21029 - Rose Series Special Session: The Journey to Adulthood into Uncertain Times

Description

Is the lengthening span of time that young people in the U.S. take to transition into adult roles creating a new generation of “adultolescents”? How has the decades-long reshaping of this critical period of life been complicated by specific historical crises? What does this interplay between long-term trends and short-term shocks mean for the cycle of inequality across American generations? This book answers these timely questions by using a new application of life course theory (the journey perspective) to integrate multiple sources of population and qualitative data. From a historical vantage point, it considers how key aspects of socioeconomic attainment, family-building, and socioemotional development among young adults have evolved since the early 1970s with a particular focus on the potential disruption of the Great Recession of the 2000s. From a developmental vantage point, it maps out the common trajectories that young adults in recent cohorts have taken though these three domains as they moved from their late teens through the mid-twenties. From an experiential vantage point, it explores how young adults have made sense of and gained meaning from the ups and downs of coming of age during the modern era. From a contextual vantage point, it anchors their pathways through this stage of life within the families and communities in which they were born and grew up over many years. The result is a sociological story about gradual versus revolutionary change in the ways that young people become adults, one that grounds the growing social panic about young adults today in a more complicated but less alarming reality. That story identifies the young people who are in need of attention, sheds light on important instances of resilience, and informs the public about a vital segment of the population that continues to perplex, fascinate, and worry.

Sub Unit

• Special Session

Presider

• Aaron Major, University at Albany, SUNY

Panelists

• Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas-Austin

• Shannon Cavanagh, University of Texas-Austin

• Kara Joyner, University of Texas at San Antonio

• Lisa D. Pearce, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Richard A. Settersten, Oregon State University

Session Organizer

• Joanna Dreby, University at Albany, SUNY