Emerging Adulthood

Introduction

Emerging adulthood is the developmental period between adolescence and young adulthood and is a distinct period demographically and subjectively (Arnett, 2000a, 2000b, 2011). In the course of this life transition, roughly from 18 to 25 years of age, individuals achieve relative autonomy from guardians and experience shifts in social roles and normative expectations for their behavior. Emerging adults typically are in a period of life in which they pursue higher education or vocational training over an extended duration and delay marriage or a permanent love relationship. Emerging adults are typically free from the dependency and monitoring that characterized childhood or adolescence (e.g., involving parents and junior high school teachers), yet are not burdened with the responsibilities of adulthood (e.g., caretaking for others). This freedom allows young people the opportunity to explore diverse potential life directions. During this period, more than any other stage of life, the near future is uncertain, and individuals are making a variety of life decisions in terms of their education, work, leisure interests, romance, and worldviews. In the course of making these decisions, they experience a high degree of instability, particularly in love and work domains (Arnett, 2004a, 2004b).

Arnett (2004a, 2004b) proposed five distinct dimensions of emerging adulthood: (a) the age of identity explorations, (b) the age of feeling in-between, (c) the age of possibilities, (d) the self-focused age, and (e) the age of instability. That is, emerging adults explore who they are or want to be, tend to no longer feel like adolescents but do not yet consider themselves as having reached adulthood, are extremely optimistic about their own life goals and opportunities, focus on their own needs and desires, and experiment with different life pathways. The last three dimensions indicate that this is a developmental period in which risks to health and security might be taken or even promoted (Arnett, 2005; Ravert, 2013; Rohrbach, Sussman, Dent, & Sun, 2005; Smith, Christoffersen, Davidson, & Herzog, 2011; Sussman, 2010). That is, emerging adults may feel particularly invulnerable to negative life consequences, be self-interested or even hedonistic, and may take an experimental stance toward living. Perceived invulnerability to negative consequences and hedonistic attitudes are associated with participation in risky behaviors (e.g., Rohrbach, Sussman, Dent, & Sun, 2005; Stone, Becker, Huber, & Catalano, 2012; Sussman, Leventhal, et al., 2011). Emerging adulthood is perhaps the only or main period of life in which risky behavior is most tolerated or promoted as a means to maximize “growing up,” associated with phrases such as “you only live once (YOLO),” “sewing the wild oats,” “live like you’re dying,” or “to live without risk is to risk not living” (Ravert, 2013). In fact, Smith, Christoffersen, Davidson, and Herzog (2011) discuss in several book chapters how emerging adults, via an emphasis on individualism, may go “adrift” in terms of morality and may come to rely on intoxicants, consumer goods, or sex to achieve happiness. It is not surprising then that drug use tends to be at a maximum prevalence during emerging adulthood, peaking at ages 21–22 and decreasing beginning at around 26 years of age (Arnett, 2005; Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2013; Stone et al., 2012). It is interesting that at the 6th Conference on Emerging Adulthood in 2013, topics explored in panels, poster sessions, and symposia, included potential relatively high involvement of emerging adults in behaviors involving tobacco (e.g., Andrews, Hampson, Seversion, & Peterson, 2013), alcohol (e.g., Murugiah, 2013), drugs (Le Corff, 2013), eating/obesity (e.g., Pang, Lohman, Neppl, Gillette, & Senia, 2013), frequent sex (e.g., Thamotharan, Fields, & Johnson, 2013), romance and jealousy (Morgan, Nichols, Hawkins, 2013), work (e.g., Meckelmann & Peiker, 2013), and Internet use (e.g., Patry, Burgess, Laporte, & Haber, 2013). Each of these behaviors can spiral out of control among adults (Sussman, Lisha, & Griffiths, 2011).

