30 is the New 20

How many of you have heard the phrase, “When I was your age I already had three kids!” In my family this is a commonly used phrase. My parents married during their senior year of college at the age of 20. They began having kids a couple years later, and by the time they were my age, 27, they had nestled into a small home with three kids. Things have truly changed in today’s world.

When I look back at my early 20’s, here are some things that I remember. Going to college, transferring colleges, moving from one apartment to the next, jumping from one part time job to another, bouncing from one relationship to the next, traveling, and in general enjoying life. I know my parents were enjoying their life in their 20’s too, but in a very different way, and for many different reasons. The simplest way for me to understand these difference is that the world is not the same as it was 30 years ago. Life was more simple back then. There weren’t as many options, and opportunities to explore. It is because of these changes that the theory of emerging adulthood was added to the lifespan, yet before I discuss it in too much detail I’d like to review Erikson’s (1959) psychosocial stages of development to better understand the whole spectrum of development.

In my opinion Erikson’s (1959) hypotheses were revolutionary in the field of human development, during his time. For example, he was one of the first published theorists to extend the theory of development beyond childhood. Erikson was also one of the first theorists to describe development using biological (physical), psychological (mental), and ethological (cultural) factors. In my opinion, his theories opened the door to a more holistic approach to understanding human development and have led the way to more recent developmental theories, including emerging adulthood.

Erikson (1956) described the life course as a series of eight psychosocial stages, extending from birth to death. In each stage Erikson hypothesized that an individual faces a developmental crises consisting of opposite qualities of inherent developmental traits, for example autonomy vs. shame and doubt. He also believed that each developmental crisis must be resolved before fully moving on to the next stage.

During Erikson’s adolescent stage, extending from age 12 to 18, is the stage in which individuals undergo an identity crisis, where they seek to answer the question, “Who am I?” Erikson (1956) stated that, “Identity formation begins where the usefulness of multiple identification ends” (p. 122). Erikson believed that to successfully move on to the next stage, young adulthood, crisis resolution in adolescence must occur. Yet, Erikson’s (1956) theory recognizes that ones’ identity continues to develop through the remaining three adult stages, “While the end of adolescence thus is the stage of an overt identity crisis, identity formation neither begins nor ends with adolescence: it is a lifelong development largely unconscious to the individual and to this society” (p. 122).

During young adulthood, the first of three adulthood stages, Erikson believed that individuals sought the development of intimacy over isolation through companionship and love. He believed hat during this stage individuals seek marriage and starting a family and that all of this occurs during the ages of 18 to 35. According to Erikson’s developmental stages ages from about age 12 to age 35 you are either in the adolescent stage or the young adulthood stage. Yet, what about the period of life, like my early twenties, described above, when individuals have some adult responsibilities yet are still in a stage of exploration. Where did this post adolescent and pre-adulthood age group fit in?

Finally, in 2000 Jeffrey Arnett (2000) proposed that individuals between approximately 18 and 25 years of age are in-between adolescence and adulthood. He referred to this stage as “conceptually, theoretically, and empirically” different from the other two and labeled it “emerging adulthood” (p. 463). Arnett (200) further describes emerging adulthood as “a time of life when many different directions remain possible, when little about the future has been decided for certain, when the scope of independent exploration of life’s possibilities is greater for most people than it will be at any other period of the life course.” (p. 469). Sounds adventurous and optimistic, doesn’t it?

So what changed? Why NOW, do we have this need for a new developmental stage? For decades lifespan development fit Erikson’s stages almost seamlessly. One would spend the majority of their childhood experimenting, exploring, learning one’s limits. During adolescence they would develop a sense of who they are, graduate high school and continue on to college or starting a career, forming intimate relationships along the way. Then straight out of college, they would enter into careers and start families, society followed what Moen (2002) described as the conventional lock step life course, and thus leaving little room in-between adolescence and young adulthood. For my parent’s generation the 20’s were a time for settling into long-term adult roles, living fully in young adulthood.

In today’s global, highly competitive, information seeking society life is no longer as simple as it once was. There are more options during and after college then there were years ago and the emerging adult population takes their time to explore these options. Instead of marriage and child bearing the 20’s has become a time for exploration. Arnett (2000) states that the median age for marriage in 1970 for women was 21 and for men was 23; by 1996 it had risen to 25 for women and 27 for men (as cited by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997). Simply put, settling down occurs at a later age for today’s generation of emerging adults; 30 is the new 20.