Human development M 5.2 D

A New Stage of Life Between Adolescence and Early Adulthood?
Should there be a new Stage of Life Between Late Adolescence and Early Adulthood?

Your total response should be at least 250 words, include at least one in-text citation, and should answer each one of the following questions.

As you answer this question; be sure to include:

Information – e.g., cultural or socioeconomic – about where, how and why this new stage might be helpful
Criteria that distinguish this new stage from Adolescence
Criteria that distinguish this new stage from Early Adulthood
A name for this new stage
Similar information about why you do not believe a new stage is helpful or necessary
Please post a response, and respond thoughtfully to at least one other person’s posting.

General Discussion Instructions
Your total response should be at least 250 words. Your explanations should be complete, clear, concise and thorough, and supported by cited information from a class learning resource, and follow APA style with your in-text citation and reference.

ANSWER

There should be a new developmental stage between adolescence and young adulthood. This stage should be known as emerging adulthood, where individuals transitioning to the adulthood level explore their identities. This entails evaluating their goal paths to ensure that they make critical long-term adult commitments. As Lally and Valentine-French (2019) state, this is a stage where people benchmark their adulthood by ensuring that they gain full independence. It prepares individuals for a psychological peak. It should emerge immediately after one leaves the adolescent group to join the next phase of life. The socioeconomic impact of this stage is to help individuals determine and make critical decisions that accelerate their standards of living once they assume the independence stage. For example, at this level, a person can assess if they can operate independently with their career path or if they need to transition to another. The sole target remains to boost one’s standards of living.

The critical element distinguishing the emerging stage from adolescence is the decisions made. The latter makes inadequate decisions as they can still rely on their parents. However, at the emerging adulthood stage, people start making decisions that signify independence and autonomy. The criteria distinguishing emerging and early adulthood include identity, self-focus, and broader responsibilities. For instance, while people start to think about new possibilities in emerging adulthood, the early adulthood level entails actualization (Lally & Valentine, 2019).

The emerging adulthood stage is largely helpful because it allows people to assess if they have been fixated at the present stage depending on their thinking and behavior. It also signifies if people are prepared to move to the next developmental phase. For example, suppose a person is unable to decide to start life on their own away from their parents. In that case, this could indicate fixation and lack of inability to transition to adulthood responsibilities.

Reference

Lally, M., & Valentine-French, S. (2019). Lifespan Development: A psychological perspective. Marth Lally & Valentine-French, Suzanne.