Emotional and Social Development in Early Adulthood

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Emotional and Social Development inEarly
Adulthood
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Eriksons TheoryIntimacy versus Isolation

• Intimacy
• Making a permanent commitment to intimate partner
• Involves giving up some newfound independence,
  redefining identity
• Strong identity helps
• Friendships, work

• Isolation
• Loneliness, self-absorption
• Hesitate to form close ties
• Fear of losing identity
• Compete
• Reject differences
• Threatened by closeness

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Levinsons Early Adult Season

• Early adult transition
• Dream
• Mentor
• Early adulthood life structure
• Men settling down
• Women continued instability,
• more roles
• Age 30 transition
• Reevaluate life structure
• Often focus on underdeveloped aspects

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Vaillants Adaptation to Life

• 20s intimacy concerns
• 30s career consolidation
• 40s generative
• 50s60s keepers of meaning
• 70s spiritual and reflective

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Social Clock

• Age-graded expectations for life events
• Less rigid than in earlier generations
• Following a social clock lends confidence,
  contributes to social stability
• Distress if not following or falling behind

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Selecting a Mate

• Physical proximity
• Most select partners who are similar
• Gender differences
• Women intelligence, ambition, financials, morals
• Men attractiveness, domestic skills

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Childhood Attachment and Adult Romantic
Relationships
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Triangular Theory of Love

• Three components
• Intimacy
• Passion
• Commitment

• Passionate love early companionate love later
• Passion gradually fades while intimacy,
  commitment grow
• Cultural differences

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Keeping Love Alive

• Show interest in important aspects of partners
  life
• Confide in partner
• Forgive minor offenses
• Try to understand major offenses

• Make time for relationship
• Tell partner you love them
• Be available when partner needs you
• Communicate constructively about problems

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Friendships in Early Adulthood

• Friends usually similar age, sex, SES
• Common interests, experiences, needs
• Add to pleasure of friendship
• Enhance self-esteem, make life more interesting
• Trust, intimacy, loyalty continue important
• Siblings often friends

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Gender and Friendship

• Same-Sex Friendships
• Gender differences
• Womens more intimate
• Individual differences
• Longer friendships more intimate
• Single people more intimate with friends

• Other-Sex Friendships
• Fewer, shorter-lasting than same-sex
• Educated, employed women have most
• Benefits to both genders
• Men opportunity for expression
• Women new views
• Sexual attraction must be considered

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Factors in Loneliness
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Loneliness and Emotional Distress at Different
Ages
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Family Life Cycle

• Early adulthood
• Leaving home
• Joining families in marriage
• Parenthood
• Middle adulthood
• Launching children

• Late adulthood
• Retirement
• Death of spouse

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Leaving Home

• Average age decreasing
• 50 of 18- to 25-year-olds live with parent
• Depart for education earlier, marriage later
• Too early long-term disadvantage
• Many return briefly

• SES, ethnicity affect ability, interest in
  leaving
• Family relationships can improve

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Trends in Marriage

• Marrying later
• More cohabiting before marriage
• Fewer marriages
• Staying single, cohabiting, not remarrying
• But North Americans still pro-marriage
• Legalization of same-sex marriage in some places
• More religious and ethnically mixed marriages

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Traditional and Egalitarian Marriages

• Traditional
• Clear division of roles
• Woman cares for husband, children, home
• Man head of household, economic support

• Egalitarian
• Partners relate as equals
• Share authority
• Balance attention to jobs, children, home, spouse

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Gender and Housework
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Factors Related to Marital Satisfaction

• Family backgrounds
• Age at marriage
• Length of courtship
• Timing of first pregnancy
• Relationship to extended family
• Financial and employment status
• Family responsibilities
• Personality characteristics

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Partner Abuse

• Men and women both become violent
• Same-sex or other-sex partnerships
• Women more likely to get seriously injured
• Violence-remorse cycles common
• Factors include
• Personality
• Developmental history
• Family circumstances
• Culture
• Much treatment not very effective
• Need whole-family approach, alcohol treatment,
  services for men

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Assaults Against Women by Intimate Partners
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Trends in Having Children

• Fewer married couples have children - 70
• Mothers careers
• Divorce
• Have first child later
• Smaller numbers of children
• Average of 2 or fewer

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Transition to Parenthood

• Many profound changes
• Roles often become more traditional
• Roles get less traditional with second birth
• Marriage can be strained
• Problems before children predict problems after
• Sharing care predicts happiness
• Later parenthood eases transition
• Couples groups, paid leave help, too

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Parenting

• Powerful source of adult development
• With young children
• Best parents work together as coparenting team
• Challenges few social supports hard to find
  child care

• With adolescents
• Brings sharp changes
• Challenges negotiation of roles, dip in marital
  satisfaction

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Parent Education

• Parenting books
• Doctors
• Social networks
• Especially mothers
• Classes

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Cohabitation

• Unmarried, sexually intimate, living together
• Increasing

• Can be preparation for marriage
• North Americans who cohabit before marriage more
  likely to divorce
• Can be alternative to marriage
• More accepted in Western Europe

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Increases in Cohabitation
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Divorce Rates

• Stabilized since 1980s
• 45 U.S., 30 Canadian marriages
• About 7 higher for remarriages soon after first
  marriage

• First seven years, midlife most common times
• Young and adolescent children involved

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Causes and Factors in Divorce

• Ineffective problem solving
• Separate lives
• Major problems Infidelity, money issues,
  substance abuse

• Background factors age, religion, prior divorce,
  family background
• SES
• Gender roles, expectations

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Consequences of Divorce

• Major change of life and self
• Opportunities for positive and negative change

• Immediate consequences - generally subside in 2
  years
• Disrupted social networks, support
• Increased anxiety, depression, impulsive behavior
• Traditional women, noncustodial fathers may have
  more problems
• New partner helps satisfaction
• More important to men

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Remarriage After Divorce

• Most within four years of divorce
• Men sooner than women
• Vulnerable to breakup
• Reasons for marriage
• Often too pragmatic
• Carry over negative patterns
• View divorce as acceptable resolution
• Stepfamily stress
• Takes 3-5 years to blend
• Education,
• couples and family counseling can help

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Options in Parenthood

• Childlessness
• Voluntary
• Involuntary

• Step Parenting
• Single parents
• Divorced
• Never married

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Career Development in Early Adulthood

• Disappointment near start of career common
• Many job changes in 20s
• Most settle in after evaluation and adjustment

• Adjust expectations to opportunities to advance
• Fewer opportunities, more work disengagement
• Self-efficacy, mentoring affect adjustment,
  success

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Challenges to Womens Career Development

• Discontinuous employment
• Leave for child-rearing, family care
• Hinders advancement
• Concentration low-paying, low-advancement jobs
• Contributes to salary gap

• Low self-efficacy for male-dominated fields
• Gender stereotyping
• Few mentors

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Hiring Bias
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Work-Family Balance

• Dual-earner marriages dominant family form
• Most also parents
• Role overload common problem
• Especially for women
• Workplace supports can help
• Time flexibility