk of developing mental distress in adulthood. Results suggest that social capital is not associated with a reduction in the probability that high-risk individuals will experience mental distress, while one form of social capital, membership in groups and associations, appears to play a protective role among low-risk individuals. Overall, our research suggests that policies aimed at increasing social capital would not be able to reduce the gap in mental health between disadvantaged individuals and the rest of the population.

This study determined how youth (ages 17-21) and their parents jointly constructed and acted on goals and strategies pertinent to the transition to adulthood. Twenty parent--youth dyads were followed over an 8-month period using the qualitative action-project method. Data included their joint conversations, video recall of internal processes, self-monitoring logs, and researcher telephone monitoring. Detailed and repeated analysis of elements, functional steps, and goals resulted in the identification of an explicit joint project for each dyad that the participants saw as pertinent to the transition to adulthood. These projects referred broadly to the youth development of identity and social inclusion in the adult world and included the specific projects of career promotion, governance transfer, and parent-youth relational processes. The findings illustrate the complexity of the transition-to-adulthood process as well as its joint construction by parent and youth. Implications for practice include identifying and following the joint parent--youth transition project. Keywords: parents, youth, transition, adulthood, project

Large-scale European graduate survey data is analyzed to explore whether employment insecurity at labor market entry has a negative impact on parental home leaving and family formation. It shows that it does have a negative impact on leaving the parental home and starting a nuclear household and family.

A reconceptualization of the rarely discussed category of contemporary adulthood is proposed by exploring its social constitution through alternative and complementary perspectives.

The process of gender ideology construction from adolescence to young adulthood is examined. Results concluded that change in ideology during adulthood is more because of gendered experiences and less because of parental function and other background characteristics.

This study examines and extends the confluence model of age identity by testing whether young people's self-perceptions as adults are linked to role transitions, self-assessed personal qualities, and social location. We propose that young people's sense of adulthood and the factors associated with it vary based on socially structured experience tied to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age. Analyzing data from 18-28 year olds in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we find racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status differences in age identity. Consistent with the confluence model, both role transitions and personal qualities are associated with age identity, although the most salient roles and qualities differ somewhat across racial/ethnic groups and consistently by socioeconomic status and age. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the transition to adulthood and adult identity, and for the young people themselves.

This article applies the age-graded theory of informal social control, an influential theory in the field of criminology, to explain continuity and change in the effect of violent family origins on later partner violence. The theory is tested on a sample of married and/or cohabiting men and women from a nationally representative panel study, in other words, the National Youth Survey. Path analysis indicates that among men, commitment to their partner and work during young adulthood mediates the effect of violent family heritage on later partner violence. Thus, these commitments represent the possibility of change for those on violent pathways. Regarding continuity in intergenerational transmission, the effects of adolescent violence on later partner violence are particularly strong for men. Among women, however, such evidence of behavioral continuity and change is limited. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Objective: This study examines whether the adult social roles perspective, an approach that explains drinking behaviors for Anglos, similarly affects alcohol use by Cubans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Other Hispanics (Central and South Americans). Method: The 1993 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, a national probability sample of the household population in the United States, is used. The sample utilized here (N = 13,822; 56.2% female) consisted of 9,388 Anglos, 611 Cubans, 2,459 Mexican Americans, 611 Puerto Ricans and 753 Central/South Americans age 18 and older. The outcome measures include past-year drinking, and for drinkers, heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems. Logistic regression analyses are conducted using Stata. Results: The results show that there are some ethnic differences in the effects of the adult social roles. Of particular importance is the finding that being married has anomalous effects for Cubans (heavy drinking), Mexican Americans (problems) and Other Hispanics (problems) compared with Anglos and the other Hispanic ethnic groups. Conclusions: The adult social roles perspective has some utility for explaining Hispanic drinking patterns. Future research should consider not only traditional predictors of drinking but also such socio-cultural factors as acculturation and familism, to better understand adult alcohol use by members of Hispanic ethnic groups. (J. Stud. Alcohol 62: 745-749, 2001), IN THE PAST TWO DECADES, research has demonstrated that there are variations in drinking patterns among Hispanic ethnic groups (Black and Markides, 1993; Caetano, 1988, 1989; Nielsen, 2000). Despite these [...]

