Emerging Trends in The Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

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Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

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Social Change and Entry
to Adulthood
JEYLAN T. MORTIMER

Abstract
The effects of social change on the transition to adulthood are manifest in large-scale
societal and institutional changes, alterations in relationships and networks, and
shifts in individual psychological orientations and behaviors. This essay reviews
key foundational work that has established the framework for our understanding
of social change and the transition to adulthood, highlighting Mannheim and
Elder’s theoretical contributions and early empirical studies of age norms, status
attainment, and the timing and sequencing of adult role markers. It then describes
major ongoing programs of research on the movement from school to work,
pathways of transition, familial financial and residential support of transitioning
children, and both adult roles and character traits as sources of adult identity.
Finally, in view of ongoing societal trends, it calls for future studies of inequality and
its implications for the diverging destinies of youth that depend on their social class
origin, race, and gender; shifts in the bases of youth age-related and other identities;
the consequences of social media for transitional dynamics; and the implications
of transitional patterns for young adult health, cross-national comparative studies,
and youth responses to climate change.

INTRODUCTION
Links between social change and entry to adulthood are manifest across
levels of analysis. Historical shifts in institutional structures—in education,
the economy, the polity, religion, the family, and others—affect the social
positions and opportunities available to youth as they transition to adult
roles. Altered social ties, relationships, and networks are embedded within
changing institutional structures; these affect youth’s connection to the
society, their social inclusion or exclusion, and their access to information
and social support. And with these institutional and relational changes
come shifts in individual orientations, attitudes, values, and self-concepts.
As a case in point, consider how the altered institutional structure of the
family has affected family formation (Fussell & Furstenberg, 2005; Modell,
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

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1989). Looking back to mid-twentieth century America, most youth stayed
in the homes of their parents until they became self-supporting and married.
After “going steady” during high school, teens married quickly, forming traditional nuclear families, with men as providers and women as homemakers
or temporary workers until the birth of their first child. Family formation was
thus a relatively straightforward phenomenon.
With the extension of formal education, young people spent longer periods
of time living with peers (e.g., in college dorms or apartments), living alone,
or cohabiting with romantic partners. These arrangements presented new
opportunities for gaining independence and acquiring identities separate
from the family and community of origin. Decline in the “traditional” single
provider family was accompanied by the emergence of new family forms,
especially the dual-provider family, with women increasingly likely to be
remaining employed during their children’s preschool years, and beyond.
Today, there is greater societal acceptance, and growing prevalence, of
alternative arrangements—living alone, single parent families, “child-free”
unions, same sex cohabitation and marriage, transgender life styles, and
so on. All of these choices may present a bewildering array of options for
young people entering adulthood, while at the same time offering manifold
opportunities to enact life styles that were strongly negatively sanctioned
mere decades before (Preves & Mortimer, 2013).
This essay reviews foundational work that established the theoretical and
conceptual framework for subsequent studies of social change and the transition to adulthood, highlights some recent cutting-edge research, and raises
key questions and issues that have heretofore received little attention. The
impacts of social change on the entry to adulthood may be especially consequential for the futures of developing societies in which young people constitute large portions of the population.
FOUNDATIONAL WORK
Current understanding of the consequences of social change for the transition to adulthood is grounded in a series of major intellectual developments
in the latter part of the twentieth century. Neugarten’s pioneering studies
(Hagestad & Neugarten, 1985; Neugarten, Moore, & Lowe, 1965) drew attention to age norms, widely held conceptions about the timing of age-graded
social roles as people move through their lives. There are acceptable ages
for major transitions, “best” ages, and “age deadlines.” Thus, people have a
sense that it right and appropriate at particular ages to marry, to have one’s
first child, to leave home, to complete one’s education, or to retire. Those
who are “off-time” feel “early” or “late” vis-a-vis others in their cohorts and
recognize that negative consequences often follow from a failure to adhere

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to normative schedules. The researchers noted gender and social class differences; with women expected to move through family role sequences at
earlier ages than men, and those of higher social status expected to have later
transitions.
Recognition of the normative structuring of the individual biography gave
rise to questions about the durability of these ideas given social change and
increasing variability in the actual timing of transitional sequences. In more
recent years, Settersten (2003) has documented that age norms continue to
hold, although ranges of acceptability have widened.
At about the same time, researchers at the University of Wisconsin
began to study the status attainment process (Sewell & Hauser, 1975),
elucidating one of the most important transitions in the passage to
adulthood—the movement from school to work. By following the Wisconsin
high school graduating class of 1957 through their transition to adulthood,
the researchers revealed the importance of the family’s socioeconomic status
for their offspring’s educational and occupational attainments; the linkages
between educational attainment, first jobs, and subsequent trajectories of
income and occupational prestige; and the class-linked social psychological
dynamics that foster more or less successful transitions: significant others’
encouragement (parents, teachers, and peers), and the young person’s own
educational and occupational aspirations. These studies highlighted the
importance of earlier life experiences in the family and school for subsequent
attainments in higher education and work. The status attainment research
tradition laid the groundwork for later studies of inter- and intragenerational mobility that continue to address the transition to adulthood and the
attainment process in the face of manifold social change.
Additional foundational work focused directly on historical change. Modell, Furstenberg, and Hershberg (1976) examined the years it took for late
nineteenth and mid-twentieth century cohorts to acquire major adult markers of transition. By 1970, the time it took to depart from the parental home,
marry, and establish one’s own household contracted markedly in comparison to prior cohorts. These findings challenged the common assumption that
more prolonged late twentieth century transitions were new and unique, in
comparison to those earlier in U.S. history. They also suggested that normative standards about the timing of adult role markers are more or less
readily expressed in distinct historical periods. That is, youth who “came of
age” in poor economies, such as those who sought first jobs during the Great
Depression, may have wanted to marry and have children shortly after completing their schooling, but had to delay these transitions if opportunities for
gainful work were not available. In contrast, in the postwar period, young
people entered an expanding job market more conducive to early economic
independence and more rapidly formed their families of procreation. Others

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(Hogan, 1980; Hogan & Astone, 1986; Marini, 1984a, 1984b; Rindfuss, Swicegood, & Rosenfeld, 1987) conducted further ground-breaking studies of the
timing and sequencing of transitions to adulthood. Evidence accumulated
that the prior tripartite organization of lives—with preparatory education,
adult work, and retirement—was giving way to a much more fluid and “disorganized” life course (Buchmann, 1989; Kohli, 1986).
Further understanding of the impacts of changing historical conditions
derives from the theoretical examination by Mannheim (1927) of the youth
stage of the life course. Mannheim contended that young people, at the
cusp of entry to adulthood, are especially responsive to social change—old
enough to be aware of shifting economic, political, and social circumstances,
but young enough to have not yet formed attitudes and behaviors geared
to the previous era. Unlike their elders, youth are not yet tied to behavioral
routines and investments in the status quo, which enhance their psychological and behavioral flexibility. They have greater motivation and time to
participate in political and social movements. In times of rapid change, “generations” form that exhibit distinct and lasting imprints of the experiences
they had when they entered adulthood (Alwin & McCammon, 2003). For
example, those who became adults during conservative or liberal regimes
continue to hold distinctive political views throughout their lives. It is now
common to speak of the “greatest” generation, the “sixties” generation,
the “millennial” generation, and so forth. Mannheim saw successive youth
cohorts as the drivers of social change. As older cohorts die off, younger
ones increasingly take charge and establish a new social order.
Elder (1973, 2003) synthesized these and other (Riley, 1985) intellectual
currents in his exposition of a new theoretical perspective that is the basis
for contemporary thinking about temporality in human lives. Building on
the social structure and personality perspective in social psychology, Elder
recognized the importance of structural location for manifold psychological
orientations and behaviors. However, his central innovation was to call
attention to the temporal dimensions of all phenomena in the purview of
social psychology. That is, societies change through historical time, modifying major institutional structures and the roles that are available within them
for people to enact. Institutional roles take the form of trajectories, punctuated by transitions. Interpersonal relationships likewise exhibit predictable
changes as individuals grow older. Individuals’ progressions through role
trajectories affect the character of their interpersonal relationships and their
mutual influences on one another. Moreover, individual propensities of various kinds—attitudes, values, physical and mental well-being, and typical
behaviors, both normative and deviant—cannot be understood without
considering prior experiences. Psychological orientations themselves have
important temporal dimensions with profound implications for future

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behavioral progressions and accomplishments (Vuolo, Staff, & Mortimer,
2012). Elder enunciated a series of principles (“time and place,” “linked
lives,” “agency,” and others), which succinctly express these insights.
Elder’s large corpus of theoretical and empirical work, particularly his
path-breaking study of the Children of the Great Depression Elder (1974),
has inspired legions of scholars.
These foundational works have laid the groundwork for understanding the
shifting relationships of social change and entry to adulthood. It is clear from
Elder’s conceptualization of the life course that history, individual biography, and identity intersect. That is, any changes affecting the distribution of
roles in key institutional arenas will influence the character of transition to
adulthood.
SOME CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH
Contemporary studies examine the consequences of recent social changes,
such as globalization and the information technology revolution, which have
fostered major alterations in the economy and education in the United States.
Technological innovations and the movement of jobs overseas have led to a
massive decline in the manufacturing sector and diminished job opportunities for youth without postsecondary education. “Good” jobs, with stable
income, health and retirement benefits, and opportunities for advancement
have increasingly been replaced by “bad jobs,” lacking these characteristics
(Kalleberg, 2011; Kalleberg, Reskin, & Hudson, 2000). In consequence, work
careers have become more insecure (Fullerton & Wallace, 2007; Heinz, 2003;
Skaggs & Leicht, 2005), especially for those just entering the labor force.
To avoid “bad jobs,” youth are increasingly seeking higher education
(Reynolds, Stewart, Sischo, & McDonald, 2006; Schneider & Stevenson, 1999),
but many of these young people cannot summon the resources—financial,
intellectual, or social—that would enable them to complete their degrees.
About 40% of contemporary young people who start 4-year college degree
programs do not obtain their degrees in 6 years. Recent research examines
the continuing nexus between youth values and ambitions and subsequent
outcomes (Johnson & Mortimer, 2011) and more and less successful contemporary school-to-work transitions (Mortimer, 2003; Mortimer, Vuolo, Staff,
Wakefield, & Xie, 2008; Staff & Mortimer, 2007; Vuolo, Mortimer, & Staff,
2014). Those who lack postsecondary educational credentials experience
long periods of “floundering” in the labor market. Because economic
independence is difficult to attain under these circumstances, leaving home
and family formation are also likely to be postponed.
Ongoing research also documents contemporary patterns of transition
to adulthood. Although the increasingly individualized character of the

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life course is now widely recognized (Shanahan, 2000), it is also clear that
the acquisition of adult roles is not randomly distributed, nor are there
innumerable ways to enter adulthood (Macmillan & Eliason, 2003). Still,
there remains the task of identifying typical patterns of timing and sequencing, their distinct precursors with respect to prior social backgrounds and
experiences, and their consequences for future life course progressions.
The development of statistical methods for the analysis of categorical
longitudinal data—multilevel latent class models that enable assessment of
configurations of roles at particular times and movements between them
across time—has greatly enhanced the capacity to delineate contemporary
patterns of transition to adulthood.
It is clear from such studies of nationally representative as well as
community-based samples that there is a finite, and rather small number of
typical pathways to adulthood, with clear contours, precursors, and likely
consequences (Bauldry et al., 2012; Eliason, Mortimer, Vuolo, & Tranby,
2007: Osgood, Ruth, Eccles, Jacobs, & Barber, 2005). Youth statuses with
respect to independent residence, education, work, marriage, and parenting
come together in distinct configurations and pathways, some involving
normative “on time” sequences, and others various “off-time” patterns. Not
surprisingly, early child bearers, and particularly those who fail to acquire
other adult roles, have the poorest outcomes (Falci, Mortimer, & Noel, 2010).
Deviance, however, is relinquished as youth enter adult roles (Massoglia
& Uggen, 2010). As studies such as these accumulate, we will gain greater
understanding of variation in the contemporary transition to adulthood by
social class, gender, race/ethnicity/national origin, and region (Corcoran &
Matsudaira, 2005; Fussell & Furstenberg, 2005).
In view of the long and increasingly precarious transition to adulthood,
researchers’ attention has focused on the ways families continue to support
their children well after the typical age of majority. Higher education,
difficulties in locating stable employment, and delays in family formation
lengthen youth’s dependency on parents, economically and emotionally.
Great inequalities between families, however, heighten resources available to
advantaged youth, while poorer families may have little to offer. Researchers
have examined families’ monetary contributions to their young adult offspring, patterns of coresidence (and the “boomerang” phenomenon), and
mutual aid; as well as the implications of these family supports for offspring
psychological well-being and attainment (Fingerman, Cheng, Tighe, Birditt,
& Zarit, 2012; Johnson & Benson, 2012). Families across the board contribute
to young adult children in the third decade of life—about 10% of their
incomes, or very different real amounts for youth in different income
brackets (Schoeni & Ross, 2005). Parental support is especially likely when
children face difficulties (such as unemployment, negative life events);

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aid subsides when children successfully acquire the markers of adulthood
(marriage and parenthood) and gain increasing income (Swartz, Kim, Uno,
Mortimer, & O’Brien, 2011).
Another major focus of recent research examines the acquisition of an identity as an adult (Cote, 2000). If today’s youth are taking longer than prior
cohorts to acquire the full complement of adult roles, and if they occupy
mixes of adult and preadult statuses for long periods of time (for example, a
married student or a mother who lives with child in her family of origin), then
how do they think of themselves? At what point do they firmly acquire the
age-graded identity as an adult? A lively controversy surrounds this question, with developmental psychologists siding with Arnett’s (2004) proposal
that young people in the third decade of life are “emerging adults,” who
take on an adult identity when they acquire character traits such as independence and responsibility. These traits come to mind most readily when
youth are asked to define what it means to be an adult. In contrast, sociologists have investigated the associations between actually thinking of oneself
as an adult and the expression of adult identity, finding that family formation,
and particularly parenthood, is a key predictor (Shanahan, Porfeli, Mortimer,
& Erickson, 2005). It is clear, however, that character traits and adult role
marker acquisition are not independent phenomena, as the latter involve taking responsibility for the self as well as others (Hartmann & Swartz, 2007).
The ages at which such roles are acquired, and the assumption of adult identities varies by social class, race/ethnicity, and family structure (Benson &
Johnson, 2009; Johnson, Berg, & Sirotzki, 2007).
KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
“Futurists” often extrapolate from existing trends, and we can do this as well
in contemplating what questions and directions for research will be fruitful
in the coming years. We might ask, what will be the consequences of social
change for entry to adulthood, if present trends continue (Shanahan, Mortimer, & Krueger, 2002)? That is, if globalization and economic competition
intensify, and technological change accelerates, what might be the consequences for youth in passage to adulthood?
How might growing cleavages within the society produce new patterns of transition to adulthood, in response to societal change? With
increasing inequality, we already are seeing growing class and racial
divides—“diverging destinies” as individuals approach the transition to
adulthood (Corcoran & Matsudaira, 2005; Mortimer, 2008). If income, and
especially wealth, is increasingly concentrated at the top, the distance
between the wealthiest and the middle socioeconomic sectors will grow.
It will be important in the future to continue to monitor the consequences

