Final answer:
Emerging adults face several adjustment issues while transitioning to young adulthood, such as achieving education, financial independence, career establishment, and forming intimate relationships. The delay in traditional milestones is affected by educational demands, economic challenges, and shifting cultural expectations, leading to a period of extended exploration and dependence.
Step-by-step explanation:
Main Adjustment Issues Faced by Emerging Adults As individuals transition from adolescence to young adulthood, they encounter several adjustment issues. The changes related to emerging adulthood are significantly influenced by societal shifts and cultural expectations. With adulthood, one typically assumes new responsibilities, including completing education, establishing a career, and forming lasting relationships.
Historically, completing school, leaving home, achieving financial independence, marrying, and having a child have been considered the five milestones of adulthood. However, for many in the Millennial generation, these milestones are delayed or are evolving. Factors such as increased educational requirements, financial challenges, and an overall delay in the commencement of adult life have changed the landscape. The process includes embracing new social roles, leaving behind the carefree lifestyle of youth, and fostering commitments in personal and professional life.
The idea of Boomerang Generation captures the dilemma of recent college graduates who return home after facing employment challenges. This scenario highlights the adjustment difficulty in becoming self-sufficient. Changing cultural expectations have led to a prolonged period of exploring options, resulting in delayed marriage and extended job and major exploration, pushing the transition to adulthood to a later stage.
Thus, emerging adults are frequently navigating a space that balances parental dependence with the push toward autonomy, leading to a distinct set of psychological, social, and economic challenges that mark this period of transition.