Trail to Adulthood: Status of Youth Grounded on Markers of Adulthood

Abstract

Adulthood is considered as one of the longest life courses; major transition is taking place in one’s life during the entry of this life course. There are markers or milestones one must achieve to enter into adulthood. Many researchers have reported that young people of modern society take much longer time to enter into adulthood and durability of the transition period is unusually longer than normal transition (Arnett, 2000; Cote, 2000; Robbins &Willner, 2001). The term “Emerging Adulthood” is a culturally constructed life course that has been introduced by Arnett (Arnett, 1994). The paper is trying to find out the Perceived adulthood status, Status of achieved markers and the Importance given by the young people to the markers using the Markers of Adulthood scale introduced by Arnett. The study has been conducted among young people aged between 18 and 25 in Kerala, India. The study results show that heterogeneity exists in this age group is related with their adulthood perception and most of the markers are not yet achieved by the majority of the participants. They give importance to their individuality as well as their civic responsibility and parental care.