New York Times Article on College Women's "Hook-Ups"

The New York Times ran a lengthy article on college women's sexual "hook-ups," a few weeks ago, based on interviews with several dozen female students at the University of Pennsylvania. A key theme of the article is that young women, or at least those at this Ivy League institution, are so single-mindedly devoted to acquiring the skills and credentials for a high-powered career that they show little apparent interest in full-fledged romantic relationships. Instead, they confine their romantic/sexual activity to less time-consuming hook-ups. One student is quoted as saying, “If I’m sober, I’m working.”

The article's author also interviews several researchers of hooking-up. One is Elizabeth Armstrong, a University of Michigan sociology professor. The Times article summarizes one of Armstrong's major arguments thusly:

Increasingly, [Armstrong] said, many privileged young people see college as a unique life stage in which they don’t — and shouldn’t — have obligations other than their own self-development.

This observation is, of course, very much in line with one of Jeff Arnett's five facets of Emerging Adulthood, namely that it is a time of self-focus (see Chapter 1 of Arnett's [2004] textbook, which is free online). According to Arnett, "To say that emerging adulthood is a self-focused time is not meant pejoratively... The goal of their self-focusing is self-sufficiency, learning to stand alone as a self-sufficient person, but they do not see self-sufficiency as a permanent state. Rather, they view it as a necessary step before committing themselves to enduring relationships with others, in love and work" (pp. 13-14).

In research I conducted with Arnett and my Texas Tech colleague Malinda Colwell, we developed a measure of the five Emerging Adulthood facets. The self-focus subscale asks respondents the extent to which this time of their life can be characterized by phrases such as "personal freedom," "responsibility for yourself," "self-sufficiency," and "focusing on yourself." We also have a subscale called other-focus, which is not part of the primary concept of Emerging Adulthood, but instead represents a counterpoint to self-focus. Items on the other-focus subscale include "settling down," "responsibility for others," and "commitment to others."

We have found in some of our studies that self-focus tends to be highest in 18-23 year-olds, a little lower in 24-29 year-olds, and lower still among respondents in their 30s and beyond. In contrast, other-focus tends to be lowest in 18-23 year-olds, and incrementally higher in the 24-29 and 30-39 age groups. Other-focus appears to decline somewhat among people in their 40s and 50s, perhaps because some of them may live in "empty nest" households.

Toward the end of the Times article, the author alludes to an alternative perspective, one that urges young people to be open to early marriage and focuses on "the support that young couples could provide each other as they faced the challenges of early adulthood."

Statistically, early marriage is associated with increased probability of divorce. However, according to the 2011 book Premarital Sex in America, by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, "Most sociological evaluations of early marriage note that the link between age-at-marriage and divorce is strongest among those who marry as teenagers (in other words, before age 20). Marriages that begin at age 20, 21, or 22 are not nearly so likely to end in divorce as most Americans presume" (p. 180).

Later marriages are probably best for some people, whereas earlier marriages are probably best for others. One might say that, for any individual, wisdom is knowing which option will lead to the greatest stability, growth, and fulfillment.

National Survey of Parents of Emerging Adults

Jeff Arnett and his collaborators have followed up their survey of emerging adults, which was released earlier this year, with a new poll of parents of emerging adults. Release of the poll coincides with publication of Arnett's new book, When Will My Grown-Up Kid Grow Up?

USA Today ran an article last week on the new poll of parents, focusing on how positively most parents report their relationships with their emerging-adult children to be. I was one of the emerging-adulthood researchers interviewed for the article. In addition to the "helicopter parent" aspect about which I was quoted, another area that interested me is how parents view the elongated path to adulthood characteristic of recent generations. According to the article:

When asked about the general trend of young people taking longer to reach adulthood, the parents are less positive than they are about their own kids: 44% say it is both positive and negative, 43% say it is negative, and 13% say it is positive.

I'm not surprised to learn that a large proportion of parents (44%) see the delayed transition to adulthood as a mixed bag. I am surprised, however, that unmitigated negative views are so much more common than purely positive ones. One reason for my surprise is that, to some extent, some parents may be encouraging their children to go slow when it comes to certain adult transitions, making it seem contradictory for them also to frown upon it.

In their 2011 book, Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying, Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker cite parental discouragement of their children marrying early as one reason, among others, for the latter's delayed entry into marriage (pp 188-189). Other research shows that increasing percentages of parents over the years have endorsed the view that a college education is "very important." Presumably these parents are encouraging their children to seek advanced learning, which also tends to delay marriage and childbearing.

Academic Journal "Emerging Adulthood" Debuts

The journal Emerging Adulthood, published by Sage, has just released its first issue. In honor of the occasion, all articles in this edition are free in full text. Click here for the Table of Contents of the inaugural issue.

Arnett, Clark University Release National Survey of Emerging Adults (18-29 Year-Olds)

Jeff Arnett and Clark University have released a national survey of 18-29 year-olds (link to report). The survey of approximately 1,000 respondents, conducted in April 2012, is described in the report as being "generally representative" of Americans at large in the target age range. Only 100 of the participants were interviewed via traditional landline telephone calls, with the rest roughly split between cell-phone and Internet participation. Mode of contact is important because landline use is quickly decreasing, especially among younger people; however, how the researchers arrived at the above proportions of landline, cell, and Internet interviews was not described.

The report provides data on responses to single items (e.g., "This time of my life is fun and exciting"), rather than multiple-item scales. Arnett characterizes participants' life outlooks as reflecting "mixed emotions." Notably, negative/pessimistic statements had the greatest endorsement among the youngest respondents (18-21 years old), with progressively less endorsement among 22-25 and 26-29 year-olds.

Another section of the survey asked questions that have long been a staple of Arnett's research, namely whether individuals considered themselves to have reached adulthood (yes, no, or yes in some ways and no in others) and what criteria they identify for reaching adulthood. Other areas examined include relations with parents, education, employment, and close relationships.

One miscellaneous finding I found interesting was the endorsement by 35% of respondents that, “If I could have my way, I would never become an adult.”