The Connections Between Adulthood Transitions and the Self-Perception of Being Adult in the Changing Contexts of East and West Germany

Abstract

Against the backdrop of young people's increasingly later role-transitions (discussed as postadolescence or emerging adulthood), the present study examined whether (1) young people of different cohorts decreasingly perceived themselves as adults, and (2) their self-perceptions of being adult were disconnected from role transitions. Young people were asked whether they felt themselves to be adults, adolescents, or something else. The study was based on two surveys conducted in 1991 and 1996 in East and West Germany. The present sample consisted of 20- to 27-year-olds (N = 3171). A complex pattern of findings was expected with regard to education, gender, and differential social change in East and West. Irrespective of time, college-bound youths' rates of subjective adulthood and transitions were lower than those of non-college-bound youth. Furthermore, their subjective adulthood was not connected to role transitions. Transition rates of non-college-bound youth remained stable among Westerners, but significantly declined among Easterners because of their financial insecurity during the restructuring phase of East Germany's economy. Among less-educated youth, subjective adulthood remained connected to role transitions. It was concluded that emerging adulthood applies primarily to well-educated youth whereas segments of noncollege-bound young people still adhere to conventional adulthood conceptions.