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of such inequality for transitioning adults (Furstenberg, 2006; Swartz,
2008). Will family resources buffer the impacts of adverse social changes,
particularly turbulence in the economy, making it possible for youth from
the wealthiest families to continue to build the human, social, and cultural
capital that yields greatest advantages in acquiring the markers of adulthood
and higher socioeconomic attainment? More attention needs to be directed
to the needs of especially vulnerable populations (e.g., the mentally and
physically disabled, youth in foster care), as the social safety net continues
to erode (Osgood, Foster, Flanagan, & Ruth, 2005).
As women have now outstripped men in educational attainment, they are
making substantial inroads in occupations previously closed to them, but still
suffer from “motherhood wage penalties” (Staff & Mortimer, 2012) and lower
earnings. As more highly educated women move through their careers, will
gender differentials in earnings and occupational attainments erode? Might
we see gender convergence along with class divergence in early adult socioeconomic outcomes (Fussell & Furstenberg, 2005)?
The increasingly variable character of transitions, for example, movements from school to work and back again to school, changes in marital
and living arrangements, and, will likely make it increasingly difficult to
ascertain when “adulthood” has been reached. It is important to continue to
examine the sources of adult identity. Will the widely recognized markers
of adulthood–the “big five” studied by sociologists (leaving home, finishing
school, stable work, marriage/cohabitation, and parenthood)—have the
same resonance in the future? In view of the transitory character of these
role markers, might there be increasingly widespread rejection of such
designations as a basis of identity?
Researchers might also fruitfully investigate how other identities shift
during the transition to adulthood. Which will be the most salient to future
cohorts of young people? A strong worker or “career” identity may become
increasing rare as long-term careers become ever more scarce. Given that
role identities are placed in hierarchies of importance in accordance with
their connection to social relationships and their capacity to enhance the self,
we might expect that nonwork arenas (family, friendship, hobbies, aesthetic
expression, volunteerism, religious pursuits, and other extra-vocational
activities) will assume ever greater salience (Mortimer, Lam, & Lee, (Forthcoming)). In view of diminishing prospects for socioeconomic attainment,
materialism may recede as a source of status and identity in broad segments
of youth. However, those who are the most advantaged, who are moving
into positions having the most upward mobility potential, wealth and
status gains, may continue to have strong work identities and conventional
orientations to success.

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Furthermore, researchers should give greater attention to the implications
of youth social media (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) for identity development, attitude formation, and political behavior. Technological innovations (e.g., telecommuting, teleconferencing, social networking, and on-line
college courses) diminish the importance of physical place as a constraint
on opportunities. Young adults’ choice of residence is less constrained by
educational institutions, work locations, medical venues, recreation facilities, and so on. In the social realm, individuals form virtual communities
and networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) in the absence of physical
proximity. All of these changes affect the range and character of choices and
opportunities for young people.
Will youth increasingly look to one another, rather than to the mass media,
political leaders, or other institutional representatives for their opinions?
Apparently, “tweets” peaked during the recent Presidential debates, as
youth exchanged their reactions. Such instant communications may also
increasingly provide guidance during times of uncertainty and turmoil.
Much speculation and commentary has surrounded the negative potentials
of the relatively new, “mediated” or “virtual” relationships. Commentators
worry about whether youth may be squandering opportunities to develop
social skills for face-to-face encounters, and whether young people may
be exposing themselves to potential harm (sexual predators). Very little is
known, however, about how social media may be facilitating, or hindering, successful transitions to adulthood. Through their virtual networks,
youth may expand their exposure to alternative points of view, widening
their horizons, or restrict their communications to others like themselves
(Lefkowitz, Vukman, & Loken, 2012). Might the virtual community of
friends and followers constitute a broader band of potential consultants
(that is, extending beyond immediate family and close friends), providing
relevant information about potential employers to youthful job-seekers,
guidance regarding how to conduct oneself at an interview and negotiate
employment contracts, or how to break off intimate relationships with the
least emotional damage to each party.
What consequences does the increasingly individualized and precarious
transition to adulthood have for youth health trajectories? Does the timing
and sequencing of the acquisition of adult role markers have consequences
for health over and above the effects of particular end states? Do normatively sequenced transitions, e.g., leaving home, finishing education, obtaining a stable full-time job, marrying, and having children, have more positive
effects on adult health than more “disorderly” transitions, even when final
educational attainment, for example, is the same? How does genetic propensity interact with environmental stressors and challenges to yield distinct
outcomes of transition to adulthood (Shanahan & Hofer, 2011)? Increasing

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understanding of such gene-environmental interactions may make it possible to alter negative genetic expression through well-designed environmental interventions.
Understanding the full implications of social change for entry to adulthood must draw our attention beyond the boundaries of any one country,
given major variation in institutional bridges from adolescence to adulthood
(Kerckhoff, 2002; Mortimer & Krueger, 2000; Mortimer, Oesterle, & Krueger,
2005) and likely responses to social change. For example, globalization has
affected the institutional structures of the United States and most other countries. As competition for capital, labor, and markets extends across countries, work becomes increasingly precarious, with declining commitment of
employer to employee. Similarly, developments in information technology
permit instant dissemination of knowledge, affecting the delivery of higher
education, and the transfer of jobs and economic processes around the world.
Globalization increases youth’s ease of movement across national boundaries, to become educated, or to seek work (Schoon & Silbereisen, 2009). To
fully understand these transitions, researchers need to compare data across
countries.
Finally, let us turn to a question that has received virtually no attention
in the literature to date. How will the wide range of highly likely social
changes, attendant on climate change, affect future generations of youth as
they enter adulthood ? Climate scientists predict that intensifying warming
of the planet will cause more frequent severe weather events, droughts in
many parts of the world, severe water shortages, and so on, that will, in
turn, lead to massive migrations of populations as the most basic resources
that support human life diminish in many places. Wars over declining
resources are also likely to occur. Such changes will disrupt the passage to
adulthood for many youth, especially in the global South. Youth constitute
the age group that is often the most able, and willing, to migrate and that
becomes soldiers in war, voluntarily or not. Massive population movements
will likely disrupt the acquisition of the traditional markers of adulthood,
as migrant populations of youth have difficulty assimilating into new
societies.
Growing proportions of the world youth population may find it difficult
to see ahead, to envision stable life courses for themselves and future
generations. Failure of governments to act may lead to exacerbated decline
in confidence in, and disconnection from, societal institutions (Smith, 2005).
Will there be value shifts among young people as it becomes increasingly
evident that the planet’s capacity to support human and other life forms is
eroding—for example, shifts in values regarding economic growth, population size, energy conservation, life style changes, and living arrangements.
Will youth be attracted to social movements advocating the use of alternative

