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10.4 Cognition in Adolescence and Adulthood

Learning objectives.

• Describe adolescent egocentrism.
• Describe the limitations of adolescent thinking.
• Describe how differences between cross-sectional, longitudinal, and sequential research designed have contributed to our understanding of the development of intelligence in middle adulthood.
• Define crystallized and fluid intelligence.
• Explain how intelligence changes with age.

Cognition in Adolescence

Adolescence is a time of rapid cognitive development. Biological changes in brain structure and connectivity in the brain interact with increased experience, knowledge, and changing social demands to produce rapid cognitive growth. These changes generally begin at puberty or shortly thereafter, and some skills continue to develop as an adolescent ages. Development of executive functions, or cognitive skills that enable the control and coordination of thoughts and behavior, are generally associated with the prefrontal cortex area of the brain. The thoughts, ideas, and concepts developed at this period of life greatly influence one’s future life and play a major role in character and personality formation.

Improvements in basic thinking abilities generally occur in several areas during adolescence:

• Attention . Improvements are seen in selective attention (the process by which one focuses on one stimulus while tuning out another), as well as divided attention (the ability to pay attention to two or more stimuli at the same time).
• Memory . Improvements are seen in working memory and long-term memory.
• Processing speed. Adolescents think more quickly than children. Processing speed improves sharply between age five and middle adolescence, levels off around age 15, and then remains largely the same between late adolescence and adulthood.

Adolescent Egocentrism

Adolescents’ newfound meta-cognitive abilities also have an impact on their social cognition, as it results in increased introspection, self-consciousness, and intellectualization. Adolescents are much better able to understand that people do not have complete control over their mental activity. Being able to introspect may lead to forms of egocentrism, or self-focus, in adolescence. Adolescent egocentrism is a term that David Elkind used to describe the phenomenon of adolescents’ inability to distinguish between their perception of what others think about them and what people actually think in reality . Elkind’s theory on adolescent egocentrism is drawn from Piaget’s theory on cognitive developmental stages, which argues that formal operations enable adolescents to construct imaginary situations and abstract thinking.

Accordingly, adolescents are able to conceptualize their own thoughts and conceive of other people’s thoughts. However, Elkind pointed out that adolescents tend to focus mostly on their own perceptions, especially on their behaviors and appearance, because of the “physiological metamorphosis” they experience during this period. This leads to adolescents’ belief that other people are as attentive to their behaviors and appearance as they are themselves (Elkind, 1967; Schwartz et al.., 2008). According to Elkind, adolescent egocentrism results in two distinct problems in thinking: the imaginary audience and the personal fable. These likely peak at age fifteen, along with self-consciousness in general.

Imaginary audience is a term that Elkind used to describe the phenomenon that an adolescent anticipates the reactions of other people to him/herself in actual or impending social situations . Elkind argued that this kind of anticipation could be explained by the adolescent’s conviction that others are as admiring or as critical of them as they are of themselves. As a result, an audience is created, as the adolescent believes that he or she will be the focus of attention. However, more often than not the audience is imaginary because in actual social situations individuals are not usually the sole focus of public attention. Elkind believed that the construction of imaginary audiences would partially account for a wide variety of typical adolescent behaviors and experiences; and imaginary audiences played a role in the self-consciousness that emerges in early adolescence. However, since the audience is usually the adolescent’s own construction, it is privy to his or her own knowledge of him/herself. According to Elkind, the notion of imaginary audience helps to explain why adolescents usually seek privacy and feel reluctant to reveal themselves–it is a reaction to the feeling that one is always on stage and constantly under the critical scrutiny of others.

Elkind also suggested that adolescents have another complex set of beliefs: They are convinced that their own feelings are unique and they are special and immortal. Personal fable is the term Elkind used to describe this notion, which is the complement of the construction of an imaginary audience. Since an adolescent usually fails to differentiate their own perceptions and those of others, they tend to believe that they are of importance to so many people (the imaginary audiences) that they come to regard their feelings as something special and unique. They may feel that they are the only ones who have experienced strong and diverse emotions, and therefore others could never understand how they feel. This uniqueness in one’s emotional experiences reinforces the adolescent’s belief of invincibility, especially to death.

