When I Was Your Age, I Was An Adult

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When I Was Your Age, I Was An Adult

• Christine Schelhas-Miller
• March 7, 2008

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Americans and Adulthood

• Average age for marriage
• 50 years ago
• Womenage 20
• Menage 22
• Today
• Womenage 26
• Menage 27.5

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Americans and Adulthood

• American thirty-year-olds who had
• Moved away from home
• Become financially independent
• Married
• Had children
• 196070
• 200040

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Adult Privileges

• 2008 in New York
• Can drink alcoholic beverages at 21
• Can vote at 18
• 1971 in New York
• Can drink alcoholic beverages at 18
• Can vote at 21

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Unclear When Adulthood Begins

• Current trends
• Try adolescents and children as adults for
  committing crimes
• Parental responsibility laws

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Invention of New Stages of Life

• 1900adolescence
• 2000emerging adulthood

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Emerging Adults

• Features of Emerging Adulthood
• Jeffrey Arnett
• Identity Exploration
• Instability
• Self-Focused
• Feeling In-Between
• Possibilities

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Where Does Emerging Adulthood Exist?

• Affluent, industrialized countries
• United States
• Canada
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Japan
• Western Europe
• Higher socioeconomic status individuals
• Blue states

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Emerging Adulthood and Brain Maturation

• Prefrontal cortex
• Synaptic pruning
• Myelination
• Processing of Emotions
• Prefrontal cortex
• Amygdala

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Reactions to Brain Imaging Information

• Restrict adolescents from adult privileges
• Raise voting and drinking age to 25
• Prohibit teens from lifeguarding and military
  service
• Raise the driving age

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Reactions to Brain Imaging Information

• 2. The brain needs practice to develop, so give
  the adolescent brain more practice
• 10,000 hours of practice to become expert
• How to balance need for practice with sufficient
  brain maturation to avoid disaster

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Emerging Adulthood vs. Rediscovering the Adult
in Every Teen

• The Case Against Adolescence
• Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen
• Robert Epstein