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energy sources and altering life styles to reverse the extant environmental
trends, or, in contrast, will they increasingly acknowledge dystopian futures,
assume a fatalistic stance, and turn inward for immediate gratifications?
Youth entering adulthood will likely be in the vanguard of all of these
trends.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Consideration of social change and entry to adulthood involves phenomena at multiple levels of analysis—encompassing large-scale societal
and institutional structures, networks, interpersonal relationships, and
individual orientations. So too do we need a host of methodologies to
address the relationships between them. Large, nationally representative,
longitudinal studies, such as the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, the
Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and others, are needed to continue to
monitor national trends in pathways to adulthood. At the same time, ethnographic and interview studies, preferably also longitudinal, are needed
to chart the reverberations of large-scale societal changes in individual
values, attitudes, and behaviors. Only through face-to-face interviews and
ethnographic observations will research reveal the full psychological scope
of social change, affecting shifts in world views, work orientations, and
identities. The wide scope of relevant phenomena thus calls for multidisciplinary research teams, including sociologists, economists, geneticists,
social psychologists, and psychologists. Large-scale longitudinal studies are
expensive, often requiring the collaboration of multiple federal agencies, but
well worth the continued investment.
Social change not only renders the transition to adulthood more complex
and often precarious but also provides more choices and options. Highly
advantaged young people (Furstenberg, 2006) have many resources, which
enable them to acquire the human, social, economic, and cultural forms of
capital that allow them to succeed in the new institutional landscape. Those
with fewer resources and less access to the new technologies, educational
and work opportunities may become confused, floundering through various forms of postsecondary education and jobs. The truly disadvantaged
(Wilson, 1987), whose families do not provide role models of success in the
occupational sphere, who lack even a high school education, and especially
if they have gotten in trouble with the law, may be entirely excluded from
conventional adult roles. To understand variation in the transition to adulthood in an era of increasingly rapid social change, researchers must continue
to monitor institutional shifts, relational changes, and individual psychological orientations, linked to socioeconomic strata within countries and subject
to variation across national boundaries.

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Kalleberg, A. (2011). Good jobs, bad jobs. The rise of polarized and precarious employment
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Mannheim, K. (1952, 1927). The problem of generations. In P. Kecskemeti (Ed.), Essays
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Marini, M. M. (1984a). The order of events in the transition to adulthood. Sociology of
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Marini, M. M. (1984b). Age and sequencing norms in the transition to adulthood.
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Massoglia, M., & Uggen, C. (2010). Settling down and aging out: Toward an interactionist theory of desistance and the transition to adulthood. American Journal of
Sociology, 116, 543–582.
Modell, J. (1989). Into one’s own: From youth to adulthood, 1920–1975. Berkeley, CA:
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Modell, J., Furstenberg, F. F., Jr., & Hershberg, T. (1976). Social change and the transition to adulthood in historical perspective. Journal of Family History, 1, 7–32.
Mortimer, J. T. (2003). Working and growing up in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
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Mortimer, J. T. (Ed.) (2008). Social class and transitions to adulthood. New Directions
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Mortimer, J. T., & Krueger, H. (2000). Pathways from school to work in Germany and
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Mortimer, J. T., Lam, J., & Lee, S.-R. (Forthcoming). Transformation, erosion or disparity in work identity? Challenges during the contemporary transition to adulthood. In K. C. McLean & M. Syed (Eds.), Handbook of identity development. New
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Mortimer, J. T., Oesterle, S., & Krueger, H. (2005). Age norms, institutional structures, and the timing of markers of transition to adulthood. Advances in Life Course
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Mortimer, J. T., Vuolo, M. C., Staff, J., Wakefield, S., & Xie, W. (2008). Tracing the timing of ‘career’ acquisition in a contemporary youth cohort. Work and Occupations,
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Osgood, D. W., Foster, E. M., Flanagan, C., & Ruth, G. R. (Eds.) (2005). On your own
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Osgood, D. W., Ruth, G., Eccles, J. S., Jacobs, J. E., & Barber, B. L. (2005). Six paths
to adulthood. Fast starters, Parents without careers, educated partners, educated
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Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public
policy (pp. 320–355). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Preves, S., & Mortimer, J. T. (2013). Socialization for primary, intimate, and work relationships in the adult life course. In J. Delamater (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology
(2nd ed., pp. 151–190). New York, NY: Springer.

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Reynolds, J., Stewart, M., Sischo, L., & McDonald, R. (2006). Have adolescents
become too ambitious? High school seniors’ educational and occupational plans,
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Handbook of aging and the social sciences. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company.
Rindfuss, R. R., Swicegood, C. G., & Rosenfeld, R. A. (1987). Disorder in the life
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Schneider, B., & Stevenson, D. (1999). The ambitious generation. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Schoeni, R. F., & Ross, K. E. (2005). Material assistance from families during the transition to adulthood. In R. A. Settersten, F. F. Furstenberg & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.),
On the frontier of adulthood. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Schoon, I., & Silbereisen, R. K. (Eds.) (2009). Transitions from school to work: Globalisation, individualization, and patterns of diversity. London, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Settersten, R. A., Jr. (2003). Age structuring and the rhythm of the life course. In J.
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Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and
mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
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identity and the transition to adulthood: When do adolescents become adults?.
In R. A. Settersten, F. F. Furstenberg Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of
adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 225–255). Chicago, IL: University
of Chicago Press.
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A professional autonomy perspective. In L. A. Keister (Ed.), Research in the sociology
of work (pp. 123–149). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
Smith, T. W. (2005). Generation gaps in attitudes and values from the 1970s to the
1990s. In R. A. Settersten, F. F. Furstenberg Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the
frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 177–221). Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
Staff, J., & Mortimer, J. T. (2007). Educational and work strategies from adolescence
to early adulthood: Consequences for educational attainment. Social Forces, 85,
1169–1194.