This adolescent belief in personal uniqueness and invincibility becomes an illusion that they can be above some of the rules, constraints, and laws that apply to other people; even consequences such as death (called the invincibility fable ). This belief that one is invincible removes any impulse to control one’s behavior (Lin, 2016). Therefore, some adolescents will engage in risky behaviors, such as drinking and driving or unprotected sex, and feel they will not suffer any negative consequences.

Intuitive and Analytic Thinking

Piaget emphasized the sequence of cognitive developments that unfold in  four stages. Others suggest that thinking does not develop in sequence, but instead, that advanced logic in adolescence may be influenced by intuition. Cognitive psychologists often refer to intuitive and analytic thought as the dual-process model ; the notion that humans have two distinct networks for processing information (Kuhn, 2013.)

Intuitive thought is automatic, unconscious, and fast, and it is more experiential and emotional . In contrast , analytic thought is d eliberate, conscious, and rational (logical) . Although these systems interact, they are distinguishable (Kuhn, 2013). Intuitive thought is easier, quicker, and more commonly used in everyday life. The discrepancy between the maturation of the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex, as discussed previously, may make teens more prone to emotional intuitive thinking than adults.

As adolescents develop, they gain in logic/analytic thinking ability but may sometimes regress, with social context, education, and experiences becoming major influences. Simply put, being “smarter” as measured by an intelligence test does not advance or anchor cognition as much as having more experience, in school and in life (Klaczynski & Felmban, 2014).

Risk-taking

Because most injuries sustained by adolescents are related to risky behavior (alcohol consumption and drug use, reckless or distracted driving, and unprotected sex), a great deal of research has been conducted to examine the cognitive and emotional processes underlying adolescent risk-taking. In addressing this issue, it is important to distinguish three facets of these questions: (1) whether adolescents are more likely to engage in risky behaviors (prevalence), (2) whether they make risk-related decisions similarly or differently than adults (cognitive processing perspective), or (3) whether they use the same processes but weigh facets differently and thus arrive at different conclusions. Behavioral decision-making theory proposes that adolescents and adults both weigh the potential rewards and consequences of an action. However, research has shown that adolescents seem to give more weight to rewards, particularly social rewards, than do adults. Adolescents value social warmth and friendship, and their hormones and brains are more attuned to those values than to a consideration of long-term consequences (Crone & Dahl, 2012).

Some have argued that there may be evolutionary benefits to an increased propensity for risk-taking in adolescence. For example, without a willingness to take risks, teenagers would not have the motivation or confidence necessary to leave their family of origin. In addition, from a population perspective, is an advantage to having a group of individuals willing to take more risks and try new methods, counterbalancing the more conservative elements typical of the received knowledge held by older adults.

Cognitive Development in Early Adulthood

Emerging adulthood brings with it the consolidation of formal operational thought, and the continued integration of the parts of the brain that serve emotion, social processes, and planning and problem solving. As a result, rash decisions and risky behavior decrease rapidly across early adulthood. Increases in epistemic cognition are also seen, as young adults’ meta-cognition, or thinking about thinking, continues to grow, especially young adults who continue with their schooling.

Perry’s Scheme

One of the first theories of cognitive development in early adulthood originated with William Perry (1970), who studied undergraduate students at Harvard University.  Perry noted that over the course of students’ college years, cognition tended to shift from dualism (absolute, black and white, right and wrong type of thinking) to multiplicity (recognizing that some problems are solvable and some answers are not yet known) to relativism (understanding the importance of the specific context of knowledge—it’s all relative to other factors). Similar to Piaget’s formal operational thinking in adolescence, this change in thinking in early adulthood is affected by educational experiences.

Table 9.2 Stages of Perry’s Scheme

adapted from Lifespan Development by Lumen Learning

Some researchers argue that a qualitative shift in cognitive development takes place for some emerging adults during their mid to late twenties. As evidence, they point to studies documenting continued integration and focalization of brain functioning, and studies suggesting that this developmental period often represents a turning point, when young adults engaging in risky behaviors (e.g., gang involvement, substance abuse) or an unfocused lifestyle (e.g., drifting from job to job or relationship to relationship) seem to “wake up” and take ownership for their own development. It is a common point for young adults to make decisions about completing or returning to school, and making and following through on decisions about vocation, relationships, living arrangements, and lifestyle. Many young adults can actually remember these turning points as a moment when they could suddenly “see” where they were headed (i.e., the likely outcomes of their risky behaviors or apathy) and actively decided to take a more self-determined pathway.