Issues concerning the rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood among the Miskitu people of east Central America are examined. Topics include a masked dance by unmarried young men and women; a psycho-sexual hysteria known as 'grisi siknis' that sometimes affects adolescent girls; and conclusions that, absent ritualistic transitions to adulthood, the passage will take dramatic psychological forms.

Psychologists who study children have emphasized family processes that influence children's psychological well-being and subsequent development, but gerontologists have rarely considered the impact of the family as system in adulthood. Drawing on family systems theories, we show how between- family, within-family, and within-individual differences emerge from family interactions in adulthood. Specifically, we consider how adult behavior might be understood in terms of norms sustained by the larger family system. We present three case studies of adult families to illustrate the ways in which their shared beliefs shape emotional experiences, behavior, and conceptions of self and family in adulthood. The family, as a milieu, continues to exert influence over the day-to-day life of individual members after they are grown.

Survey data from Baoding, China, show that the child's life-course location affects the likelihood of residing with a parent. When parents and grown children co-reside, the child's progress toward full adulthood increases the likelihood that the generations will budget separately. Marriage is the most significant marker of adulthood, but its effects differ for sons and daughters.

Drawing on the work of Judith Butler, I analyse practices through which lifecycle transitions were marked on the bodies of sixteenth-century Aztec children. Because the production of disciplined adults was socially so significant, it was also profoundly conservative. I examine implications of this ethnohistoric study for earlier societies that formed part of a Mesoamerican longue duree. The interpretation of archaeologically excavated material is transformed when related to the life course. Examples discussed include new perspectives on Formative period (c. 1500-400 BC) costume ornaments, conventions of figural representation, and feasting in domestic quarters. Keywords: Aztec; Mesoamerica; gender; childhood; ritual; costume.

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett's essay focused on conceptions of the transition to adulthood in the contemporary American majority culture. He utilized socio-historical and anthropological studies to provide a context for his work. He concluded that individualistic character qualities of accepting responsibility are the main criteria for the transition to adulthood. It was argued that the emerging adults have the responsibility to discover and become themselves and to establish respectability independently and seriously.

Data from the 1986-1987 National Survey of Families and Households suggests that the age and reasons for children leaving the parental home are associated with educational attainment. Children who live with their parents until they are 21 years of age or more, then have a period of residential independence, are more likely to have a higher educational level than those who leave home for marriage or cohabitation. Another association affected 25% of the sample of 6,000. This group, which consists of young people who left the parental home at the age of 17 or 18 to pursue an educational course and did not return, had the highest level of educational attainment.

Every year on college campuses student newspapers run articles on the anticipated postgraduate activities of their seniors. Although the slant of the articles changes from year to year depending on [...]

The question of when adolescence ends and young adulthood begins is considered. Throughout, it is addressed in terms of the theory of broad and narrow socialization, which emphasizes the cultural context of development. The question is approached from cognitive, emotional, and behavioral perspectives, then from the perspective of role transitions (such as marriage and parenthood). The idea of an extended path from adolescence to adulthood is discussed, and the concept of emerging adulthood is presented. It is suggested that in most non-Western cultures the entrance to adulthood is socially defined and marked by a social event, usually marriage. In the contemporary West, however, where there is a strong emphasis on independence and individualism, the entrance to adulthood is defined and marked individually. Consequently, it is likely to be based on the achievement of residential and financial independence as well as on the attainment of cognitive self-sufficiency, emotional self-reliance, and behavioral self-control. Thus in the contemporary West the passage from adolescence to young adulthood is a process that is gradual and may take many years.

