In recent decades, the lives of people in their late teens and twenties have changed so dramatically that a new stage of life can be said to have developed, just as the "teen" years began taking on their own identity a half century ago. In this provocative work, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett identifies emerging adulthood as distinct from both the adolescence that precedes it and the young adulthood that comes in its wake. Rather than marrying and becoming parents in their early twenties, most people in industrialized societies now postpone these rites of passage until at least their late twenties, instead spending these years in self-focused exploration as they try out different possibilities in their careers and relationships. What exactly influences and governs their thoughts, decisions, and actions during this time? What are they doing between when they leave their parents' homes for college and when they begin to live a typically adult life?