Addiction

Emerging adulthood may be the time of life most prone to the development of one or more addictions. “Addiction” has come to refer to a disorder in which an individual becomes intensely preoccupied with a behavior that provides a desired appetitive effect (Sussman & Sussman, 2011). The appetitive effect generally is equated with changes in firing in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, among other brain neurotransmission and hormonal systems. Cycles of attempting to achieve an appetitive effect (e.g., affect enhancement, arousal modulation, or novel experience, possibly related to evolutionary functions; Sussman, 2012a) lead to brief periods of satiation and eventually results in preoccupation with the addictive behavior, loss of control over the onset or duration of the behavior, and negative consequences (e.g., social, physical, legal, and economic).

A variety of behaviors have come to be considered addictions by researchers and practitioners, delineated by common features (e.g., preoccupation and loss of control; Demetrovics & Griffiths, 2012). Substance addictions pertain to intake of substances such as drugs or food, whereas behavioral (process) addictions pertain to engaging in behaviors (e.g., work, shopping, or sex) addictively (Sussman, Lisha, & Griffiths, 2011). Some studies have been completed to try to ascertain (a) the prevalence of substance and behavioral addictions and (b) the co-occurrence of two or more addictions, to better understand the extent to which addictions are more a problem of person (i.e., a statistically vulnerable minority) or of lifestyle (i.e., among many people and except those who are relatively resilient). For example, Sussman, Lisha, and Griffiths (2011) examined data from 83 studies with sample sizes of at least 500, supplemented by smaller scale studies, to address these questions pertaining to 11 addictive behaviors (last 12-month period). The addictions examined were to cigarettes, alcohol, hard drugs, shopping, gambling, Internet, love, sex, eating, work, or exercise. They found that the 12-month prevalence of one or more of these 11 addictions among U.S. adults averaged 47% of the population, with a 23% co-occurrence (of two or more addictions). They suggested that addictions are just as likely to be a problem of modern, possibly sedentary lifestyles as of neurobiological vulnerability.

Emerging Adulthood and Addiction

The lifestyle factors associated with emerging adulthood appear conducive to facilitating the development of addictions. First, drugs and various other addictive objects or activities are relatively readily accessible among emerging adults because many of their peers may take part in addictive behaviors (the “pragmatics” of addiction; Sussman et al., 2011), particularly after the age of 21. Easy access permits participation in the addictive behavior for those who have the knowledge and skills to tap it. For example, raves, rock concerts, and clubs tend to cater to emerging adults. (Access to an intensive work environment may be an exception, although work addiction has also been observed among emerging adults; see Sussman et al., 2014.) Second, involvement in risky behavior is relatively well tolerated among emerging adults and often even celebrated (Ravert, 2013). Therefore, the initial consequences of various addictive behaviors are relatively likely to be positive. Also, for many emerging adults, brain neurobiology still is rapidly changing, leading reinforcing events to be experienced as particularly positive while connections with inhibitory structures are relatively weak (Agrawal et al., 2012; Sussman, 2013). Addictive disorders may be relatively likely to emerge during emerging adulthood and young adulthood, particularly for those most genetically vulnerable to the rewarding effects of addiction-related objects or activities (Agrawal et al., 2102). Third, it is relatively likely that the social–cultural milieu is one in which the language of addiction (e.g., shared slang terms) is well instructed and entrenchment into an addictive lifestyle is relatively well promoted. Such expressions as “live life like you’re dying” would seem to promote any number of self-destructive addictive behaviors (e.g., Ravert, 2013). Finally, expectations regarding involvement in the addictive behavior are possibly relatively likely to be fulfilled. Arguably, new experiences (positive or negative) likely shift one’s experience of self, which appears to be a shared goal among addictions and emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2005; Larkin, Wood, & Griffiths, 2006).