Cognition in Middle Adulthood

The brain at midlife has been shown to not only maintain many of the abilities of young adults, but also gain new ones. Some individuals in middle age actually have improved cognitive functioning (Phillips, 2011). The brain continues to demonstrate plasticity and rewires itself in middle age based on experiences. Research has demonstrated that older adults use more of their brains than younger adults. In fact, older adults who perform the best on tasks are more likely to demonstrate bilateralization than those who perform worst. Additionally, the amount of white matter in the brain, which is responsible for forming connections among neurons, increases into the 50s before it declines.

Emotionally, the middle-aged brain is calmer, less neurotic, more capable of managing emotions, and better able to negotiate social situations (Phillips, 2011). Older adults tend to focus more on positive information and less on negative information than do younger adults. In fact, they also remember positive images better than those younger. Additionally, the older adult’s amygdala responds less to negative stimuli. Lastly, adults in middle adulthood make better financial decisions, a capacity which seems to peak at age 53, and show better economic understanding. Although greater cognitive variability occurs among middle aged adults when compared to those both younger and older, those in midlife who experience cognitive improvements tend to be more physically, cognitively, and socially active.

Crystalized versus Fluid Intelligence

Intelligence is influenced by heredity, culture, social contexts, personal choices, and certainly age. One distinction in specific intelligences noted in adulthood, is between fluid intelligence , which refers to the capacity to learn new ways of solving problems and performing activities quickly and abstractly , and crystallized intelligence , which refers to the accumulated knowledge of the world we have acquired throughout our lives (Salthouse, 2004). These intelligences are distinct, and show different developmental pathways as pictured in Figure 10.22. Fluid intelligence tends to decrease with age (staring in the late 20s to early 30s), whereas crystallized intelligence generally increases all across adulthood (Horn et al., 1981; Salthouse, 2004).

Fluid intelligence, sometimes called the mechanics of intelligence, tends to rely on perceptual speed of processing, and perceptual speed is one of the primary capacities that shows age-graded declines starting in early adulthood, as seen not only in cognitive tasks but also in athletic performance and other tasks that require speed. In contrast, research demonstrates that crystallized intelligence, also called the pragmatics of intelligence, continues to grow all during adulthood, as older adults acquire additional semantic knowledge, vocabulary, and language. As a result, adults generally outperform younger people on tasks where this information is useful, such as measures of history, geography, and even on crossword puzzles (Salthouse, 2004). It is this superior knowledge, combined with a slower and more complete processing style, along with a more sophisticated understanding of the workings of the world around them, that gives older adults the advantage of “wisdom” over the advantages of fluid intelligence which favor the young (Baltes et al., 1999; Scheibe et al., 2009).

These differential changes in crystallized versus fluid intelligence help explain why older adults do not necessarily show poorer performance on tasks that also require experience (i.e., crystallized intelligence), although they show poorer memory overall. A young chess player may think more quickly, for instance, but a more experienced chess player has more knowledge to draw upon.

Seattle Longitudinal Study

The Seattle Longitudinal Study has tracked the cognitive abilities of adults since 1956. Every seven years the current participants are evaluated, and new individuals are also added. Approximately 6000 people have participated thus far, and 26 people from the original group are still in the study today. Current results demonstrate that middle-aged adults perform better on four out of six cognitive tasks than those same individuals did when they were young adults. Verbal memory, spatial skills, inductive reasoning (generalizing from particular examples), and vocabulary increase with age until one’s 70s (Schaie, 2005; Willis & Shaie, 1999). In contrast, perceptual speed declines starting in early adulthood, and numerical computation shows declines starting in middle and late adulthood (see Figure 10.23).

Cognitive skills in the aging brain have been studied extensively in pilots, and similar to the Seattle Longitudinal Study results, older pilots show declines in processing speed and memory capacity, but their overall performance seems to remain intact. According to Phillips (2011) researchers tested pilots age 40 to 69 as they performed on flight simulators. Older pilots took longer to learn to use the simulators but subsequently performed better than younger pilots at avoiding collisions.

Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is pragmatic or practical and learned through experience rather than explicitly taught, and it also increases with age (Hedlund et al., 2002). Tacit knowledge might be thought of as “know-how” or “professional instinct.” It is referred to as tacit because it cannot be codified or written down. It does not involve academic knowledge, rather it involves being able to use skills and to problem-solve in practical ways. Tacit knowledge can be seen clearly in the workplace and underlies the steady improvements in job performance documented across age and experience, as seen for example, in the performance of both white and blue collar workers, such as carpenters, chefs, and hair dressers.

Cognition in Late Adulthood

Changes in sensory functioning and speed of processing information in late adulthood often translate into changes in attention (Jefferies et al., 2015). Research has shown that older adults are less able to selectively focus on information while ignoring distractors (Jefferies et al., 2015; Wascher et al., 2012), although Jefferies and her colleagues found that when given double time, older adults could perform at the same level as young adults. Other studies have also found that older adults have greater difficulty shifting their attention between objects or locations (Tales et al., 2002).

Consider the implication of these attentional changes for older adults.    How does maintenance or loss of cognitive ability affect older adults’ everyday lives? Researchers have studied cognition in the context of several different everyday activities. One example is driving. Although older adults often have more years of driving experience, cognitive declines related to reaction time or attentional processes may pose limitations under certain circumstances (Park & Gutchess, 2000). In contrast, research on interpersonal problem solving suggests that older adults use more effective strategies than younger adults to navigate through social and emotional problems (Blanchard-Fields, 2007). In the context of work, researchers rarely find that older individuals perform more poorly on the job (Park & Gutchess, 2000). Similar to everyday problem solving, older workers may develop more efficient strategies and rely on expertise to compensate for cognitive declines.

Problem Solving

Declines with age are found on problem-solving tasks that require processing non-meaningful information quickly– a kind of task that might be part of a laboratory experiment on mental processes. However, many real-life challenges facing older adults do not rely on speed of processing or making choices on one’s own. Older adults resolve everyday problems by relying on input from others, such as family and friends. They are also less likely than younger adults to delay making decisions on important matters, such as medical care (Strough et al., 2003; Meegan & Berg, 2002).

What might explain these deficits as we age?

The processing speed theory , proposed by Salthouse (1996, 2004), suggests that as the nervous system slows with advanced age our ability to process information declines . This slowing of processing speed may explain age differences on a variety of cognitive tasks. For instance, as we age, working memory becomes less efficient (Craik & Bialystok, 2006). Older adults also need longer time to complete mental tasks or make decisions. Yet, when given sufficient time (to compensate for declines in speed), older adults perform as competently as do young adults (Salthouse, 1996). Thus, when speed is not imperative to the task, healthy older adults generally do not show cognitive declines.

In contrast, inhibition theory argues that older adults have difficulty with tasks that require inhibitory functioning, or the ability to focus on certain information while suppressing attention to less pertinent information  (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Evidence comes from directed forgetting research. In directed forgetting people are asked to forget or ignore some information, but not other information. For example, you might be asked to memorize a list of words but are then told that the researcher made a mistake and gave you the wrong list and asks you to “forget” this list. You are then given a second list to memorize. While most people do well at forgetting the first list, older adults are more likely to recall more words from the “directed-to-forget” list than are younger adults (Andrés et al., 2004).

Aging stereotypes exaggerate cognitive losses

While there are information processing losses in late adulthood, many argue that research exaggerates normative losses in cognitive functioning during old age  (Garrett, 2015). One explanation is that the type of tasks that people are tested on tend to be meaningless. For example, older individuals are not motivated to remember a random list of words in a study, but they are motivated for more meaningful material related to their life, and consequently perform better on those tests. Another reason is that researchers often estimate age declines from age differences found in cross-sectional studies. However, when age comparisons are conducted longitudinally (thus removing cohort differences from age comparisons), the extent of loss is much smaller (Schaie, 1994).

