Young Adults as a Social Category: Findings from an International Study in Light of Developmental and Cohort Perspectives

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the basic characteristics of the university students who have participated in the Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (YARG) project, as mirrored in the survey data, and to discuss the findings in light of theoretical assumptions about young adults. The chapter provides an introduction to two prevalent research perspectives on youth: a developmental perspective, and a cohort perspective. Background statistics as well as the main findings on religion are then discussed in light of these perspectives. The respondents’ age, civil state and relational commitments are analyzed from a developmental perspective, which assumes similarity on behalf of young adults as a consequence of their age. Furthermore, findings on values and media use are presented in order to explore whether the survey data provides support for the participants forming a generation, the main tenet of a cohort perspective, in terms of sharing values and media habits. The concluding section discusses the extent to which higher education sets university students apart from the youth population in generally, as reflected in the YARG data. The chapter therefore provides a first glimpse into who the participants are, and what the categorization of them as young adults entails.