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Staff, J., & Mortimer, J. T. (2012). Explaining the motherhood wage penalty. Demography, 49, 1–21.
Swartz, T. T. (2008). Family capital and the invisible transfer of privilege: Intergenerational support and social class in early adulthood. New Directions for Child and
Adolescent Development, 119, 11–24.
Swartz, T. T., Kim, M., Uno, M., Mortimer, J. T., & O’Brien, K. B. (2011). Safety nets
and scaffolds: Parental support in the transition to adulthood. Journal of Marriage
and Family, 73, 414–429.
Vuolo, M., Mortimer, J. T., & Staff, J. (2014). Adolescent precursors of pathways from
school to work. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24, 145–162.
Vuolo, M., Staff, J., & Mortimer, J. T. (2012). Weathering the great recession: Psychological and behavioral trajectories in the transition from school to work. Developmental Psychology, 48, 1759–1773.
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public
policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

FURTHER READING
Booth, A., Brown, S. L., Landale, N. S., Manning, W. D., & McHale, S. M. (Eds.) (2012).
Early adulthood in a family context. New York, NY: Springer.
Settersten, R. A., & Furstenberg, F. F., Jr. (2005). In R. G. Rumbaut (Ed.), On the frontier
of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press.
Settersten, R. A., Jr., & Ray, B. (2010). Not quite adults: Why 20-somethings are choosing
a slower path to adulthood, and why it’s good for everyone. New York, NY: Random
House.
Shanahan, M. J., & Macmillan, R. (2008). Biography and the sociological imagination:
Contexts and contingencies. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

JEYLAN T. MORTIMER SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Jeylan T. Mortimer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota
and Principal Investigator of the Youth Development Study. She teaches and
conducts research in the areas of work and socioeconomic attainment, the life
course, youth and transition to adulthood, and social psychology. Her books
include Classic and Contemporary Perspectives in Social Psychology with Sharon
Preves (Oxford, 2011), Working and Growing Up in America (Harvard University Press, 2003), the Handbook of the Life Course, coedited with Michael Shanahan (Springer, 2003), Arenas of Comfort in Adolescence, with Kathleen Call
(Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001), and Adolescents, Work and Family, coedited with
Michael Finch (Sage, 1996). Her recent articles appear in Social Psychology
Quarterly, Social Forces, the Journal of Marriage and the Family, Society and Mental Health, Developmental Psychology, and Demography. Her current research

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

17

examines the effects of parental trajectories from adolescence through early
adulthood on the achievement orientations and well-being of their children.
Web site: http://www.soc.umn.edu/people/mortimer_j.html
RELATED ESSAYS
Learning Across the Life Course (Sociology), Jutta Allmendinger and Marcel
Helbig
Sibling Relationships and Development (Psychology), Nicole Campione-Barr
and Sarah Killoren
Genetics and the Life Course (Sociology), Evan Charney
Patterns of Attachment across the Lifespan (Psychology), Robyn Fivush and
Theodore E. A. Waters
Immigrant Children and the Transition to Adulthood (Sociology), Roberto G.
Gonzales and Benjamin J. Roth
Family Relationships and Development (Psychology), Joan E. Grusec
An Evolutionary Perspective on Developmental Plasticity (Psychology),
Sarah Hartman and Jay Belsky
Biology and Culture (Psychology), Robert Peter Hobson
Lifecourse and Aging (Anthropology), Haim Hazan
Maternal and Paternal Employment across the Life Course (Sociology),
Michaela Kreyenfeld
Longitudinal Data Analysis (Methods), Todd D. Little et al.
Limits to Human Longevity (Sociology), Samuel H. Preston and Hiram
Beltrán-Sánchez
Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View (Sociology), Ingrid Schoon
Modeling Life Course Structure: The Triple Helix (Sociology), Tom Schuller
DNA Revolution and the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Psychology), Maciej
Trzaskowski and Robert Plomin



Social Change and Entry
to Adulthood
JEYLAN T. MORTIMER

Abstract
The effects of social change on the transition to adulthood are manifest in large-scale
societal and institutional changes, alterations in relationships and networks, and
shifts in individual psychological orientations and behaviors. This essay reviews
key foundational work that has established the framework for our understanding
of social change and the transition to adulthood, highlighting Mannheim and
Elder’s theoretical contributions and early empirical studies of age norms, status
attainment, and the timing and sequencing of adult role markers. It then describes
major ongoing programs of research on the movement from school to work,
pathways of transition, familial financial and residential support of transitioning
children, and both adult roles and character traits as sources of adult identity.
Finally, in view of ongoing societal trends, it calls for future studies of inequality and
its implications for the diverging destinies of youth that depend on their social class
origin, race, and gender; shifts in the bases of youth age-related and other identities;
the consequences of social media for transitional dynamics; and the implications
of transitional patterns for young adult health, cross-national comparative studies,
and youth responses to climate change.

INTRODUCTION
Links between social change and entry to adulthood are manifest across
levels of analysis. Historical shifts in institutional structures—in education,
the economy, the polity, religion, the family, and others—affect the social
positions and opportunities available to youth as they transition to adult
roles. Altered social ties, relationships, and networks are embedded within
changing institutional structures; these affect youth’s connection to the
society, their social inclusion or exclusion, and their access to information
and social support. And with these institutional and relational changes
come shifts in individual orientations, attitudes, values, and self-concepts.
As a case in point, consider how the altered institutional structure of the
family has affected family formation (Fussell & Furstenberg, 2005; Modell,
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

1

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

1989). Looking back to mid-twentieth century America, most youth stayed
in the homes of their parents until they became self-supporting and married.
After “going steady” during high school, teens married quickly, forming traditional nuclear families, with men as providers and women as homemakers
or temporary workers until the birth of their first child. Family formation was
thus a relatively straightforward phenomenon.
With the extension of formal education, young people spent longer periods
of time living with peers (e.g., in college dorms or apartments), living alone,
or cohabiting with romantic partners. These arrangements presented new
opportunities for gaining independence and acquiring identities separate
from the family and community of origin. Decline in the “traditional” single
provider family was accompanied by the emergence of new family forms,
especially the dual-provider family, with women increasingly likely to be
remaining employed during their children’s preschool years, and beyond.
Today, there is greater societal acceptance, and growing prevalence, of
alternative arrangements—living alone, single parent families, “child-free”
unions, same sex cohabitation and marriage, transgender life styles, and
so on. All of these choices may present a bewildering array of options for
young people entering adulthood, while at the same time offering manifold
opportunities to enact life styles that were strongly negatively sanctioned
mere decades before (Preves & Mortimer, 2013).
This essay reviews foundational work that established the theoretical and
conceptual framework for subsequent studies of social change and the transition to adulthood, highlights some recent cutting-edge research, and raises
key questions and issues that have heretofore received little attention. The
impacts of social change on the entry to adulthood may be especially consequential for the futures of developing societies in which young people constitute large portions of the population.
FOUNDATIONAL WORK
Current understanding of the consequences of social change for the transition to adulthood is grounded in a series of major intellectual developments
in the latter part of the twentieth century. Neugarten’s pioneering studies
(Hagestad & Neugarten, 1985; Neugarten, Moore, & Lowe, 1965) drew attention to age norms, widely held conceptions about the timing of age-graded
social roles as people move through their lives. There are acceptable ages
for major transitions, “best” ages, and “age deadlines.” Thus, people have a
sense that it right and appropriate at particular ages to marry, to have one’s
first child, to leave home, to complete one’s education, or to retire. Those
who are “off-time” feel “early” or “late” vis-a-vis others in their cohorts and
recognize that negative consequences often follow from a failure to adhere