A third possibility is that losses may be due to the disuse of various skills. When older adults are given structured opportunities to practice skills, they perform as well as they had previously. Although diminished speed is especially noteworthy during late adulthood, Schaie (1994) found that when the effects of speed are statistically removed, fewer and smaller declines are found in other aspects of an individual’s cognitive performance. In fact, Salthouse and Babcock (1991) demonstrated that processing speed accounted for all but 1% of age-related differences in working memory when testing individuals from ages 18 to 82. Finally, it is well established that hearing and vision decline as we age. Longitudinal research has found that deficits in sensory functioning explain age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities (Baltes & Lindenberger, 1997). Not surprisingly, more years of education, higher income, and better health care (which go together) are associated with higher levels of cognitive performance and slower cognitive decline (Zahodne et al., 2015).

Watch this video from SciShow Psych to learn about ways to keep the mind young and active.

You can  view the transcript for “The Best Ways to Keep Your Mind Young” here (opens in new window) .

Intelligence and Wisdom

When looking at scores on traditional intelligence tests, tasks measuring verbal skills show minimal or no age-related declines, while scores on performance tests, which measure solving problems quickly, decline with age (Botwinick, 1984). This profile mirrors crystalized and fluid intelligence. Baltes (1993) introduced two additional types of intelligence to reflect cognitive changes in aging. Pragmatics of intelligence are cultural exposure to facts and procedures that are maintained as one ages and are similar to crystalized intelligence. Mechanics of intelligence are dependent on brain functioning and decline with age, similar to fluid intelligence. Baltes indicated that pragmatics of intelligence show little decline and typically increase with age whereas mechanics decline steadily, staring at a relatively young age. Additionally, pragmatics of intelligence may compensate for the declines that occur with mechanics of intelligence. In summary, global cognitive declines are not typical as one ages, and individuals typically compensate for some cognitive declines, especially processing speed.

Wisdom has been defined as “ expert knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life that permits exceptional insight, judgment and advice about complex and uncertain matters” ( Baltes & Smith, 1990). A wise person is insightful and has knowledge that can be used to overcome obstacles in living. Does aging bring wisdom? While living longer brings experience, it does not always bring wisdom. Paul Baltes and his colleagues (Baltes & Kunzmann, 2004; Baltes & Staudinger, 2000) suggest that wisdom is rare. In addition, the emergence of wisdom can be seen in late adolescence and young adulthood, with there being few gains in wisdom over the course of adulthood (Staudinger & Gluck, 2011). This would suggest that factors other than age are stronger determinants of wisdom. Occupations and experiences that emphasize others rather than self, along with personality characteristics, such as openness to experience and generativity, are more likely to provide the building blocks of wisdom (Baltes & Kunzmann, 2004). Age combined with a certain types of experience and/or personality brings wisdom.

Andrés, P., Van der Linden, M., & Parmentier, F. B. R. (2004). Directed forgetting in working memory: Age-related differences.  Memory, 12 , 248-256.

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Emerging Adulthood & Cognition

Emerging adulthood.

Historically, early adulthood was considered to last from approximately the age of 18 (the end of adolescence) until 40 or 45 (the beginning of middle adulthood). More recently, developmentalists have divided this 25 year age period into two separate stages: Emerging adulthood followed by early adulthood. Although these age periods differ in their physical, cognitive, and social development, overall the age period from 18 to 40 is a time of peak physical capabilities and the emergence of more mature cognitive development, financial independence, and the establishment of intimate relationships.

Emerging Adulthood Defined

Emerging adulthood is the period between the late teens and early twenties ; ages 18-25, although some researchers have included up to age 29 in their definitions (Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood, 2016). Jeffrey Arnett (2000) argues that emerging adulthood is neither adolescence nor is it young adulthood. Individuals in this age period have left behind the relative dependency of childhood and adolescence but have not yet taken on the responsibilities of adulthood. “Emerging adulthood is a time of life when many different directions remain possible, when little about the future is decided for certain, when the scope of independent exploration of life’s possibilities is greater for most people than it will be at any other period of the life course” (Arnett, 2000, p. 469). Arnett identified five characteristics of emerging adulthood that distinguish it from adolescence and young adulthood (Arnett, 2006).

