Emerging Adulthood: An Intersectional Examination of the Changing Life Course

Shauna A. Morimoto

doi:10.18778/1733-8069.15.4.02

Autor

Shauna A. Morimoto University of Arkansas, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology and Criminology, 211 Old Main, Fayetteville, AR 72701 USA https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1869-156X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.15.4.02

Słowa kluczowe:

emerging adulthood, intersectional analysis, life course, adolescence

Abstrakt

This article draws on qualitative data of U.S. high school students considering their place in the adult world; the purpose is to investigate Jeffrey Arnett’s (2000) concept of “emerging adulthood” as a new stage of life course. Drawing on interviews and observational data collected around the time when Arnett’s notion of emerging adulthood started to take hold, I use intersectional interpretive lens in order to highlight how race and gender construct emerging adulthood as high school students move out of adolescence. I consider Arnett’s thesis twofold. First, when emerging adulthood is examined intersectionally, young people reveal that – rather than being distinct periods that can simply be prolonged, delayed, or even reached – life stages are fluid and constantly in flux. Second, since efforts to mitigate against uncertain futures characterizes the Millennial generation, I argue that the process of guarding against uncertainty reorders, questions or reconfigures the characteristics and stages that conventionally serve as markers of life course. I conclude that the identity exploration, indecision, and insecurity associated with emerging adulthood can also be understood as related to how the youth reveal and reshape the life course intersectionally.

Pobrania

Brak dostępnych danych do wyświetlenia.

Biogram autora

Shauna A. Morimoto - University of Arkansas, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology and Criminology, 211 Old Main, Fayetteville, AR 72701 USA

Shauna A. Morimoto is Associate Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Arkansas. Her research focuses on youth and democratic participation, intersectional inequalities and organizational transformation in educational institutions. She is the co-author of the volume The Science of College: Navigating the First Year and Beyond, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

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