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

3

to normative schedules. The researchers noted gender and social class differences; with women expected to move through family role sequences at
earlier ages than men, and those of higher social status expected to have later
transitions.
Recognition of the normative structuring of the individual biography gave
rise to questions about the durability of these ideas given social change and
increasing variability in the actual timing of transitional sequences. In more
recent years, Settersten (2003) has documented that age norms continue to
hold, although ranges of acceptability have widened.
At about the same time, researchers at the University of Wisconsin
began to study the status attainment process (Sewell & Hauser, 1975),
elucidating one of the most important transitions in the passage to
adulthood—the movement from school to work. By following the Wisconsin
high school graduating class of 1957 through their transition to adulthood,
the researchers revealed the importance of the family’s socioeconomic status
for their offspring’s educational and occupational attainments; the linkages
between educational attainment, first jobs, and subsequent trajectories of
income and occupational prestige; and the class-linked social psychological
dynamics that foster more or less successful transitions: significant others’
encouragement (parents, teachers, and peers), and the young person’s own
educational and occupational aspirations. These studies highlighted the
importance of earlier life experiences in the family and school for subsequent
attainments in higher education and work. The status attainment research
tradition laid the groundwork for later studies of inter- and intragenerational mobility that continue to address the transition to adulthood and the
attainment process in the face of manifold social change.
Additional foundational work focused directly on historical change. Modell, Furstenberg, and Hershberg (1976) examined the years it took for late
nineteenth and mid-twentieth century cohorts to acquire major adult markers of transition. By 1970, the time it took to depart from the parental home,
marry, and establish one’s own household contracted markedly in comparison to prior cohorts. These findings challenged the common assumption that
more prolonged late twentieth century transitions were new and unique, in
comparison to those earlier in U.S. history. They also suggested that normative standards about the timing of adult role markers are more or less
readily expressed in distinct historical periods. That is, youth who “came of
age” in poor economies, such as those who sought first jobs during the Great
Depression, may have wanted to marry and have children shortly after completing their schooling, but had to delay these transitions if opportunities for
gainful work were not available. In contrast, in the postwar period, young
people entered an expanding job market more conducive to early economic
independence and more rapidly formed their families of procreation. Others

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(Hogan, 1980; Hogan & Astone, 1986; Marini, 1984a, 1984b; Rindfuss, Swicegood, & Rosenfeld, 1987) conducted further ground-breaking studies of the
timing and sequencing of transitions to adulthood. Evidence accumulated
that the prior tripartite organization of lives—with preparatory education,
adult work, and retirement—was giving way to a much more fluid and “disorganized” life course (Buchmann, 1989; Kohli, 1986).
Further understanding of the impacts of changing historical conditions
derives from the theoretical examination by Mannheim (1927) of the youth
stage of the life course. Mannheim contended that young people, at the
cusp of entry to adulthood, are especially responsive to social change—old
enough to be aware of shifting economic, political, and social circumstances,
but young enough to have not yet formed attitudes and behaviors geared
to the previous era. Unlike their elders, youth are not yet tied to behavioral
routines and investments in the status quo, which enhance their psychological and behavioral flexibility. They have greater motivation and time to
participate in political and social movements. In times of rapid change, “generations” form that exhibit distinct and lasting imprints of the experiences
they had when they entered adulthood (Alwin & McCammon, 2003). For
example, those who became adults during conservative or liberal regimes
continue to hold distinctive political views throughout their lives. It is now
common to speak of the “greatest” generation, the “sixties” generation,
the “millennial” generation, and so forth. Mannheim saw successive youth
cohorts as the drivers of social change. As older cohorts die off, younger
ones increasingly take charge and establish a new social order.
Elder (1973, 2003) synthesized these and other (Riley, 1985) intellectual
currents in his exposition of a new theoretical perspective that is the basis
for contemporary thinking about temporality in human lives. Building on
the social structure and personality perspective in social psychology, Elder
recognized the importance of structural location for manifold psychological
orientations and behaviors. However, his central innovation was to call
attention to the temporal dimensions of all phenomena in the purview of
social psychology. That is, societies change through historical time, modifying major institutional structures and the roles that are available within them
for people to enact. Institutional roles take the form of trajectories, punctuated by transitions. Interpersonal relationships likewise exhibit predictable
changes as individuals grow older. Individuals’ progressions through role
trajectories affect the character of their interpersonal relationships and their
mutual influences on one another. Moreover, individual propensities of various kinds—attitudes, values, physical and mental well-being, and typical
behaviors, both normative and deviant—cannot be understood without
considering prior experiences. Psychological orientations themselves have
important temporal dimensions with profound implications for future

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

5

behavioral progressions and accomplishments (Vuolo, Staff, & Mortimer,
2012). Elder enunciated a series of principles (“time and place,” “linked
lives,” “agency,” and others), which succinctly express these insights.
Elder’s large corpus of theoretical and empirical work, particularly his
path-breaking study of the Children of the Great Depression Elder (1974),
has inspired legions of scholars.
These foundational works have laid the groundwork for understanding the
shifting relationships of social change and entry to adulthood. It is clear from
Elder’s conceptualization of the life course that history, individual biography, and identity intersect. That is, any changes affecting the distribution of
roles in key institutional arenas will influence the character of transition to
adulthood.
SOME CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH
Contemporary studies examine the consequences of recent social changes,
such as globalization and the information technology revolution, which have
fostered major alterations in the economy and education in the United States.
Technological innovations and the movement of jobs overseas have led to a
massive decline in the manufacturing sector and diminished job opportunities for youth without postsecondary education. “Good” jobs, with stable
income, health and retirement benefits, and opportunities for advancement
have increasingly been replaced by “bad jobs,” lacking these characteristics
(Kalleberg, 2011; Kalleberg, Reskin, & Hudson, 2000). In consequence, work
careers have become more insecure (Fullerton & Wallace, 2007; Heinz, 2003;
Skaggs & Leicht, 2005), especially for those just entering the labor force.
To avoid “bad jobs,” youth are increasingly seeking higher education
(Reynolds, Stewart, Sischo, & McDonald, 2006; Schneider & Stevenson, 1999),
but many of these young people cannot summon the resources—financial,
intellectual, or social—that would enable them to complete their degrees.
About 40% of contemporary young people who start 4-year college degree
programs do not obtain their degrees in 6 years. Recent research examines
the continuing nexus between youth values and ambitions and subsequent
outcomes (Johnson & Mortimer, 2011) and more and less successful contemporary school-to-work transitions (Mortimer, 2003; Mortimer, Vuolo, Staff,
Wakefield, & Xie, 2008; Staff & Mortimer, 2007; Vuolo, Mortimer, & Staff,
2014). Those who lack postsecondary educational credentials experience
long periods of “floundering” in the labor market. Because economic
independence is difficult to attain under these circumstances, leaving home
and family formation are also likely to be postponed.
Ongoing research also documents contemporary patterns of transition
to adulthood. Although the increasingly individualized character of the