• It is the age of identity exploration . In 1950, Erik Erikson proposed that it was during adolescence that humans wrestled with the question of identity. Yet, even Erikson (1968) commented on a trend during the 20th century of a “prolonged adolescence” in industrialized societies. Today, most identity development occurs during the late teens and early twenties rather than adolescence. It is during emerging adulthood that people are exploring their career choices and ideas about intimate relationships, setting the foundation for adulthood.
•  Arnett also described this time period as the age of instability (Arnett, 2000; Arnett, 2006). Exploration generates uncertainty and instability. Emerging adults change jobs, relationships, and residences more frequently than other age groups.
• This is also the age of self-focus . Being self-focused is not the same as being “self-centered.” Adolescents are more self-centered than emerging adults. Arnett reports that in his research, he found emerging adults to be very considerate of the feelings of others, especially their parents. They now begin to see their parents as people not just parents, something most adolescents fail to do (Arnett, 2006). Nonetheless, emerging adults focus more on themselves, as they realize that they have few obligations to others and that this is the time where they can do what they want with their life.
• This is also the age of feeling in-between. When asked if they feel like adults, more 18 to 25 year-olds answer “yes and no” than do teens or adults over the age of 25 (Arnett, 2001). Most emerging adults have gone through the changes of puberty, are typically no longer in high school, and many have also moved out of their parents’ home. Thus, they no longer feel as dependent as they did as teenagers. Yet, they may still be financially dependent on their parents to some degree, and they have not completely attained some of the indicators of adulthood, such as finishing their education, obtaining a good full-time job, being in a committed relationship, or being responsible for others. It is not surprising that Arnett found that 60% of 18 to 25 year-olds felt that in some ways they were adults, but in some ways, they were not (Arnett, 2001).
• Emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities . It is a time period of optimism as more 18 to 25 year-olds feel that they will someday get to where they want to be in life. Arnett (2000, 2006) suggests that this optimism is because these dreams have yet to be tested. For example, it is easier to believe that you will eventually find your soul mate when you have yet to have had a serious relationship. It may also be a chance to change directions, for those whose lives up to this point have been difficult. The experiences of children and teens are influenced by the choices and decisions of their parents. If the parents are dysfunctional, there is little a child can do about it. In emerging adulthood, however, people can move out and move on. They have the chance to transform their lives and move away from unhealthy environments. Even those whose lives were happy and fulfilling as children, now have the opportunity in emerging adulthood to become independent and make their own decisions about the direction they would like their lives to take.

Socioeconomic Class and Emerging Adulthood.  The theory of emerging adulthood was initially criticized as only reflecting upper middle-class, college-attending young adults in the United States and not those who were working class or poor (Arnett, 2016). Consequently, Arnett reviewed results from the 2012 Clark University Poll of Emerging Adults, whose participants were demographically similar to the United States population. Results primarily indicated consistencies across aspects of the theory, including positive and negative perceptions of the time-period and views on education, work, love, sex, and marriage. Two significant differences were found, the first being that emerging adults from lower socioeconomic classes identified more negativity in their emotional lives, including higher levels of depression. Secondly, those in the lowest socioeconomic group were more likely to agree that they had not been able to find sufficient financial support to obtain the education they believed they needed. Overall, Arnett concluded that emerging adulthood exists wherever there is a period between the end of adolescence and entry into adult roles, but also acknowledged that social, cultural, and historical contexts were important.

Cross-cultural Variations.  The five features proposed in the theory of emerging adulthood originally were based on research involving Americans between ages 18 and 29 from various ethnic groups, social classes, and geographical regions (Arnett, 2004, 2016). To what extent does the theory of emerging adulthood apply internationally?

The answer to this question depends greatly on what part of the world is considered. Demographers make a useful distinction between the developing countries that comprise the majority of the world’s population and the economically developed countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The current population of OECD countries (also called developed countries) is 1.2 billion, about 18% of the total world population (United Nations Development Programme, 2011). The rest of the population resides in developing countries, which have much lower median incomes, much lower median educational attainment, and much higher incidence of illness, disease, and early death. Let us consider emerging adulthood in other OECD countries as little is known about the experiences of 18-25 year-olds in developing countries.

