Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-j5c6p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-11T23:43:09.858Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Relationship Sequences and Trajectories: Women's Family Formation Pathways in Emerging Adulthood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2010

By
Paul R. Amato
Edited by
Frank D. Fincham  and
Ming Cui
Frank D. Fincham
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Ming Cui
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Get access

Summary

Jeffrey Arnett has argued that emerging adulthood has become a distinct stage in the life course for people between the ages of 18 and 25 (Arnett, 2000). This stage is characterized by independence from major social roles and commitments, such as marriage, childbearing, and establishing a career. Instead of “settling down,” emerging adults use this time to sample a variety of life experiences and engage in a prolonged process of self-exploration. Arnett saw the emergence of this stage in the life course in a mostly positive light – as a period during which young people formulate coherent and meaningful identities with respect to love, work, and worldviews. Arnett recognized that not all young people have the resources to experience a period of independence and exploration. Nevertheless, a tendency exists in much of the written work on this topic to assume that emerging adulthood has become a stage in the life course for the majority of youth.

I begin this chapter by examining the notion of emerging adulthood from a historical perspective. The second half of this chapter explores an alternative approach to stage theories of youth development. I adopt a life course perspective and focus on the multiple and divergent pathways that young women take between the ages of 18 and 23.

Type
Chapter
Information
Romantic Relationships in Emerging Adulthood , pp. 27 - 43
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amato, P. R., Landale, N., Habasevich, T., Booth, A., Eggebeen, D., McHale, S., & Schoen, R. (2008). Precursors of young women's family formation trajectories. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 1271–1286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnett, J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bumpass, L., & Lu, H. (2000). Trends in cohabitation and implications for children's family contexts in the United States. Population Studies, 54, 29–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bumpass, L., & Raley, R. K. (1995). Redefining single parent families: Cohabitation and changing family reality. Demography, 32, 97–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, M., McLanahan, , & England, P. (2004). Union formation in fragile families. Demography, 41, 237–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Casper, L. M., & Bianchi, S. M. (2002). Continuity and change in the American family. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Cherlin, A. J. (1981). Marriage, divorce, remarriage. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Coontz, S. (2005). Marriage: A history. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Cunningham, M., Beutel, A. M., Barber, J. S., & Thornton, A. (2005). Reciprocal relationships between attitudes about gender and social contexts during young adulthood. Social Science Research, 34, 862–892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darling, N., & Steinberg, L. (1993). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 487–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dornbush, S., Ericson, J. L., & Wong, C. (2001). The relation of family and school attachment to adolescent deviance in diverse groups and communities. Journal of Adolescent Research, 16, 396–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elder, G. H., Jr, . (1998). The life course as developmental theory. Child Development, 69, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farley, R. (1996). The new American reality: Who we are, how we got here, and where we are going. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Featherman, D. L., & Hauser, R. M. (1978). Opportunity and change. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Goldin, C. (2008). Historical statistics of the United States. Retrieved from http://hsus.cambridge.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/HSUSWeb/search/searchmod.do
Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relation to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion, and education. New York: Appleton.Google Scholar
Haveman, R., & Wolfe, B. (1994). Succeeding generations: On the effects of investments in children. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Heynes, W. H. (2003). The effects of religious commitment on the attitudes and behaviors of teens regarding premarital childbirth. Journal of Health and Social Policy, 17, 1–17.Google Scholar
Hockaday, C., Crase, S. J., Shelley, M. C., & Stockdale, D. F. (2000). A prospective study of adolescent pregnancy. Journal of Adolescence, 23, 423–438.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hogan, D. P., & Astone, N. (1986). The transition to adulthood. Annual Review of Sociology, 12, 109–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerkhoff, A. C. (1993). Diverging pathways: Social structure and career deflections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kirby, D., Lepore, G., & Ryan, J. (2005). Sexual risk and protective factors: Factors affecting teen sexual behavior, pregnancy, childbearing, and sexually transmitted diseases. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.Google Scholar
Macmillan, R., & Ronda, C. (2005). Families in the life course: Interdependency of roles, role configurations, and pathways. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 858–879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCutcheon, A. L. (1987). Latent class analysis. Beverly Hills: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLanahan, S., & Bumpass, L. (1988). Intergenerational consequences of family disruption. American Journal of Sociology, 93, 130–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps?Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, B. C. (2002). Family influences on adolescent sexual and contraceptive behavior. Journal of Sex Research, 39, 22–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mintz, S., & Kellogg, S. (1988). Domestic revolutions: A social history of American family life. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Muthén, B. O. (2004). Latent-variables analysis: Mixture modeling and related techniques for longitudinal data. In Kaplan, D. (Ed.), Handbook of quantitative methodology for the social sciences (pp. 345–368). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2005). Mplus user's guide (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: Muthén and Muthén.Google Scholar
Osgood, D. W., Ruth, G., Eccles, J. S., Jacobs, J. E., & Barber, B. L. (2005). Six paths to adulthood. In Settersten, R., Furstenberg, F. F., & Rumbaut, R. (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 320–355). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, L. D., & Thornton, A. (2007). Religious identity and family ideologies in the transition to adulthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 1227–1243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raley, R. K., Crissey, S., & Muller, C. (2007). Of sex and romance: Late adolescent relationships and young adult union formation. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 1210–1226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regnerus, M. D., & Luchies, L. B. (2006). The parent-child relationship and opportunities for adolescents' first sex. Journal of Family Issues, 27, 159–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rendall, M. S., Clarke, L., Peters, H. E., Ranjit, N., & Verropoulou, G. (1999). Incomplete reporting of men's fertility in the United States and Britain: A research note. Demography, 36, 135–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rindfuss, R. R. (1991). The young adult years: Diversity, structural change, and fertility. Demography, 28, 493–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rostosky, S. S., Regnerus, M. D., & Wright, M. L. C. (2003). Coital debut: The role of religiosity and sex attitudes in the Add Health Survey. Journal of Sex Research, 40, 358–367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sandefur, G. D., Eggerling-Boeck, J., & Park, H. (2005). Off to a good start? Postsecondary education and early adult life. In Settersten, R., Furstenberg, F. F., & Rumbaut, R. (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 292–319). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoen, R., Landale, N. S., & Daniels, K. (2007). Family transitions in young adulthood. Demography, 44, 807–820.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smock, P. J., & Gupta, S. (2002). Cohabitation in contemporary North America. In Booth, A. & Crouter, A. C. (Eds.), Just living together (pp. 53–84). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Teachman, J. D. (1987). Family background, educational resources, and educational attainment. American Sociological Review, 52, 548–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udry, J. R., & Chantala, K. (2000). Missing school dropout in surveys does not bias risk estimates. Social Science Research, 32, 294–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,U.S. Census Bureau. (2008). Statistical abstract of the United States: 2008. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Zollinger, G. J., & Elder, G. H. (1998). Methods of life course research: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×