Features Of Emerging Adulthood Essay

Words: 312
Pages: 2

I think that most adolescents enrolled in high school, have been bombarded with questions and influences regarding what they will “do” after high school. As a senior aged seventeen or eighteen, how can they possibly make that lifelong decision. I believe part of maturity and growing up is establishing our own identity. As part of my undergraduate degree I took a class about human development that was focused on the age of emerging adults aged eighteen to late twenties. Arnett (2008), introduced five features of emerging adulthood. Identity exploration, age of instability, self-focused age, age of feeling in-between, and the age of possibilities. Identity exploration is exploring various possibilities for love or work while making choices for the foundation of their adult life. Age of instability marks the changes of direction in love, work, or education along with residential moves. Self-focused age means that the emerging adult has little social obligations and a great deal of autonomy. The age of feeling in-between is not a teen and not quite an adult. They must accept responsibility for themselves, make independent decisions, and become financially stable before they consider themselves an adult. Finally, the age of possibilities means a time of hopefulness, an emerging adult has choices of how to …show more content…
That and Arnett’s features of emerging adulthood are possible considerations that a high school career counselor may encounter. Foreclosed identity process is the one of the most concern, interventions for any teens in that group need to be a priority. In high school, coaching students on career development strategies can be effective
(Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2013). A final note (Munsey, 2008) states that some races and minorities have a culture and must find their identity within a larger society, especially with immigrated