This article reports a longitudinal study of the social interaction patterns of college students and adults. Adults (N = 113) from 26 to 31 years old who had participated in similar studies in college kept detailed records of social activity for 2 weeks. Three hypotheses were supported. First, from college to adulthood, opposite-sex socializing grew, whereas same-sex, mixed-sex, and group interactions decreased. Second, intimacy increased in adulthood, whereas satisfaction did not. Contrary to theories that focus on the formation of primary intimate relationships in early adulthood, intimacy increased in all interaction categories. Sex differences in the development of intimacy were also noted. Third, correlations revealed marked consistency over time in several variables. Implications of these findings for social development during early adulthood were examined.

In past decades, the postadolescents (i.e., the young who have not yet entered the labor market or established stable partnership bonds, but have already left the parental home, and as a consequence, are not acknowledged as genuine adults in a social sense) were well known for their relatively libertarian sociopolitical value orientations. The main question in this research is, do contemporary postadolescents still foster these relatively libertarian orientations, despite their experiences with the socioeconomic decline and worsening labor-market prospects in the first half of the 1980s? Analyses of Dutch data revealed, that until the 1980s, postadolescents were more libertarian and more postmaterialistic than their young adult peers who had already entered the labor market and engaged in stable partnership bonds. The difference in postmaterialism, however, appeared not to be resistant to the recent socioeconomic stagnation.

A British birth cohort's experiences of leaving home are analyzed, and comparisons are made with leaving home patterns in the U.S. and Australia. Neither the fact nor the timing of leaving home can be understood without considering the reason for leaving. There are sharp differences between those who leave for education and those who leave to marry. The former leave earlier, come from higher status homes, have better academic records, and are more likely to return. Because, on average, women marry earlier than men, more women leave home by their mid-twenties and fewer return. All three societies show these difference, but the proportions leaving for the different reasons vary. Overall, Americans leave home earliest and are most likely to return. in part because more Americans than Australians or Britons first leave home for school. Observed societal differences are attributed to differences in the educational systems, but variations in youth employment and housing opportunities may also contribute.

Social gerontologists are increasingly concerned about examining the nature of close relationships among the elderly. Theoretically grounded and empirically validated instruments are needed to advance research in this area. We analyzed the psychometric properties of the Social Provisions Scale using data from a probability sample of 494 community residents aged 65 or older. The theoretical foundation of this scale is Weiss's delineation of social support functions of close relationships. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a pattern in the data that corresponds to the theoretical definition of relational provisions: Factor 1 was Intimacy; Factor 2 was Social Integration; Factor 3 was Reassurance of Worth; and Factor 4 was Opportunity for Nurturance. Alphas for the four scales ranged from .83 to .94. Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between the Social Provisions Scale (SPS) and respondent's morale, frequency of contact with friends, feelings of closeness with an adult child, relationship control, and relationship conflict. Discriminant validity was supported by nonsignificant correlations between the SPS and the Eysenck Lie Scale.

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett claimed that transition to adulthood depends on self-responsibility, independence in decision-making and financial independence. He believed that marriage and other comparable markers of transition are no longer applicable. It is argued that marriage is still a sufficient but not necessary criterion for social adulthood. Other criteria such as separate residence and full-time occupation are applicable in much broader terms.

Books and articles diagnosing America's spiritual afflictions often ask the same questions: Can women have it all? Where have all the men gone? Are we bad parents? Why are college [...]

The home leaving pattern of poor adults in United States are examined. Results concluded that poverty is the root cause for this pattern.

A study to assess the level of informal support that young people leaving care could expect from social networks was conducted. Results showed that individual leaving care to start their own lives need continued support to help them overcome the changeover to adulthood and family life.

The criteria necessary and important for an adolescent' s transition to adulthood, from the point of view of both parents and emerging adults are examined. The results show that emerging adults placed greater importance on criteria related to specific role transitions and biological transitions while parents placed greater emphasis on society norms and family capabilities.

The essay condemns economic consumption as the root of social ills, including the failure of individuals to attain true adulthood and self realization.