Citation
Halpern, Carolyn Tucker & Kaestle, Christine Elizabeth (2014). Sexuality in Emerging Adulthood.. Tolman, Deborah L. & Diamond, Lisa M. (Eds.) (pp. 487-522). Washington: American Psychological Association.Abstract
Jeffrey Arnett proposed that major shifts in demographic and economic trends, including earlier and nonmarital sexual initiation, increased number of sexual partners, and later entry into marriage and childbearing (Heck, Schoendorf, Ventura, & Kiely, 1997; Loh & Ram, 1990; Matthews & Hamilton, 2009; Thornton, 1988; Witwer, 1993), had profoundly affected the life course of young people (Arnett & Tanner, 2011a). Arnett (2000, 2011) and argued that 18- to 29-year-old youths living in industrialized Western societies today inhabit a new stage of “emerging adulthood” in which they are no longer truly adolescents but do not yet have the financial or educational foundation to strike out as independent adults. Emerging adulthood is characterized not only by the delay of marriage, career, and parenthood but also by the deinstitutionalization and disruption of traditional normative sequences of such markers of adulthood (Arnett & Tanner, 2011a; Cherlin, 2004; Mouw, 2005; Rindfuss, 1991; Thornton, 1989). Within the context of this heterogeneity, identity issues are theorized to consistently rise to the surface, and clarifying identity is possibly young people’s primary developmental task at this stage as they explore the possibilities of the adult world (Arnett & Tanner, 2011a; Erikson, 1968). To date, the emerging adulthood framework has been extensively applied to questions in the domains of education, jobs, and financial independence, but its potential implications for understanding sexuality and sexual development have not yet been realized. In this chapter, we explore these questions by describing current patterns of partnering, sexual behavior, sexual attitudes and identity, and selected aspects of reproductive health. We rely primarily on research conducted since approximately 2004 to examine the intersection of emerging adulthood theoretical themes and the empirical literature. We then bring together the themes in the emerging adult sexuality literature and theory and assess whether the construct of emerging adulthood can usefully inform a strategy for researching sexuality during this developmental period. Finally, we discuss some of the methodological issues in this literature and suggest future research directions.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14193-016Reference Type
Book SectionYear Published
2014Series Title
APA Handbooks in PsychologyAuthor(s)
Halpern, Carolyn TuckerKaestle, Christine Elizabeth