Romantic Trends: Seeking Perfection in a Mate, But Also Hooking Up

One of the central ideas of Emerging Adulthood is that young people are taking longer to explore and settle into fully adult roles, than in past generations. One example of this is the increase in the median age at first marriage in the U.S.

Jeffrey Arnett, whose writings introduced the term "Emerging Adulthood" and the set of ideas for studying it, was quoted as follows in a 2005 TIME magazine article on "twixters," a group similar to emerging adults (see page 5 of article).

Arnett is worried that if anything, twixters are too romantic. In their universe, romance is totally detached from pragmatic concerns and societal pressures, so when twixters finally do marry, they're going to do it for Love with a capital L and no other reason. "Everybody wants to find their soul mate now," Arnett says, "whereas I think, for my parents' generation—I'm 47—they looked at it much more practically. I think a lot of people are going to end up being disappointed with the person that's snoring next to them by the time they've been married for a few years and they realize it doesn't work that way."

Another trend among young people in recent years is the phenomenon of "hooking up," as described in this article and a new book cited therein. Hooking up is consistent with the idea that many emerging adults want to delay the establishment of serious romantic relationships -- perhaps to devote more energy to their careers -- but still want to enjoy some physical affection.

One of our graduate students at Texas Tech is planning to start some research on hooking up and Emerging Adulthood.

Tucson Youth Club Promotes Civic Engagement

At last month's Emerging Adulthood conference in Tucson, Arizona (see summary in my previous posting below), a speaker in the same session with me gave a presentation on how a Tucson youth club helps to promote civic engagement and empowerment in young people. University of Arizona researcher Joyce Serido, whose co-author was Lynne Borden, gave a talk at the conference entitled, "From Program Participant To Community Activist: A Developmental Journey." The abstract from the EA conference talk is available here, alphabetically within the letter S, whereas the abstract from a similar presentation elsewhere is available here (bottom of p. 11).

In the Q & A session after the talks, several audience members wanted to know more about the youth club at the center of Joyce's presentation. In response, she stated that the club is called "Skrappy's," and that it puts on performances by music bands, among other activities. As stated in the group's My Space page (ALL CAPS in original):

SKRAPPY'S IS MORE THAN A PLACE FOR MUSIC- IT IS A YOUTH COMMUNITY. SKRAPPY'S IS A SAFE, POSITIVE, DRUG & ALCOHOL FREE ENVIRONMENT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO FREELY EXPRESS THEMSELVES THROUGH MUSIC, THEATRE, ART, JOURNALISM, DANCE AND LIFESTYLES. SKRAPPY'S ENCOURAGES YOUTH TO EMBRACE WHO THEY ARE AND HELPS THEM ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS.

YOUNG PEOPLE INVOLVED AT SKRAPPY'S LEARN VALUABLE LIFE AND SOCIAL SKILLS. WHETHER THEY ARE HELPING RUN THE CENTER, PLAYING IN A BAND OR PARTICIPATING IN A CLASS ACTIVITY, THEY INCREASE THEIR SELF-ESTEEM, REFINE LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND STRENGTHEN THEIR SENSE OF COMMUNITY.