On the Frontier of Adulthood: Theory, Research, and Public Policy (The John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation Series on Mental Health and Development) - Softcover

On the Frontier of Adulthoodreveals a startling new fact: adulthood no longer begins when adolescence ends. A lengthy period before adulthood, often spanning the twenties and even extending into the thirties, is now devoted to further education, job exploration, experimentation in romantic relationships, and personal development. Pathways into and through adulthood have become much less linear and predictable, and these changes carry tremendous social and cultural significance, especially as institutions and policies aimed at supporting young adults have not kept pace with these changes.

In On the Frontier of Adulthood, Richard A. Settersten Jr., Frank F. Furstenberg Jr., Rubén G. Rumbaut, and a team of distinguished contributors consider the nature and consequences of changes in early adulthood by drawing on a wide variety of historical and contemporary data from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Especially dramatic shifts have occurred in the conventional markers of adulthood-leaving home, finishing school, getting a job, getting married, and having children-and in how these experiences are configured as a set. These accounts reveal how the process of becoming an adult has changed over the past century, what the challenges faced by young people today are, and what societies can do to smooth the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

A dramatic summation of how the structure of early adult life has changed in the last century, On the Frontier of Adulthood will be viewed as the definitive source on the subject for years to come.