The issue of aging has always been important for people during the development of mankind. In different epochs and cultures, this very issue was examined from different perspectives but the essence of it always stayed the same – people can not automatically become adults as soon as they are 21 or more. The main factor determining the status of an adult or a teenager, or a child, is the feeling of a particular person. This means that one who does not feel like a grown-up does not want to make a family, marry, or become a parent. In Asian cultures, the age at marriage is 13 – 14 years, while in the cultures of the Western Civilization this data is much more liberal. In the past young people used to marry and have children at the age of 20 – 21 and this seemed to be an adequate age for making such decisions and for beginning to feel adult (Devadason, 2007).
But nowadays, the issue of adulthood is gradually becoming one of the most important because the borders between adolescence and adulthood are not fixed which leads to the mixture of generations, and to the process when large groups of people can not refer themselves to any of the existing age-groups. Scientists try to explain the phenomenon by giving various definitions and theories, but all these theories touch on one or several aspects of the topic. We consider that only the idea of Dr. Arnett covers properly all the sides of the adulthood issue and explains in detail the causes and effects of the aging phenomenon which transforming in today’s human society. This theory is called “The Theory of the Emerging Adulthood”, and the plot of this theory will be analyzed further in this essay.
In order to avoid any possible ambiguity concerning the terms used in the work, we should at first define the specific phenomena. Firstly, adulthood is a period in a human’s lifespan when maturity in physical and mental regards is attained. It is commonly thought that adulthood is reached at the age of 20 or 21 but nowadays this common idea is being neglected by the events taking place in the modern world. That is why Dr. Arnett has developed his theory of Emerging Adulthood. Emerging adulthood, according to Dr. Arnett’s definition, is a period in a human’s life, between late teens and early or middle twenties (age of 18 – 21/25 years), when a person is no more a teenager, but not yet an adult. Adolescence is in the past but adulthood is not at present. There is no strict parents’ control, but there are also no adult responsibilities, so the person is free in his or her choices and actions but is somehow afraid of this sudden freedom (Arnett, 2001).
The basis of the theory of Emerging Adulthood was taken by the author from the modern processes in the world. Dr. Arnett says that there is “a new and historically unprecedented period of the life course” (Arnett, 4) of young people, which can not be explained by any outside factors and demands only its internal consideration. According to the interviews and polls conducted by the author, there is a tendency in the modern world towards the increase of age at marriage and the age when people start feeling adults and planning families. From the given data we can clearly see that since the time of 1950s up to these days the average age at marriage increased from 22 for men and 20 – 21 for women to 27 for men and 24 for women (Arnett, 2001).
The author of the Emerging Adulthood Theory explains this phenomenon by the change n human psychology caused by the improved living standards of the modern society compared to one of 1950 – 1960ss. Dr. Arnett believes that this changed allowed young people to think less about their future and about the development of their careers and personal lives. Nowadays people can afford prolonged studying which includes four years of courses for the Bachelor’s degree and several years of undergraduate study because they are not pressed for time and can live at their parents’ expense. Youth is also not stable in a job, meaning that work-places are frequently changed because young people are looking for well-paid jobs that would, moreover, let them express their personalities and develop talents. All these factors lead to the phenomenon called by Dr. Arnett “emerging adulthood”, which is the period consisting of a lot of choices, stresses, considerable instability, and great hopes and possibilities. Young people try to take as much from their temporary freedom as possible because they feel relieved from their parents’ control and sure to face the adult duties and responsibilities (Arnett, 2001).
Among other scientists, there are several other theories of the development of adulthood. Such theories can be singled out as Erikson’s one (Theory of Identity Development), the ideas by Loevinger (Ego Development) and Vaillant (Adaptation to Life), as well as Levinson’s theory of Seasons of Adulthood. These theories have many differences but they are united at the point that they do not consider the transitional stage from adolescence to adulthood to be a problem because they view the process of aging as a quite individual process. According to the theory by Erikson, a person’s aging is determined by several factors that include biological, environmental, social, and psychological ones.