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life course is now widely recognized (Shanahan, 2000), it is also clear that
the acquisition of adult roles is not randomly distributed, nor are there
innumerable ways to enter adulthood (Macmillan & Eliason, 2003). Still,
there remains the task of identifying typical patterns of timing and sequencing, their distinct precursors with respect to prior social backgrounds and
experiences, and their consequences for future life course progressions.
The development of statistical methods for the analysis of categorical
longitudinal data—multilevel latent class models that enable assessment of
configurations of roles at particular times and movements between them
across time—has greatly enhanced the capacity to delineate contemporary
patterns of transition to adulthood.
It is clear from such studies of nationally representative as well as
community-based samples that there is a finite, and rather small number of
typical pathways to adulthood, with clear contours, precursors, and likely
consequences (Bauldry et al., 2012; Eliason, Mortimer, Vuolo, & Tranby,
2007: Osgood, Ruth, Eccles, Jacobs, & Barber, 2005). Youth statuses with
respect to independent residence, education, work, marriage, and parenting
come together in distinct configurations and pathways, some involving
normative “on time” sequences, and others various “off-time” patterns. Not
surprisingly, early child bearers, and particularly those who fail to acquire
other adult roles, have the poorest outcomes (Falci, Mortimer, & Noel, 2010).
Deviance, however, is relinquished as youth enter adult roles (Massoglia
& Uggen, 2010). As studies such as these accumulate, we will gain greater
understanding of variation in the contemporary transition to adulthood by
social class, gender, race/ethnicity/national origin, and region (Corcoran &
Matsudaira, 2005; Fussell & Furstenberg, 2005).
In view of the long and increasingly precarious transition to adulthood,
researchers’ attention has focused on the ways families continue to support
their children well after the typical age of majority. Higher education,
difficulties in locating stable employment, and delays in family formation
lengthen youth’s dependency on parents, economically and emotionally.
Great inequalities between families, however, heighten resources available to
advantaged youth, while poorer families may have little to offer. Researchers
have examined families’ monetary contributions to their young adult offspring, patterns of coresidence (and the “boomerang” phenomenon), and
mutual aid; as well as the implications of these family supports for offspring
psychological well-being and attainment (Fingerman, Cheng, Tighe, Birditt,
& Zarit, 2012; Johnson & Benson, 2012). Families across the board contribute
to young adult children in the third decade of life—about 10% of their
incomes, or very different real amounts for youth in different income
brackets (Schoeni & Ross, 2005). Parental support is especially likely when
children face difficulties (such as unemployment, negative life events);

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

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aid subsides when children successfully acquire the markers of adulthood
(marriage and parenthood) and gain increasing income (Swartz, Kim, Uno,
Mortimer, & O’Brien, 2011).
Another major focus of recent research examines the acquisition of an identity as an adult (Cote, 2000). If today’s youth are taking longer than prior
cohorts to acquire the full complement of adult roles, and if they occupy
mixes of adult and preadult statuses for long periods of time (for example, a
married student or a mother who lives with child in her family of origin), then
how do they think of themselves? At what point do they firmly acquire the
age-graded identity as an adult? A lively controversy surrounds this question, with developmental psychologists siding with Arnett’s (2004) proposal
that young people in the third decade of life are “emerging adults,” who
take on an adult identity when they acquire character traits such as independence and responsibility. These traits come to mind most readily when
youth are asked to define what it means to be an adult. In contrast, sociologists have investigated the associations between actually thinking of oneself
as an adult and the expression of adult identity, finding that family formation,
and particularly parenthood, is a key predictor (Shanahan, Porfeli, Mortimer,
& Erickson, 2005). It is clear, however, that character traits and adult role
marker acquisition are not independent phenomena, as the latter involve taking responsibility for the self as well as others (Hartmann & Swartz, 2007).
The ages at which such roles are acquired, and the assumption of adult identities varies by social class, race/ethnicity, and family structure (Benson &
Johnson, 2009; Johnson, Berg, & Sirotzki, 2007).
KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
“Futurists” often extrapolate from existing trends, and we can do this as well
in contemplating what questions and directions for research will be fruitful
in the coming years. We might ask, what will be the consequences of social
change for entry to adulthood, if present trends continue (Shanahan, Mortimer, & Krueger, 2002)? That is, if globalization and economic competition
intensify, and technological change accelerates, what might be the consequences for youth in passage to adulthood?
How might growing cleavages within the society produce new patterns of transition to adulthood, in response to societal change? With
increasing inequality, we already are seeing growing class and racial
divides—“diverging destinies” as individuals approach the transition to
adulthood (Corcoran & Matsudaira, 2005; Mortimer, 2008). If income, and
especially wealth, is increasingly concentrated at the top, the distance
between the wealthiest and the middle socioeconomic sectors will grow.
It will be important in the future to continue to monitor the consequences

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

of such inequality for transitioning adults (Furstenberg, 2006; Swartz,
2008). Will family resources buffer the impacts of adverse social changes,
particularly turbulence in the economy, making it possible for youth from
the wealthiest families to continue to build the human, social, and cultural
capital that yields greatest advantages in acquiring the markers of adulthood
and higher socioeconomic attainment? More attention needs to be directed
to the needs of especially vulnerable populations (e.g., the mentally and
physically disabled, youth in foster care), as the social safety net continues
to erode (Osgood, Foster, Flanagan, & Ruth, 2005).
As women have now outstripped men in educational attainment, they are
making substantial inroads in occupations previously closed to them, but still
suffer from “motherhood wage penalties” (Staff & Mortimer, 2012) and lower
earnings. As more highly educated women move through their careers, will
gender differentials in earnings and occupational attainments erode? Might
we see gender convergence along with class divergence in early adult socioeconomic outcomes (Fussell & Furstenberg, 2005)?
The increasingly variable character of transitions, for example, movements from school to work and back again to school, changes in marital
and living arrangements, and, will likely make it increasingly difficult to
ascertain when “adulthood” has been reached. It is important to continue to
examine the sources of adult identity. Will the widely recognized markers
of adulthood–the “big five” studied by sociologists (leaving home, finishing
school, stable work, marriage/cohabitation, and parenthood)—have the
same resonance in the future? In view of the transitory character of these
role markers, might there be increasingly widespread rejection of such
designations as a basis of identity?
Researchers might also fruitfully investigate how other identities shift
during the transition to adulthood. Which will be the most salient to future
cohorts of young people? A strong worker or “career” identity may become
increasing rare as long-term careers become ever more scarce. Given that
role identities are placed in hierarchies of importance in accordance with
their connection to social relationships and their capacity to enhance the self,
we might expect that nonwork arenas (family, friendship, hobbies, aesthetic
expression, volunteerism, religious pursuits, and other extra-vocational
activities) will assume ever greater salience (Mortimer, Lam, & Lee, (Forthcoming)). In view of diminishing prospects for socioeconomic attainment,
materialism may recede as a source of status and identity in broad segments
of youth. However, those who are the most advantaged, who are moving
into positions having the most upward mobility potential, wealth and
status gains, may continue to have strong work identities and conventional
orientations to success.

