Facing Adulthood

Abstract

Past work in China has revealed that approximately 60% of young people in China consider themselves to be adults. However, no work, prior to this study, has been done examining either the views of Chinese parents regarding their children's adult status or the criteria that Chinese parents use in determining whether or not their children have reached adulthood. Participants included 92 unmarried college students, ages 18 to 25, and at least one of their parents (83 fathers, 84 mothers). Results revealed that (a) the majority of children and their parents did not yet view their children as adults, and (b) there was disagreement between emerging adult children and their parents in the emphasis they placed on various criteria for adulthood. Discussion will focus on how the traditional Chinese notion of "face" may play an important role in the criteria young people and their parents endorse as necessary for adulthood.

North/south differences among Italian emerging adults regarding criteria deemed important for adulthood and life satisfaction

“…On the other hand, males gave more importance to the freedom and allowance of certain habits such as smoking and drinking. As noted previously, because of the competition to complete education and find a job, young men especially may be at risk of a period of emerging adulthood and adulthood filled with problematic behaviors (Nelson, Duan, Padilla-Walker, & Luster, 2013; Wilsnack, Vogeltanz, Wilsnack, & Harris, 2000). Instead, other-related criteria such as norm compliance are more relevant for young women in particular during the age period of emerging adulthood, in which they start to consider the possibility of forming a family sooner than their male counterparts (Cinamon & Rich, 2014).…”

How Do Australian University Students Understand Adulthood?

“…As others have found (Arnett, 1997(Arnett, , 2001Kenyon, Rankin, Koerner, & Dennison, 2007;Nelson, Duan, Padilla-Walker, & Luster, 2012), the majority of our student sample considered themselves to be "adult in some ways but not in others," and the most widely endorsed items from the Criteria for Adulthood Scale were accepting responsibility for the consequences of one's actions and establishing financial independence, both from Arnett's "individualism" subscale. Such findings align with responses from similar samples (Arnett, 1997;Hendry & Kloep, 2007;Kenyon et al, 2007;Nelson & McNamara Barry, 2005).…”

Transition to adulthood of child sexual abuse victims

“…Self-responsibility also means that adults develop adult relationships and social support networks (Sroufe et al, 2005). In line with selfresponsibility, desisting from delinquency is argued to be another important part of role behaviors that define adulthood (Massoglia & Uggen, 2010), with norm compliance being an important criterion for considering someone as an adult (Arnett, 2001;Facio & Micocci, 2003;Nelson, Duan, Padilla-Walker, & Luster, 2013;Nelson et al, 2007): while delinquency occurs relatively often in adolescence (Moffitt, Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, 2001), offending becomes rarer by the late 20s (Massoglia & Uggen, 2010). Finally, becoming a parent is often defined as the final step in the transition to adulthood (Billari, 2001).…”