Passages to Adulthood: Linking Demographic Change and Human Development

This article explores how demographic change has altered the terrain of early adult life. It considers some new and possible hallmarks of this period of life; some of the psychological capacities and social skills that may serve young people well in a variety of contexts; and the role of families and welfare states as sources of developmental exploration or drift, resilience or risk. The article points to the early adult years as a critical juncture for understanding the accumulation of advantage and disadvantage over the life course, and it shows how a stronger partnership between demography and human development offers promising new avenues for generating innovative theories and research on the transition to adulthood.