Emerging Adulthood and Social Class

Abstract

Here I reply to the commentaries by Furstenberg, Silva, and du Bois-Reymond on my essay concerning emerging adulthood (EA) and social class. I support Furstenberg’s suggestion to use national data from other projects to examine questions concerning the relation between EA and social class as well as the distinctiveness of ages 18–25 compared to other age-groups. I also support Silva’s suggestion to dig deeper in the quantitative survey results by using qualitative methods to examine what people mean by their responses. I agree with du Bois-Reymond, too, about the ambiguity of interpreting survey results but argue that other data also support my finding that most American emerging adults hope to find jobs that do good in the world. In sum, this exchange between me and the three critics is an important and constructive step forward in the debate on EA and social class.