Emerging Adulthood(s)

Abstract

Abstract This book focuses mainly on American research, but emerging adulthood is a cultural theory and an international phenomenon. All over the world, young people are attaining longer and more widespread education and entering marriage and parenthood at later ages. Nevertheless, the clarion call for research on emerging adulthood is “one stage, many paths.” That is, although the demographic changes are similar worldwide, there may be many different forms that emerging adulthood can take. This chapter presents research from four places in the world that illustrate this variation: China, India, South Africa, and Brazil. Each of the forms of emerging adulthood in these countries has distinctive features, from filial piety in China to the “Black Tax” in South Africa, but they share a common contrast to the American pattern in their stronger sense of obligation to their natal families.