Book Review: Lost in Transition

Among the many books that have come out in recent years on young adulthood, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood (by Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith, with Kari Christoffersen, Hilary Davidson and Patricia Snell Herzog) is quite unique. It is a book with attitude, holding up 18-23 year-olds' views and behaviors (drawn from qualitative interviews in the National Study of Youth and Religion) to the authors' prescriptive standards. The authors declare early on:

...not only do we in this book not try to hide our ideas about what is good, we unapologetically state them in black and white for all to inspect. We think it can only help social science and American society more broadly to be more straightforward about its beliefs about the good in human life... (p. 8).

Smith and colleagues proceed to articulate what they expect from young adults -- and the larger adult society setting examples for them -- in several life domains (pp. 8-10):

We think it is good for people to be able to think coherently about moral beliefs and problems, and to explain why they believe whatever they do believe...

We also think it is good for people to understand and embrace values and purposes in life that transcend the mass-consumerist acquisition of material belongings...

We think it is good to avoid a lifestyle of routine intoxication...

We think that sex is an immensely powerful part of human life -- with immense power for benefit or destruction -- and so we believe that it is good for sex always to be treated with immense respect and care of a magnitude commensurate to its power...

... we think it is good for people to care about the larger social, cultural, institutional, and political world around them...

The first chapter after the introductory one is on young people's moral reasoning. Here, the authors are troubled by many respondents' individualized sense of morality (i.e., not wanting to pass judgment on others, but instead leaving it to them to decide morality for themselves, barring extreme acts such as murder). Smith et al. argue that there is a "bad" form of judging, including "condemning, castigating, disparaging, or executing," which is to be avoided, and a "good" form, including "to assess, discern, ... weigh, evaluate, and critique" (p. 24). The latter can be done constructively, the authors argue, and its absence in the respondents' answers is indeed disturbing.

I agree with the authors' claim that the above distinction is lost among most young people (if not most people, in general). One reason for a restrained sense of judgment, I think, may be a reaction to claims of immorality young people have heard in the past. For example, some people (skewing toward older adults) consider private sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex to be immoral, whereas others, skewing younger, do not. Some members of the latter group, bewildered at how private, consensual, adult behavior can be labeled as immoral by some, may thus become reluctant (overly so, Smith et al. might well argue) to condemn others as immoral.

I found the chapter on morality to be a bit lengthy (51 pages) and nitpicky. However, as the reader proceeds through the later chapters, it becomes clear how the initial discussion of morality forms an important foundation for other topics. For example, in the chapter on civic and political involvement, Smith et al. link respondents' lack of engagement in societal issues back to their weak foundation in moral reasoning. After all, if one cannot formulate a sense of what is good for society, one cannot work toward that end.

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Despite my quibbles in some areas, I found Lost in Transition to be a valuable contribution. I used several of the arguments and statistics from the book in my Development in Young Adulthood course this past summer, and will again in the future.

The national survey on which the book is based began by interviewing 13-17 year-olds, then followed up when, as noted above, participants were 18-23. The 18-23 age range would probably be considered by many researchers to represent "early" Emerging Adulthood. Thus, I hope the authors continue to survey these participants into their late 20s and early 30s, and report the findings in future articles and books.

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Lastly, some readers may be interested in pursuing the question of what makes for a good life -- which in many ways is at the core of Lost in Transition. If so, one of my professors from my graduate-school days at the University of Michigan, Chris Peterson, has been writing a lot on this topic lately (here and here).   

Wall Street Journal Article on EA

Yesterday's online Wall Street Journal ran a general overview article on Emerging Adulthood, focusing on brain development and mental health. Leading EA researchers Jeff Arnett and Jennifer Tanner, adolescence scholar Laurence Steinberg, and neuroscientist Jay Giedd are among those interviewed.