Emerging and Young Adulthood

This data-rich volume offers new insights into the transitional period between adolescence and adulthood. It analyzes core concepts typically associated with adolescence, such as identity development, emerging sexuality, deepening relationships, and exploration of career choices as individuals age into their twenties and early thirties. Chapters examine the challenges of self-exploration, responsibilities, and independence as this generation approaches adulthood with deliberation in an uncertain world with vastly different perspectives from that of their parents. And in the tradition of its predecessor, the book's first-person excerpts emphasize and illuminate the diversity of the population and its stakeholders, including parents and employers.

Each chapter is updated and revised to reflect the current literature that has evolved since the first edition was published. Additional chapters address two increasingly important areas of interest: the virtual life of the emerging and young adult; and the career-related challenges emerging and young adults encounter in their search for a vocational home. Rich additional narratives serve to elucidate the terrain emerging and young adults encounter as they begin to establish themselves in the world of work and social and romantic relationships.

Key areas of coverage include:

• Identity formation in environmental context
• Culture: opening paths, creating detours
• The "tyranny" of choice: re-examining the prevailing narrative
• Examination of career paths for emerging and young adults
• Emotional and social lives of emerging and young adults
• Overlapping and disparate views of employers

• Mental health issues of emerging and young adults The Second Edition of Emerging andYoung Adulthood is essential reading for researchers, clinicians, therapists and other professionals, and graduate students in developmental, school, and counseling psychology and related social and behavioral sciences.

Auteur

Varda Konstam, Ph.D., Professor Emerita at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, in the Counseling and School Psychology Department, brings range and depth to understanding emerging and young adults. Her extensive teaching, research, and clinical background bring focus to the diverse perspective of the major stakeholders parents, employers, and individuals who are negotiating their 20s as well as those individuals who have newly emerged from this decade. Dr. Konstam weaves a tapestry that is grounded in research, nuanced in capturing the voices of multiple stakeholders, and provides guidance for understanding and navigating new patterns of behavior associated with people in their 20s. She has published more than 30 articles and two books on emerging adults.

Résumé

The most distinctive feature of the Second Edition is its theoretical orientation coupled with a focus on understanding emerging and young adulthood from multiple perspectives. The updated and expanded book offers readers an opportunity to listen to the voices of emerging and young adults, parents, and employers, which is key to understanding this particular developmental period. In addition, the case studies provided throughout the book are diverse and detailed.

The issues of emerging adulthood are complicated, nuanced, and defy easy characterizations. This book provides an opportunity to debunk many established pernicious stereotypes about emerging and young adults. The presentation of diverse voices and case material serves as a springboard for discussion and engages readers with material depicting emerging adults in the throes of working through developmental challenges characteristic of this period. In addition, the recent economic downturn has created havoc and further instability in the lives of emerging and young adults. The Second Edition focuses on the effects of as well as possible solutions to unemployment on emerging and young adults. A new chapter focuses on career experimentation versus career floundering, which is an important distinction. Additional new chapters address the effects of technology as well as depression and anxiety on emerging and young adults.

The Second Edition examines emerging and young adulthood within a larger developmental and ecological context. In addition, it ensures that readers are well positioned to understand how the developmental demands of this period intersect with current economic, social, and political realities. It is a must-have resource for developmental, clinical child and school psychologists, rehabilitation counselors and therapists, I/O psychologists, and sociologists as well as for researchers and graduate-level students across these various disciplines.

Contenu

Chapter 1. Emerging and Young Adults: Introduction.- Chapter 2. Identity.- Chapter 3. Culture: Opening Paths, Creating Detours.- Chapter 4. The Virtual Life Alongside: Technology and the Emerging and Young Adult.- Chapter 5. The Tyranny of Choice: A Reexamination of the Prevailing Narrative.- Chapter 6. Voices of Emerging and Young Adults: In Pursuit of a Career Path.- Chapter 7. Floundering or Experimenting: Finding a Vocational Home.- Chapter 8. Voices of Emerging and Young Adults: From the Professional to the Personal.- Chapter 9. Parental Voices: Adjustment Reactions to Children's Adult Life.- Chapter 10. Voices of Employers: Overlapping and Disparate Views.- Chapter 11. Running on Empty, Running on Full.- Appendix A. Methods.- Appendix B. Emerging and Young Adult Questionnaire.- Appendix C. Parent Questionnaire.- Appendix D. Employer Questionnaire.