Dr. Arnett’s main area of scholarship is emerging adulthood, the age period from the late teens to the mid-twenties. Dr. Arnett coined the term and presented a theory of emerging adulthood in a widely-cited article in American Psychologist in 2000. According to Dr. Arnett, in the past half century what most people experience during the years from age 18 to 29 has changed dramatically in industrialized societies. Instead of entering marriage and parenthood in their very early twenties, most people now postpone these transitions until around age 30, and spend their late teens and their twenties in self-focused exploration as they try out different possibilities in love and work. Essentially, a new developmental stage has been created between adolescence and young adulthood that has its own distinctive features. Scholarly attention to this period has boomed in recent years, and it is now widely referred to among scholars as emerging adulthood. The Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (ssea.org) has hundreds of members worldwide and holds bi-annual conferences.
The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties
Publish Date: 2024 (3rd Edition), Oxford University Press.
Dr. Arnett first published this book in 2004, summarizing his first decade of research on ages 18 to 29. The book has become the foundation text in the field of emerging adulthood and has also been widely read by parents, educators and therapists. The success of the 1st edition led to a 2nd edition in 2015 and a 3rd edition in 2024, updated and expanded each time. The book covers a wide range of topics, including relations with parents, love and sex, education and work, media use, problems and resilience, and cultural variations.
Use the code ASPROMP8 to get a 30% discount at Oxford University Press (global.oup.com/academic).
A Parent’s Guide to the 20-Something Years
Publish Date: 2014 (Reprint edition), Workman Publishing Company
It is the book that addresses the new reality for parents of kids in their 20s and the issues that everyone in the media is talking about: When will this new generation of 20-somethings leave home, find love, start a career, settle down—grow up? And it's the book that will soothe your nerves. It’s loaded with information about what to expect and guidance on what to do when problems arise (as they probably will). In other words, this is the book parents need—Getting to 30, by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, the world's leading authority on the post-adolescent phase he named emerging adulthood, and Elizabeth Fishel, author of Sisters and other books.
American psychologist, 2000 — psycnet.apa.org
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Child development perspectives, 2007 — Wiley Online Library
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Oxford handbook of human development and culture: An interdisciplinary perspective, 2015 — Oxford University Press
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