Psychology

Oh, grow up! generational grumbling and the new life stage of emerging adulthood-commentary on trzesniewski & donnellan (2010)

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In this commentary on the article by Trzesniewski and Donnellan (2010, this issue), I focus on the question of why young people today are viewed so negatively, despite the lack of evidence that they are worse (or worse off) now than they were in decades past. I propose that an important reason is the rise of emerging adulthood as a new life stage in between adolescence and young adulthood. Emerging adulthood developed in part because young people enter adult roles of stable work, marriage, and parenthood later now than they did in the past, leading many older people to view them as "late" or selfish, and the new features of this new life stage are frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted. I emphasize that the rise emerging adulthood is not merely generational but is likely to be a permanent addition to the life course. © The Author(s) 2010.

Publication Title

Perspectives on Psychological Science

Publication Date

2010

Volume

5

Issue

1

First Page

89

Last Page

92

ISSN

1745-6916

DOI

10.1177/1745691609357016

Keywords

emerging adulthood, generation, optimism, self-esteem

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS