EARLY ADULTHOOD

STAGES IN THE LIFE SPAN

• Parental period: conception to birth

• Infancy: birth to the end of the second week

• Babyhood: end of the second week to end of the second year

• Early childhood: two to six years

• Late childhood: six to ten or twelve years

• Puberty or preadolescence: ten or twelve to thirteen of fourteen years

• Adolescence: Thirteen or fourteen to eighteen years

• Early adulthood: eighteen to forty years

• Middle age: forty to sixty years

• Old age or senescence: sixty years to death

Early adulthood is an extremely diverse period of life. It encompasses a wide range of lifestyle choices
and responsibilities. Some people launch directly into adulthood at the legal age of 18, while others take a
much more prolonged course. During these years, they are typically vibrant, active and healthy, and are
focused on friendships, romance, childbearing and careers. Yet serious conditions, such as violent events,
depression and eating disorders, can negatively impact young adults.

HAVIGHURST DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OF EARLY ADULTHOOD

 Achieving autonomy: trying to establish oneself as an independent person with a life of one’s
own
 Establishing identity: more firmly establishing likes, dislikes, preferences, and philosophies
 Developing emotional stability: becoming more stable emotionally which is considered a sign of
maturing
  Establishing a career: deciding on and pursuing a career or at least an initial career direction and
pursuing an education
 Finding intimacy: forming first close, long-term relationships
 Becoming part of a group or community: young adults may, for the first time, become involved
with various groups in the community. They may begin voting or volunteering to be part of civic
organizations (scouts, church groups, etc.). This is especially true for those who participate in
organizations as parents.
 Establishing a residence and learning how to manage a household: learning how to budget and
keep a home maintained.
 Becoming a parent and rearing children: learning how to manage a household with children.
 Making marital or relationship adjustments and learning to parent.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EARLY ADULTHOOD

The early adulthood age starts at 18 to 40. It is the period of adjustment to the new patterns of life
(beginning as an adult).

Some of the characteristics include:

 Settling-down Age – this is the time when young men and women are experimenting with new
career paths and different people with whom to share their lives.
- Individuals create patterns of behavior, attitudes, and beliefs that will tend to be
characteristically theirs for the rest of their lives once they decide on the pattern of life they
believe would suit their needs.

 Reproductive Age – a period of productive age defined by household formation, which might be
postponed for a several reasons. Some adults do not start families until they have completed and
begun their own careers in a specific field.

 Problem Age/Troubled Period – is a stage full of problems. It is in the form of problems in

work, choosing of life partners, and finances.

 Emotional Tension – early adulthood experience emotional failure in connection with various
problems faced such as work, marriage, as well as financial which affects their emotional
development.
  Social Isolation – with the end of formal education and start the adult life pattern with work and
marriage, interactions with the group of peers is decreasing.
 Commitment Period – early adults whose roles change from being a student and dependent to
being independent adults, they begin to have new life patterns and take new responsibilities.

 Period of Change in Value – the values in life changes due to the experiences and social
relationships encountered

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

During early adulthood an individual reaches physical maturity (by the age of 28). This is known as
maturation. Maturation is the process of reaching a stage of full or advanced development. In other words,
maturation is the process of maturing or of reaching maturity.

Females reach their adult heights by age 18, and, except for some males who continue to grow in their
early 20s, most have reached their adult heights by the age of 21. However, muscles continue to gain
mass – especially among males, and both genders continue to add body fat.

The young adult years (18 to 25 years) are often referred to as the peak years. Young adults experience
excellent health, vigor, and physical functioning. Young adults have not yet been subjected to age ‐related
physical deterioration, such as wrinkles, weakened body systems, and reduced lung and heart capacities.
Their strength, coordination, reaction time, sensation (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch), fine motor
skills, and sexual response are at a maximum.

The aging process begins during early adulthood. Around the age of 30, many changes begin to occur in
different parts of the body. Such as, the lens of the eye starts to stiffen and thicken, resulting in changes in
vision. Hair can start to thin and become gray around the age of 35, although this may happen earlier for
some individuals and later for others. The skin becomes drier, and wrinkles start to appear by the end of
early adulthood.

 Health Issues in Early Adulthood

The most common health problems of young adulthood are arthritis, asthma, diabetes, depression, and
other mental problems. However, the top five causes of death in emerging and early adulthoods according
to Heron, and Smith, 2007 are:

1. Non-intentional injury (including motor vehicle accidents)

2. Homicide

3. Suicide

4. Cancer

5. Heart disease

Rates of violent death (homicide, suicide, and accidents) are highest among young adult males and vary
by race and ethnicity. Rates of violent death are higher in the United States than in Canada, Mexico,
Japan, and other selected countries. Males are 3 times more likely to die in auto accidents than are
females (Frieden, 2011).

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

Early adulthood is a time of relativistic thinking, in which people begin to become aware of more than
simplistic views between what is right and wrong. They begin to look at ideas and concepts from multiple
angles and understand that a question can have more than one right (or wrong) answer.

 Piaget’s Formal Operation Thought

According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the establishment of formal operational
thinking occurs during early adolescence and continues through adulthood. This kind of thinking is
characterized by the ability to think in abstract ways, engage in deductive reasoning, and create
hypothetical ideas to explain various concepts.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development ended with formal operations, but it is possible that other ways
of thinking may develop after (or “post”) formal operations in adulthood (even if this thinking does not
constitute a separate “stage” of development). Postformal thought is practical, realistic, and more
individualistic, but also characterized by understanding the complexities of various perspectives. As a
person approaches the late 30s, chances are they make decisions out of necessity or because of prior
experience and are less influenced by what others think. Of course, this is particularly true in
individualistic cultures such as the United States

 Perry’s Scheme

One of the first theories of cognitive development in early adulthood originated with William Perry
(1970), who studied undergraduate students at Harvard University. He noted that over the course of
students’ college years, cognition tended to shift from dualism (absolute, black and white, right and
wrong type of thinking) to multiplicity (recognizing that some problems are solvable, and some answers
are not yet known) to relativism (understanding the importance of the specific context of knowledge—it’s
all relative to other factors). Like Piaget’s formal operational thinking in adolescence, this change in
thinking in early adulthood is affected by educational experiences.

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

Spiritual development is training a child in the way they should go molding their personhood into who
they should be. The ups and downs of child development, such as the terrible twos, are part of our own
spiritual development process.

According to Fowler, the individual enters individualizing reflective period in the age of 18 years.

• During these periods, the individual focused in reality.

• The religious teaching that the young adult has a child may now be accepted or redefined.

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

Many of the developmental tasks of early adulthood involve becoming part of the adult world and gaining
independence. According to Levinson, young adults have an image of the future that motivates them. This
image is called “the dream” and for the men interviewed, it was a dream of how their career paths would
progress and where they would be at midlife.

 Levinson’s Stages (At least up to Midlife)

1) Early adult transition (18-22) : Leaving home, leaving family; making first choices about career
and education.
2) Entering the adult world (22-28): Committing to an occupation, defining goals, finding intimate
relationships.
3) Age 30 transition (28-33): Reevaluating those choices and perhaps making modifications or
changing one’s attitude toward love and work.
 4) Settling down (33 to 40): Reinvesting in work and family commitments; becoming involved in
the community.

HAZARDS/ PROBLEMS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

Early adulthood tends to be a time of relatively good health. Adults ages 18-40 have the lowest

percentage of physician office visits than any other age group, younger or older. However, early

adulthood seems to be a particularly risky time for violent deaths (rates vary by gender, race, and

ethnicity). The leading causes of death for both age groups 15-24 and 25-34, are unintentional

injury, suicide, and homicide.

Personal and Social Hazards of Early Adulthood

 Physical Hazards: Poor health, physical defect (handicapped), discontinuities in training, over
protectiveness.
 Religious Hazards: Adjusting to a new religious faith accepted in place of family faith of
childhood. Problem related to religion in mixed marriages.

 Social Hazards: Home responsibilities, find out difficult for early adulthood.

 Sex role hazards: House wife (only females, why not males)

 Emotional Hazards: Anxiety, depressive disorder, dys-thymic disorder, bipolar disorder and
cyclothymic disorder.