A recent review by Stone, Becker, Huber, and Catalano (2012) highlights that the most prevalent period for drug use, misuse, and consequences occurs during emerging adulthood, and they examined predictors of problem use. Among other variables, emerging adults are at an increased risk of experiencing problems if they are male, have substance-dependent parents, demonstrate externalizing behaviors during adolescence, have favorable attitudes toward substance use, exhibit a lack of belief in conformity or the moral order, have low commitment to school, or if they had used substances during adolescence, particularly if they were “early” users (also see Newcomb & Bentler, 1988; Rohrbach, Sussman, Dent, & Sun, 2005; Sussman, Rohrbach, Skara, & Dent, 2004). In other words, there are warning signs during adolescence for near-future addiction, including initial experimentation with drugs. Stone and colleagues also found that social contexts that involve greater freedom and less social control than experienced during adolescence are associated with a greater likelihood of substance use. Specifically, moving out of the parental home and attending college are related to increased substance use. Thus, emerging adult-related lifestyle norms may “open the flood gates” to permit fully developed addiction problems.

Stone and colleagues (2012) also found that entry out of emerging adulthood into young adult social contexts may be predictive of lower levels of substance involvement such as engaging in work, marriage, and cohabitation, and graduating from college. That is, the termination of emerging adulthood may bring such addictions under social control through (also see Rohrbach, Sussman, Dent, & Sun, 2005). Of course, one may ponder that for those whom the addiction has developed fully (i.e., they have crossed the “invisible line”), resolution of the difficulties may not occur or may stop only temporarily after habituating to a work environment or stable relationship.

Certainly, one may ponder to what extent some addictive behaviors are truly reflective of emerging adulthood relative to young adulthood. For example, workaholism involves working to achieve an appetitive effect, intensive preoccupation with working, loss of control over time working, and suffering a variety of consequences including burnout (Sussman, 2012b). However, emerging adults may shift jobs rapidly, suggesting that they would not work compulsively. Furthermore, a substantial minority of emerging adults indicate a reluctance to submit to the rigor and demands of the adult work world (Arnett & Schwab, 2012). On the other hand, entrenchment in emerging adulthood dimensions does not differentiate employed versus unemployed 18- to 29-year-olds, except that those employed are more self-focused and subjectively more stable (Meckelmann & Peiker, 2013). Griffiths (2005) cites the example of a 23-year-old single male with no responsibilities who may work 16 hours per day and 7 days a week but suffer few negative effects in life as a result (and may be promoted, get huge financial rewards). However, another older male, married with three children also working 16 hours per day every day is likely to have many areas of conflict in his life (e.g., relationship problems). Although these two males may be engaged in identical work behaviors, only one of them may be deemed problematic and/or addicted. Thus, workaholism may operate among emerging adults but be more of a developmental problem during early or middle adulthood.

Future Directions and Conclusions

The potential synergy between the lifestyle associated with the emerging adulthood developmental period and the promotion of a host of potentially lifelong addiction problems is a quandary that, with all the potential upsides of this period (e.g., promotion of creativity and becoming more competitive for a high-technology workforce), should be addressed in research and practice. Research should be undertaken to chart the course of the different types of addictions (e.g., Sussman et al., 2014) from adolescence through emerging adulthood and beyond to identify developmental similarities and variations. Also, for each type of addiction explored, risk and protective factors during emerging adulthood should be investigated (e.g., having a sense of agency – taking responsibility –may be protective; Schwartz, Cote, & Arnett, 2005). Even for the most prevalent addictions, not all emerging adults take part in them, so it will also be important to distinguish those who exhibit problematic patterns of additive behavior from those who do not.

Understanding what differentiates those emerging adults who develop full-blown addictions from those who do not will assist in the creation of more efficacious prevention and cessation programs. Programming might bolster protective factors in vulnerable youth during critical developmental time points within high-risk life contexts. We conjecture that prolonged addictive lifestyle pathways will be “overdetermined” for young people who (a) are relatively neurobiologically vulnerable to addictions, (b) enter into the emerging adulthood developmental period with some “backlog” of exposure to risky behavior by self or others, and (c) are exposed relatively more frequently to addiction-related trappings (e.g., beer keg parties, raves, sex parties, online gaming teams) in emerging adulthood. Addressing such personal–environmental interactions should be of paramount importance in future research and will be a challenge for the health professions.