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

9

Furthermore, researchers should give greater attention to the implications
of youth social media (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) for identity development, attitude formation, and political behavior. Technological innovations (e.g., telecommuting, teleconferencing, social networking, and on-line
college courses) diminish the importance of physical place as a constraint
on opportunities. Young adults’ choice of residence is less constrained by
educational institutions, work locations, medical venues, recreation facilities, and so on. In the social realm, individuals form virtual communities
and networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) in the absence of physical
proximity. All of these changes affect the range and character of choices and
opportunities for young people.
Will youth increasingly look to one another, rather than to the mass media,
political leaders, or other institutional representatives for their opinions?
Apparently, “tweets” peaked during the recent Presidential debates, as
youth exchanged their reactions. Such instant communications may also
increasingly provide guidance during times of uncertainty and turmoil.
Much speculation and commentary has surrounded the negative potentials
of the relatively new, “mediated” or “virtual” relationships. Commentators
worry about whether youth may be squandering opportunities to develop
social skills for face-to-face encounters, and whether young people may
be exposing themselves to potential harm (sexual predators). Very little is
known, however, about how social media may be facilitating, or hindering, successful transitions to adulthood. Through their virtual networks,
youth may expand their exposure to alternative points of view, widening
their horizons, or restrict their communications to others like themselves
(Lefkowitz, Vukman, & Loken, 2012). Might the virtual community of
friends and followers constitute a broader band of potential consultants
(that is, extending beyond immediate family and close friends), providing
relevant information about potential employers to youthful job-seekers,
guidance regarding how to conduct oneself at an interview and negotiate
employment contracts, or how to break off intimate relationships with the
least emotional damage to each party.
What consequences does the increasingly individualized and precarious
transition to adulthood have for youth health trajectories? Does the timing
and sequencing of the acquisition of adult role markers have consequences
for health over and above the effects of particular end states? Do normatively sequenced transitions, e.g., leaving home, finishing education, obtaining a stable full-time job, marrying, and having children, have more positive
effects on adult health than more “disorderly” transitions, even when final
educational attainment, for example, is the same? How does genetic propensity interact with environmental stressors and challenges to yield distinct
outcomes of transition to adulthood (Shanahan & Hofer, 2011)? Increasing

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

understanding of such gene-environmental interactions may make it possible to alter negative genetic expression through well-designed environmental interventions.
Understanding the full implications of social change for entry to adulthood must draw our attention beyond the boundaries of any one country,
given major variation in institutional bridges from adolescence to adulthood
(Kerckhoff, 2002; Mortimer & Krueger, 2000; Mortimer, Oesterle, & Krueger,
2005) and likely responses to social change. For example, globalization has
affected the institutional structures of the United States and most other countries. As competition for capital, labor, and markets extends across countries, work becomes increasingly precarious, with declining commitment of
employer to employee. Similarly, developments in information technology
permit instant dissemination of knowledge, affecting the delivery of higher
education, and the transfer of jobs and economic processes around the world.
Globalization increases youth’s ease of movement across national boundaries, to become educated, or to seek work (Schoon & Silbereisen, 2009). To
fully understand these transitions, researchers need to compare data across
countries.
Finally, let us turn to a question that has received virtually no attention
in the literature to date. How will the wide range of highly likely social
changes, attendant on climate change, affect future generations of youth as
they enter adulthood ? Climate scientists predict that intensifying warming
of the planet will cause more frequent severe weather events, droughts in
many parts of the world, severe water shortages, and so on, that will, in
turn, lead to massive migrations of populations as the most basic resources
that support human life diminish in many places. Wars over declining
resources are also likely to occur. Such changes will disrupt the passage to
adulthood for many youth, especially in the global South. Youth constitute
the age group that is often the most able, and willing, to migrate and that
becomes soldiers in war, voluntarily or not. Massive population movements
will likely disrupt the acquisition of the traditional markers of adulthood,
as migrant populations of youth have difficulty assimilating into new
societies.
Growing proportions of the world youth population may find it difficult
to see ahead, to envision stable life courses for themselves and future
generations. Failure of governments to act may lead to exacerbated decline
in confidence in, and disconnection from, societal institutions (Smith, 2005).
Will there be value shifts among young people as it becomes increasingly
evident that the planet’s capacity to support human and other life forms is
eroding—for example, shifts in values regarding economic growth, population size, energy conservation, life style changes, and living arrangements.
Will youth be attracted to social movements advocating the use of alternative

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

11

energy sources and altering life styles to reverse the extant environmental
trends, or, in contrast, will they increasingly acknowledge dystopian futures,
assume a fatalistic stance, and turn inward for immediate gratifications?
Youth entering adulthood will likely be in the vanguard of all of these
trends.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Consideration of social change and entry to adulthood involves phenomena at multiple levels of analysis—encompassing large-scale societal
and institutional structures, networks, interpersonal relationships, and
individual orientations. So too do we need a host of methodologies to
address the relationships between them. Large, nationally representative,
longitudinal studies, such as the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, the
Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and others, are needed to continue to
monitor national trends in pathways to adulthood. At the same time, ethnographic and interview studies, preferably also longitudinal, are needed
to chart the reverberations of large-scale societal changes in individual
values, attitudes, and behaviors. Only through face-to-face interviews and
ethnographic observations will research reveal the full psychological scope
of social change, affecting shifts in world views, work orientations, and
identities. The wide scope of relevant phenomena thus calls for multidisciplinary research teams, including sociologists, economists, geneticists,
social psychologists, and psychologists. Large-scale longitudinal studies are
expensive, often requiring the collaboration of multiple federal agencies, but
well worth the continued investment.
Social change not only renders the transition to adulthood more complex
and often precarious but also provides more choices and options. Highly
advantaged young people (Furstenberg, 2006) have many resources, which
enable them to acquire the human, social, economic, and cultural forms of
capital that allow them to succeed in the new institutional landscape. Those
with fewer resources and less access to the new technologies, educational
and work opportunities may become confused, floundering through various forms of postsecondary education and jobs. The truly disadvantaged
(Wilson, 1987), whose families do not provide role models of success in the
occupational sphere, who lack even a high school education, and especially
if they have gotten in trouble with the law, may be entirely excluded from
conventional adult roles. To understand variation in the transition to adulthood in an era of increasingly rapid social change, researchers must continue
to monitor institutional shifts, relational changes, and individual psychological orientations, linked to socioeconomic strata within countries and subject
to variation across national boundaries.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

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FURTHER READING
Booth, A., Brown, S. L., Landale, N. S., Manning, W. D., & McHale, S. M. (Eds.) (2012).
Early adulthood in a family context. New York, NY: Springer.
Settersten, R. A., & Furstenberg, F. F., Jr. (2005). In R. G. Rumbaut (Ed.), On the frontier
of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press.
Settersten, R. A., Jr., & Ray, B. (2010). Not quite adults: Why 20-somethings are choosing
a slower path to adulthood, and why it’s good for everyone. New York, NY: Random
House.
Shanahan, M. J., & Macmillan, R. (2008). Biography and the sociological imagination:
Contexts and contingencies. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

JEYLAN T. MORTIMER SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Jeylan T. Mortimer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota
and Principal Investigator of the Youth Development Study. She teaches and
conducts research in the areas of work and socioeconomic attainment, the life
course, youth and transition to adulthood, and social psychology. Her books
include Classic and Contemporary Perspectives in Social Psychology with Sharon
Preves (Oxford, 2011), Working and Growing Up in America (Harvard University Press, 2003), the Handbook of the Life Course, coedited with Michael Shanahan (Springer, 2003), Arenas of Comfort in Adolescence, with Kathleen Call
(Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001), and Adolescents, Work and Family, coedited with
Michael Finch (Sage, 1996). Her recent articles appear in Social Psychology
Quarterly, Social Forces, the Journal of Marriage and the Family, Society and Mental Health, Developmental Psychology, and Demography. Her current research

Social Change and Entry to Adulthood

17

examines the effects of parental trajectories from adolescence through early
adulthood on the achievement orientations and well-being of their children.
Web site: http://www.soc.umn.edu/people/mortimer_j.html
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