Adulthood

An adult is generally defined as someone who is responsible, mature, self-supporting, and well integrated into society. There is real variation in when different individuals develop these attributes, which suggests that the timing of when a person becomes an adult, or takes on adult roles, can itself shift from person to person — some people take up jobs alongside their college studies, or get married and do not go on to pursue further studies, while others continue to live with their parents even after marrying and becoming financially independent. The particular timing an individual's assumption of adult roles follows is guided by their social context; the ideal timing for major life events (such as marriage, starting a job, or having children) can differ quite a bit across different cultures, though within any one culture there tends to be a broadly similar course of adult development.

In early adulthood, two major tasks stand out: exploring the possibilities for adult living, and developing a stable life structure. The twenties represent something of a novice phase of adult development, in which a gradual transition from dependence to independence is expected to take place, often marked by a young person forming an image of the kind of life they want, especially with regard to marriage and career.

Career and Work: earning a living, choosing an occupation, and building a career are important themes for people in their twenties and thirties. Entering work life is itself a challenging event in anyone's life — there are natural apprehensions about making the right adjustments, proving one's own competence and performance, dealing with competition, and coping with the expectations of both employers and oneself; it is also the beginning of a whole set of new roles and responsibilities. Developing and evaluating a career becomes an important task of adulthood.

Marriage, Parenthood, and Family: the adjustments young adults need to make on entering marriage relate to getting to know the other person (if they were not already well known), and to coping with each other's likes, dislikes, tastes and choices; where both partners are working, adjustments are also needed in how household roles and responsibilities are shared and performed. Alongside getting married, becoming a parent can also be a difficult and stressful transition for young adults, even though it is usually accompanied by real feelings of love for the new baby. How adults actually experience parenting is affected by a number of different circumstances, such as the number of children in the family, the availability of social support, and how happy or unhappy the couple's own marriage is. The death of a spouse, or a divorce, creates a family structure in which a single parent — either the mother or the father — has to take on sole responsibility for the children. In more recent times, as women increasingly seek employment outside the home, another family structure has become common, in which both parents work; the stressors facing dual-working parents are broadly similar to those facing a single working parent — namely, taking care of children, their schoolwork, and their illnesses, along with coping with workload both at home and at the office. Despite the stresses that come with parenting, it also offers a genuine, unique opportunity for growth and personal satisfaction, and is often experienced as a way of expressing care and guiding the next generation. …