Main description:

Early Adulthood in a Family Context, based on the 18^th annual National Symposium on Family Issues, emphasizes the importance of both the family of origin and new and highly variable types of family formation experiences that occur in early adulthood. This volume showcases new theoretical, methodological, and measurement insights in hopes of advancing understanding of the influence of the family of origin on young adults' lives. Both family resources and constraints with respect to economic, social, and human capital are considered.

Feature:

In depth coverage of this critical life period

Covers socioeconomic gender and race issues

Highlights new theoretical, methodological, and measurement concepts

Features high profile contributors

Back cover:

Graduation, full-time employment, independent living, marriage, parenthood—for decades this has been the idealized trajectory to adulthood. More recently, however, scholars, practitioners, and young adults themselves are recognizing the disconnect between long-held cultural scripts and current social and economic realities, as more young adults are following a wide range of pathways to adulthood.  

Early Adulthood in a Family Context provides insight on a contemporary cross-section of families that are diverse in terms of class, ethnicity, immigrant status, and economic circumstances. Focusing on family characteristics and dynamics that promote successful transitions to early adulthood, the book presents new theories, methodologies, and findings about the familial experiences and behaviors of young adults with their parents, partners, and offspring. Contributors also warn against oversimplified conclusions by emphasizing the variety of pathways to adulthood and recommending public policy supports for young adults. Included in the coverage: 

• Parental support and young adults’ well-being.
• Young adults in the digital world.
• Child well-being and the long reach of the family.
• Developmental shifts in romantic/sexual relationships from adolescence to young adulthood.
• Becoming a parent: social contexts of fertility during young adulthood.
• Young adult fertility in the context of economic disadvantage.

Early Adulthood in a Family Context brings current issues into clear perspective and deserves a wide audience among researchers, faculty, and students of human development and family studies, family sociology, and demography as well as policy makers and practitioners.

Contents:

I. The contemporary context of young adulthood. The contemporary context of young adulthood in the United States: From demography to development, from private troubles to public issues.-Transition to adulthood, parental support, and early adult well-being: Recent findings from the Youth Development Study.-“First principles”: Components, holism, and context of the transition to adulthood.-Young adults in a wireless world.- II. Parent-child relationships that facilitate successful transitions.-Relationships between young adults and their parents.-The implications of family context for the transition to adulthood.-Child well-being and the long reach of family relationships.-Young adults’ “need”: In the eye of the beholder?-III. Romantic and sexual relationships.-Developmental shifts in the character of romantic and sexual relationships from adolescence to young adulthood.-Challenges in charting the course of romantic relationships in adolescence and emerging adulthood.-I just want your kiss? Sexual relationships in young adulthood.-IV. Family contexts and timing of fertility.-Becoming a Parent: The Social Contexts of Fertility During Young Adulthood.-Childbearing among cohabiting women: Race, pregnancy, and union transitions.-Understanding young fertility in the context of economic disadvantage.-V. The study of young adulthood.-New horizons in research on emerging and young adulthood.-The role of family context in early adulthood: Where we’ve been and where we’re going