The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18-29 years: implications for mental health

Jeffrey J Arnett; Rita Žukauskienė; Kazumi Sugimura

doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00080-7

The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18-29 years: implications for mental health

Lancet Psychiatry. 2014 Dec;1(7):569-76. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00080-7. Epub 2014 Dec 3.

Authors

Jeffrey J Arnett¹, Rita Žukauskienė², Kazumi Sugimura³

Affiliations

¹ Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA. Electronic address: arnett@jeffreyarnett.com.
² Institute of Psychology, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
³ Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.

PMID: 26361316
DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00080-7

Abstract

Since 1960 demographic trends towards longer time in education and late age to enter into marriage and of parenthood have led to the rise of a new life stage at ages 18-29 years, now widely known as emerging adulthood in developmental psychology. In this review we present some of the demographics of emerging adulthood in high-income countries with respect to the prevalence of tertiary education and the timing of parenthood. We examine the characteristics of emerging adulthood in several regions (with a focus on mental health implications) including distinctive features of emerging adulthood in the USA, unemployment in Europe, and a shift towards greater individualism in Japan.

Publication types

Review