Every human being has his/her psychological peculiarities according to which aging takes place for a certain person. Although all people have more or less similar biological features, processes of aging begin at different stages of this or that person’s life and are accompanied by different characteristics. One person can experience early aging because of the influence of a set of the above-mentioned factors combined with his or her biological and psychological peculiarities, while another can feel a child at the age of 30, or be full of energy at old age (Brannen, 2002). Levinson develops the idea that the process of aging is the interaction of certain elements of human life, into which he includes parents, children, spouse, relatives, friends, and all other people with whom a person communicates and who influence, directly or indirectly, the life of this person (Woodward, 2006).
The views by Professor Bjorklund are similar to the above-mentioned theories by Erikson and Levinson, but of course, they have several peculiarities. The author believes that the aging process is a complex phenomenon that is predetermined by such basic things as family, upbringing, cultural and educational background. All events are meaningful for the person’s aging as they have cumulative force, i. e. their experiences from various fortunes and disequilibria during life stay with them and form further attitudes towards other events and things in life. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is one of the disequilibrium periods in a human’s life which are always accompanied by various stresses and states of uncertainty, but this is only a temporary state that will be substituted by another period – the time of stable structured life. For example, when a single person decides to marry a period of disequilibrium begins, because the usual structure of life is being broken, and until the person forms the appropriate structure of his or her new life, this period will last. The issue of the change of the marital age in recent years is explained thus by the fact that more people start feeling uncertain about their future and try to prolong the period when they can make free choices as much as possible (Bjorklund, 2008).
If we look at a specific example of the situation in such a country as New Zealand, we can observe that the issues of aging and the points of marriage and having children are also interconnected in this country. In recent years there has been a tendency for the increase of age at marriage, i. e. the popular European tradition to marry in mature years has reached New Zealand (Dwyer, 2003). In the 1970s men at the first marriage were averagely 21 – 22 years old, and women were at the age of 19 – 20. Nowadays the majority of marriages take place when bride-grooms are 28 – 29, and brides are 27.
The average age of women who give birth to their first children also changed according to the tendency discussed in this work. In the 1970s women usually had children in their early twenties, but 2007 research showed that nowadays women decide to have their first children at the age of 27 – 28 and the average age of women giving birth to children in New Zealand is 30 years (Wyn, 2006). Also, the trend is observed in New Zealand towards the reduction of the number of legal marriages, because more and more young people choose to live together with their spouses as an alternative to marriage. In the year 2007, the number of such couples amounted to one-third of all couples who were about to get married (Poland, 2007). All this shows that the tendency of the “emerging adulthood” is spreading over New Zealand as well as over other countries of the world, and the work by Dr. Arnett can be of considerable help to the people who are dealing with the improvement of the situation.
To make a logical conclusion of this essay, we need to summarize what we have done in it and what results in we have got. Firstly, the theory of Emerging Adulthood by Dr. Arnett has a right for existence because it is proven by numerous specific examples and researches conducted by the author and other scientists. From this work, we found out that today’s youth experiences the process of aging with more difficulties than previous generations did. The stage of transition from adolescence to adulthood is accompanied by a lot of obstacles and stresses caused by uncertainty about the future, but at the same time “emerging adults” have many hopes and more chances to penalize them as they always look for something better.
Works Cited
Arnett, J. J. (2001). Conceptions of the transition to adulthood: Perspectives from adolescence through midlife. Journal of Adult Development, 8(2), 133-143.
Bjorklund, B. R., & Bee, H. L. (2008). The journey of adulthood (6 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Brannen, J., Lewis, S., Nilsen, A., & Smithson, J. (2002). Young Europeans, work and family. London: Routledge.
Devadason, R. (2007). Constructing coherence? Young adults’ pursuit of meaning through multiple transitions between work, education and unemployment. Journal of Youth Studies, 10(2), 203-221.
Dwyer, P., Smith, G., Tyler, D., & Wyn, J. (2003). Life-patterns, career outcomes and adult choices. Melbourne: Australian Youth Research Centre.
Poland, M., Cameron, A., Wong, K., & Fletcher, M. (2007). Moving on: Changes in a year in family living arrangements (Research Report No 2/07). Wellington: Families Commission.
Woodward, L. J., Fergusson, D. M., & Horwood, L. J. (2006). Gender differences in the transition to early parenthood. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 275-294.
Wyn, J., & Woodman, D. (2006). Generation, youth and social change in Australia. Journal of Youth Studies, 9(5), 49.