About the Network

Young adulthood is an overlooked era. Yet the period between ages 18 to 30 is a time of profound change, when young adults acquire the skills and education they need for jobs and careers, when they establish households and relationships, begin families, and begin to contribute to society in meaningful ways.

The Network on Transitions to Adulthood is shedding new light on what it means to become an adult in America.

Established in 2000, the network spent its first five years documenting the significant demographic, economic, cultural, and sociological changes that have occurred in the past 30 years — publishing their findings in a seminal volume, On the Frontiers of Adulthood: Theory, Research, and Public Policy (University of Chicago Press).

Where once youth left home, finished school or training, found a job, married and started a family by their mid-twenties, today young people often do not complete those classic markers of adulthood until their mid-thirties. The reasons for this delay are many, but rising demands for higher education, changing social norms, and our longer lives in general are important reasons for the lengthening span to adulthood. Surprisingly, the cost of housing, education, and debt are not central reasons for the prolonged transition, as the network outlined in its volume, The Price of Independence (Russell Sage Foundation).

Although the implications of this changing landscape are important for all youth, they pose particular challenges for vulnerable populations, who may not have the family supports or who may face other barriers to adulthood — youth in the juvenile justice system, youth in special education, in foster care, or those with mental or physical health barriers. The network examines these groups in depth in their second volume, On Your Own without a Net (University of Chicago Press). It pays particular attention to the policy solutions that could help ensure a more successful transition to adulthood for these groups.

Having documented the economic, demographic, and cultural changes that have occurred, the network is now looking more closely at the developmental implications of this new world for youth.

Major Program Elements

The network currently includes experts in the fields of sociology, criminology, develop-mental psychology, policy/program evaluation, and economics. It also regularly taps experts in related fields, such as ethnography, labor economy, public health, history, and education. The network also participates in an international working group of demographers on the “Transition to Adulthood in Comparative Perspective,” established by the IUSSP.

The network focuses in the following areas:

Education. As jobs become more mobile, less secure, and as brains supplant brawn as the foundation of our economy, education has never been more important—and is a key reason for the extended path to adulthood. For those not attending four-year colleges, the problem is not lack of jobs but lack of good jobs. Community colleges are an important resource for these young persons. The network is evaluating a novel program, Opening Doors in six community colleges across the country. The program seeks to improve the community college experience for nontraditional students and at-risk youth. Early results show that students in the program earned more credits and passed more courses than students in a control group, although effects diminish once the program ends. The network is has also begun an evaluation of a promising program offered by the National Guard (ChalleNGe) to re-engage youth who have dropped out of high school.

Economics. Many have argued that young adults today are “failing to launch” because the cost of housing is high, young people are carrying enormous debt (especially college debt), jobs are in flux, and it is simply too expensive to live on your own. In the Price of Independence, the network finds that these reasons can explain only a small part of the delayed transition. In addition, although one might think that the uncertainty in the job market would leave the young wary and uncertain about their economic futures, network research finds that young adults appear to take it in stride and have adapted to the state of flux.

Marriage and family. One thing is certain, young adults today are delaying marriage much longer than ever before. More young people are living alone than ever before, and more couples are living together before marriage. A distinction, however, is that youth with more education and income are delaying marriage and childbearing, while those with less education and income are delaying marriage but not childbearing.

Civic and Community Participation. The role of civic participation is of particular interest to the network, especially from a developmental perspective. The network is exploring such issues social trust, civic identity, and the role that institutions can play in cultivating civic engagement. Early findings show that young adults today are less interested in conventional and alternative forms of political participation, but they are increasingly drawn to activities in which they are able to serve their communities.

Ethnography. The network documented the changing transition to adulthood using the highest quality surveys and quantitative data available. To look more closely at the developmental aspects of this era requires supplementing that information with in-depth interviews with 500 young adults in five sites across the country. The network commissioned original research and has assembled a personal view of what it is like to come of age in the 21st century, with special attention to the growing diversity and immigrant experience. Two volumes are under way based on this extensive qualitative research. See excerpts from both volumes here: In Their Own Eyes: Young Adults' Views of the Transition.

In the only study of its kind, network researchers have capitalized on the rich interview data collected from students in a New Orleans community college (an Opening Doors site) to study how these low-income parents have coped with the effects of Hurricane Katrina. The research takes a multidisciplinary approach that extends across psychological, sociological, and economic perspectives of emerging adulthood. The study capitalizes on the extensive one-of-a-kind pre-hurricane data that were collected for 492 Opening Doors participants from New Orleans, combined with new quantitative and qualitative data collected this past year. Network members are examining how pre-hurricane resources, capacities, and systems affect the ability to react and successfully adjust to the major life challenges.

Developmental Psychology. The network is identifying emotional and psychological constructs that are unique to this era and are working to create measures of those constructs. Several constructs currently under consideration include authenticity (how one builds a perception of one’s core self in a rapidly shifting landscape), capacity for intimacy, planful competence (having realistic goals given existing conditions), developmental regulation, ethnic identity (how it changes as one moves out into the world), reflective capacity, sense of purpose/meaning/hope, and moral development.

Progress and Plans

The network’s past accomplishments and current plans include:

• Published three volumes analyzing the significant demographic, social, economic, and cultural changes in the process of becoming an adult.
• Developed a descriptive, demographic picture of what life is like for young adults at the turn of the 21st century.
• Commissioned new qualitative data sets to fill out the portrayal of young adulthood established with quantitative data. Two volumes on these findings are under way.
• Fleshed out how economic factors affect the transition to adulthood. See The Price of Independence.

Ongoing work includes:

• Identifying emotional and psychological constructs that are important to adulthood, and creating measures of those constructs; constructs such as planful competence, authenticity, capacity for intimacy; also exploring ethnic identity, social trust, etc.
• Examining the role that institutions can play in connecting youth to civic outlets. The network is analyzing data from the AmeriCorps program, which provides social connections and skill training for vulnerable youth, in addition to serving communities. Both AmeriCorps members and the comparison group represent a rich mix of young adults from diverse backgrounds and the data can be used to explore the developmental opportunities and trajectories of vulnerable populations.
• Disseminating network findings with a content-rich website, regular media outreach, policy briefs, and a mainstream book that synthesizes and extends the network’s research to broader audiences (Random House, forthcoming). In addition, a March 2010 issue of The Future of Children will be devoted to the transition to adulthood. This issue will receive broad policy reach.
• Leveraging the work of others to help build the field. The network has collaborated with such research organizations as Chapin Hall Center for Children (exploring the meaning of adulthood for vulnerable populations of youth, such as those in foster care), and it has seeded new questions in ongoing national surveys, including AddHealth. The questions will ensure that future researchers can continue to study this important developmental period. The network is also drawing on the program evaluation expertise of MDRC to analyze the effectiveness of several programs designed to smooth the transition to adulthood. Several network members have been invited to collaborate with the Spencer Foundation to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars with expertise in the field of youth civic engagement. The network has commissioned several papers, organized panels, and presented findings in a variety of venues.

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