Early Adulthood in a Family Context

I. The contemporary context of young adulthood. The contemporary context of young adulthood in the United States: From demography to development, from private troubles to public issues.-Transition to adulthood, parental support, and early adult well-being: Recent findings from the Youth Development Study.-"First principles": Components, holism, and context of the transition to adulthood.-Young adults in a wireless world.- II. Parent-child relationships that facilitate successful transitions.-Relationships between young adults and their parents.-The implications of family context for the transition to adulthood.-Child well-being and the long reach of family relationships.-Young adults' "need": In the eye of the beholder?-III. Romantic and sexual relationships.-Developmental shifts in the character of romantic and sexual relationships from adolescence to young adulthood.-Challenges in charting the course of romantic relationships in adolescence and emerging adulthood.-I just want your kiss? Sexual relationships in young adulthood.-IV. Family contexts and timing of fertility.-Becoming a Parent: The Social Contexts of Fertility During Young Adulthood.-Childbearing among cohabiting women: Race, pregnancy, and union transitions.-Understanding young fertility in the context of economic disadvantage.-V. The study of young adulthood.-New horizons in research on emerging and young adulthood.-The role of family context in early adulthood: Where we've been and where we're going

Alan Booth, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Human Development & Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He has been a senior scientist in Penn State's Population Research Institute since 1991. Dr. Booth has co-organized the university's National Symposium of Family Issues since its inception in 1993. Dr. Booth directed a 20 year study of marital instability in a national sample of 2000 married persons. The project has been the basis for many studies on the causes of divorce, the effects of divorce on children's well-being, remarriage and step families, as well as the effects on psychological distress, educational achievement, romantic relationships and family formation of having a non-resident parent. Susan M. McHale, Ph.D., is Director of the Social Science Research Institute and The Children, Youth, and Family Consortium and Professor of Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on children's and adolescents' family roles, relationships, and daily experiences and how these family dynamics are linked to youth development and adjustment.

From the reviews:

"The book is based on papers presented at the 18th Annual Symposium on Family Issues in October 2011. ... each part of the book is a coherent piece and with each chapter the reader gets a wider or more detailed picture of the discussed topic. ... book offers valuable insight into how adolescents become adults and into how family is crucial in this process. ... may inform and enlighten our thinking not only about youth transition to adulthood, but also about fertility and family dynamics." (Monika Mynarska, European Journal of Population, Vol. 28, 2012)