ADULTHOODwidely considered to be indicative of adulthood.
Interviews revealed a great deal of ambiguity about
adult identity, as well as career uncertainty, de-
spite having already graduated from college and
begun full-time work linked to postsecondary are-
as of study.
Asynchronies in the age-grading systems of
different societal institutions generate status in-
consistencies (Buchmann 1989) with important
psychological implications. If adultlike identities
are confirmed in some contexts, such as the work-
place, but not in others, such as the family, this
discrepancy could produce strain. Moreover, the
‘‘loosening’’ of age-grading and structured sequencing
in transitional activities decreases the ability to
predict the future from current circumstances
(Buchmann 1989), and may thereby engender
both stressful situations and depressive reactions
(Seligman 1988).
It is widely believed that adolescence and youth
are stressful life stages, and that problems dimin-
ish with successful acquisition of adult roles (Modell
et al. 1976). Consistent with this supposition, youth
have been found to exhibit less depressed mood
from late adolescence to early adulthood, as they
move from high school into postsecondary educa-
tion and, especially, into full-time work roles (Gore
et al. 1997). Moreover, there is evidence that men’s
self-perceptions of personal well-being and com-
petence decline during college, but rise during the
following decade (Mortimer et al. 1982).
However, women’s morale may follow a less
sanguine trajectory from adolescence through
midlife (Cohler et al. 1995). Contemporary wom-
en are more likely than those in the historical past
to take on multiple and conflicting roles. Difficul-
ties in balancing work and family may be particu-
larly acute and stressful during the transition to
adulthood (Aronson 1999a), as increasing num-
bers of young women attempt to balance the
conflicting demands of single motherhood, work,
and postsecondary education.
Though the literature tends to focus on prob-
lematic outcomes of historical change and the
loosening of age-graded social roles, greater diver-
sity in the sequencing and combination of roles
(schooling and work, parenting and employment)
have promoted more diversified, and autonomous,
courses of action. Indeed, the allowance of more
diverse sequences of transitions enables some youth
to escape from dissatisfying circumstances in ado-
lescence, for example, by leaving home (Cooney
and Mortimer 1999).The greater individualization and lengthening
of the adult transition and early life course in
recent times may increase the potential for free-
dom, and the effective exercise of choice, as well as
stress. The extension of formal education allows
more time for the exploration of vocational and
other life-style alternatives (Maggs 1997). Although
change in occupational choice in the years after
high school (Rindfuss et al. 1990) may be seen as
indicative of a kind of ‘‘floundering’’ and instabili-
ty, it also may reflect youth’s increasing capacity to
assess alternatives before making a firm vocational
commitment. Modell’s (1989) social history of the
transition to adulthood in twentieth-century Ameri-
ca finds youth increasingly taking charge of their
heterosexual relationships and the formation of
new families, becoming ever freer of adult surveil-
lance and control. Aronson (1998) found that
contemporary young women appreciate their life-
course flexibility (Aronson 1998).THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD AS
A CRITICAL PERIOD OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENTThe transition to adulthood is a highly formative
period for the crystallization of psychological ori-
entations relating to work, leisure (Inglehart 1990),
and politics (Glenn 1980). Alwin and colleagues’
(1991) study of a panel of Bennington college
women from the 1930s to the 1980s reports ex-
traordinary persistence of political attitudes formed
while in college over an approximately fifty-year
period (a stability coefficient of .781). Work orien-
tations also become more stable following early
adulthood (Lorence and Mortimer 1985; Mortimer
et al. 1988). Three explanations have been put
forward to account for this pattern: The first impli-
cates the environment; the second, features of the
person; the third combines both elements. Ac-
cording to the first line of reasoning, the relatively
dense spacing of major life events during the
transition to adulthood generates external pres-
sures to form new attitudes or to change previous