Abstract
Public and scholarly interest in early adulthood has increased over the past decade, spurred by the dramatic social and developmental changes young people experience during this period and the consequences of their missteps. The family context – both the family of origin and family of procreation – has emerged as key settings shaping young adults’ success in navigating this period of the life course. While prior research has illuminated relationships between various family contexts and young adult outcomes, the chapters in this volume move the field forward in considering the dynamic interplay between family context, early adult development, and a range of outcomes. In this chapter, we synthesize four emergent themes from this volume: the role of family in pathways to adulthood, cumulative advantage and disadvantage in early adulthood, individual differences in young people’s skills and capacities for negotiating early adulthood, and the role of institutions in shaping early adulthood. We conclude by delineating the remaining gaps in the literature and by offering suggestions for how the field should move forward.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Arbona, C. (2000). The development of academic achievement in school aged children: Precursors of career development. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of counseling psychology (3rd ed., pp. 270–309). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480.
Bloom, J. (2007). (Mis)reading social class in the journey towards college: youth development in urban America. Teachers College Record, 109, 343–368.
Bloom, D. (2010). Programs and policies to assist high school dropouts in the transition to adulthood. The Future of Children, 20, 89–108.
Danziger, S., & Ratner, D. (2010). Labor market outcomes and the transition to adulthood. The Future of Children, 20, 133–158.
Deil-Amen, R., & Rosenbaum, J. E. (2002). The unintended consequences of stigma-free remediation. Sociology of Education, 75, 249–268.
DeNavas-Walt, C., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J. C. (2010). Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States, 2009. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-238. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Destin, M., & Oyserman, D. (2009). From assets to school outcomes: how finances shape children’s perceived possibilities and intentions. Psychological Science, 20(4), 414–418.
DiPrete, T. A., & Eirich, G. M. (2006). Cumulative advantage as a mechanism for inequality: a review of theoretical and empirical developments. Annual Review of Sociology, 32, 271–297.
Elder, G. H., Jr., Wang, L., Spence, N. J., Adkins, D. E., & Brown, T. H. (2010). Pathways to the all-volunteer military. Social Science Quarterly, 91, 455–475.
Fuligni, A. J., Tseng, V., & Lam, M. (1999). Attitudes toward family obligations among American adolescents from Asian, Latin American, and European backgrounds. Child Development, 70, 1030–1044.
Fussell, E., Gauthier, A. H., & Evans, A. (2007). Heterogeneity in the transition to adulthood: the cases of Australia, Canada, and the United States. The European Journal of Population, 23, 389–414.
Geronimus, A. T. (1996). Black/white differences in the relationship of maternal age to birthweight: a population-based test of the Weathering Hypothesis. Social Science Medicine, 42, 589–597.
Geronimus, A. T., Bound, J., & Waidmann, T. A. (1999). Health inequality and population variation in fertility-timing. Social Science & Medicine, 49, 1623–1636.
Gifford, B. (2006). The camouflaged safety net: the armed forces as welfare state institution. Social Politics, 13, 372–399.
Golsch, K. (2003). Employment flexibility in Spain and its impact on the transition to adulthood. Work, Employment, & Society, 17, 691–718.
Hardway, C., & Fuligni, A. J. (2006). Dimensions of family connectedness among adolescents with Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds. Developmental Psychology, 42, 1246–1258.
Harrison, A. O., Wilson, M. N., Pine, C. J., Chan, S. Q., & Buriel, R. (1990). Family ecologies of ethnic minority children. Child Development, 61, 347–362.
Horn, L., & Berger, R. (2004). College persistence on the rise? Changes in 5-year degree completion and postsecondary persistence rates between 1994 and 2000 (NCES 2005–156). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Huebner, B. M. (2005). The effect of incarceration on marriage and work over the life course. Justice Quarterly, 22, 281–303.
Jacob, M., & Weiss, F. (2010). From higher education to work patterns of labor market entry in Germany and the U.S. Higher Education, 60, 529–542.
