ABSTRACT
The period referred to as emerging adulthood, the years between 18 and 29, are characterized by profound role changes across multiple life domains (Arnett, 2000). Prior to those years, most individuals live at home with parents and are enrolled in school, financially dependent, unmarried, and without children. However, after age 30, many are residentially and financially independent, no longer in school but working, in a committed romantic relationship, and parenting. Such normative changes conceal individual differences in change across the emerging adulthood period. Not all emerging adults consolidate their identities at the same time, and not all pursue higher education. Although most begin experimenting with romantic relationships in adolescence, during emerging adulthood some engage in committed long-term relationships; others continue dating and experimenting in transient romances. Emerging adults move out of the home at varying times and into different housing conditions. For example, some choose to move in with romantic partners, whereas others live with roommates or leave home for college living in dormitories. Now more than ever do such transitions, reflecting existential life course decisions, rest on the shoulders of emerging adults as prescribed roles and normative expectations have been abandoned in favor of continued exploration (Arnett, 2000).
