Jeffrey Arnett on Helping Young People Navigate Emerging Adulthood

On the lat­est episode of Cas­ey­Cast, Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent and CEO Lisa Law­son talks with Dr. Jef­frey Arnett, pro­fes­sor at Clark Uni­ver­si­ty and the psy­chol­o­gist who coined the term “emerg­ing adult­hood,” about how young peo­ple nav­i­gate the years between adolescence and established adulthood.

Emerg­ing adult­hood refers to the life stage from about ages 18 to 29 — a peri­od marked by explo­ration, iden­ti­ty for­ma­tion and major deci­sions about edu­ca­tion, work, rela­tion­ships and inde­pen­dence. Arnett’s research high­lights how this stage has changed over the past sev­er­al decades as young peo­ple mar­ry lat­er, have chil­dren lat­er, take longer to find sta­ble work and face a more com­plex path to adulthood.