Kelty, R., Kleykamp, M., & Segal, D. R. (2010). The military and the transition to adulthood. Future of Children, 20, 181–207.
Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2008). Class and the transition to adulthood. In A. Lareau & D. Conley (Eds.), Social class: how does it work? (pp. 118–151). New York: Russell Sage.
Long, M. C. (2010). Changes in the returns to education and college quality. Economics of Education Review, 29, 338–347.
Marini, M. M. (1984). Age and sequencing norms in the transition to adulthood. Social Forces, 63, 229–244.
McDonough, P. M. (1997). Choosing colleges: how social class and schools structure opportunity. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Hill, K. G., & Bailey, J. A. (2010). Men’s and women’s pathways to adulthood and their adolescent precursors. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 1436–1453.
Oppenheimer, V. K., Kalmijn, M., & Lim, N. (1997). Men’s career development and marriage timing during a period of rising inequality. Demography, 34, 311–330.
Oyserman, D., & Destin, M. (2010). Identity-base motivation: implications for intervention. The Counseling Psychologist, 38(7), 1001–1043.
Pager, D. (2003). The mark of a criminal record. American Journal of Sociology, 108, 937–975.
Pettit, B., & Western, B. (2004). Mass imprisonment and the life course: race and class inequality in U.S. incarceration. American Sociological Review, 69, 151–169.
Reynolds, J., Stewart, M., MacDonald, R., & Sischo, L. (2006). Have adolescents become too ambitious? High school seniors’ educational and occupational plans, 1976 to 2000. Social Problems, 53, 186–206.
Romer, D., Duckworth, A. L., Sznitman, S., & Park, S. (2010). Can adolescents learn self-control? Delay of gratification in the control over risk taking. Prevention Science, 11(3), 319–330.
Sandefur, G. D., Eggerling-Boeck, J., & Park, H. (2005). Off to a good start? Postsecondary education and early adult life. In R. A. Settersten Jr., F. F. Furstenberg Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: theory, research, and public policy (pp. 292–319). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schneider, B., & Stevenson, D. (1999). The ambitious generation: America’s teenagers, motivated but directionless. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Settersten, R. A., Jr., & Ray, B. (2010). What’s going on with young people today? The long and twisting path to adulthood. The Future of Children, 20, 19–41.
Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: variabilities and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2010). Digest of education statistics 2009 (NCES 2010–013). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Swartz, T. T. (2009). Intergenerational family relations in adulthood: patterns, variations, and implications in the contemporary United States. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 191–212.
Sweeney, M. M. (2002). Two decades of family change: the shifting economic foundations of marriage. American Sociological Review, 67, 132–147.
Teachman, J. (2007). Military service and educational attainment in the all-volunteer era. Sociology of Education, 80, 359–374.
Teachman, J., & Tedrow, L. (2007). Joining up: did military service in the early all volunteer era affect subsequent civilian income? Social Science Research, 36, 1447–1474.
Thornton, A., Axinn, W. G., & Teachman, J. D. (1995). The influence of school enrollment and accumulation on cohabitation and marriage in early adulthood. American Sociological Review, 60, 762–774.
Tseng, V. (2004). Family interdependence and academic adjustment in college: youth from immigrant and U.S.-born families. Child Development, 75, 966–983.
Uecker, J. E., Regnerus, M. D., & Vaaler, M. L. (2007). Losing my religion: the social sources of religious decline in early adulthood. Social Forces, 85, 1667–1692.
Waller, M. R., & Swisher, R. (2006). Fathers’ risk factors in fragile families: implications for ‘healthy’ relationships and father involvement. Social Problems, 53, 392–420.
White, L., & Rogers, S. J. (2000). Economic circumstances and family outcomes: a review of the 1990s. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 1035–1051.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hardie, J.H., Stanik, C.E. (2012). The Role of Family Context in Early Adulthood: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going. In: Booth, A., Brown, S., Landale, N., Manning, W., McHale, S. (eds) Early Adulthood in a Family Context. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1436-0_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1436-0_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-1435-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-1436-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)