The same demographic changes as described above for the United States have taken place in other OECD countries as well. This is true of increasing participation in postsecondary education, as well as increases in the median ages for entering marriage and parenthood (UNdata, 2010). However, there is also substantial variability in how emerging adulthood is experienced across OECD countries. Europe is the region where emerging adulthood is longest and most leisurely. The median ages for entering marriage and parenthood are near 30 in most European countries (Douglass, 2007). Europe today is the location of the most affluent, generous, and egalitarian societies in the world, in fact, in human history (Arnett, 2007). Governments pay for tertiary education, assist young people in finding jobs, and provide generous unemployment benefits for those who cannot find work. In northern Europe, many governments also provide housing support. Emerging adults in European societies make the most of these advantages, gradually making their way to adulthood during their twenties while enjoying travel and leisure with friends.

The lives of emerging adults in developed Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, are in some ways similar to the lives of emerging adults in Europe and in some ways strikingly different. Like European emerging adults, Asian emerging adults tend to enter marriage and parenthood around age 30 (Arnett, 2011). Like European emerging adults, Asian emerging adults in Japan and South Korea enjoy the benefits of living in affluent societies with generous social welfare systems that provide support for them in making the transition to adulthood, including free university education and substantial unemployment benefits.

However, in other ways, the experience of emerging adulthood in Asian OECD countries is markedly different than in Europe. Europe has a long history of individualism, and today’s emerging adults carry that legacy with them in their focus on self-development and leisure during emerging adulthood. In contrast, Asian cultures have a shared cultural history emphasizing collectivism and family obligations.

Although Asian cultures have become more individualistic in recent decades, as a consequence of globalization, the legacy of collectivism persists in the lives of emerging adults. They pursue identity explorations and self-development during emerging adulthood, like their American and European counterparts, but within narrower boundaries set by their sense of obligations to others, especially their parents (Phinney & Baldelomar, 2011). For example, in their views of the most important criteria for becoming an adult, emerging adults in the United States and Europe consistently rank financial independence among the most important markers of adulthood. In contrast, emerging adults with an Asian cultural background especially emphasize becoming capable of supporting parents financially as among the most important criteria (Arnett, 2003; Nelson, Badger, & Wu, 2004). This sense of family obligation may curtail their identity explorations in emerging adulthood to some extent, and compared to emerging adults in the West, they pay more heed to their parents’ wishes about what they should study, what job they should take, and where they should live  (Rosenberger, 2007).

When Does Adulthood Begin? According to Rankin and Kenyon (2008), in years past the process of becoming an adult was more clearly marked by rites of passage. For many, marriage and parenthood were considered entry into adulthood. However, these role transitions are no longer considered the important markers of adulthood (Arnett, 2001). Economic and social changes have resulted in more young adults attending college (Rankin & Kenyon, 2008) and delaying marriage and having children (Arnett & Taber, 1994; Laursen & Jensen-Campbell, 1999) Consequently, current research has found financial independence and accepting responsibility for oneself to be the most important markers of adulthood in Western culture across age (Arnett, 2001) and ethnic groups (Arnett, 2004).

In looking at college students’ perceptions of adulthood, Rankin and Kenyon (2008) found that some students still view rites of passage as important markers. College students who placed more importance on role transition markers, such as parenthood and marriage, belonged to a fraternity/sorority, were traditionally aged (18–25), belonged to an ethnic minority, were of a traditional marital status (i.e., not cohabitating), or belonged to a religious organization, particularly for men. These findings supported the view that people holding collectivist or more traditional values place more importance on role transitions as markers of adulthood. In contrast, older college students and those cohabitating did not value role transitions as markers of adulthood as strongly.

Young Adults Living Arrangements.  In 2014, for the first time in more than 130 years, adults 18 to 34 were more likely to be living in their parents’ home than they were to be living with a spouse or partner in their own household (Fry, 2016). The current trend is that young Americans are not choosing to settle down romantically before age 35. Since 1880, living with a romantic partner was the most common living arrangement among young adults. In 1960, 62% of America’s 18- to 34-year-olds were living with a spouse or partner in their own household, while only 20% were living with their parents.

By 2014, 31.6% of early adults were living with a spouse or partner in their own household, while 32.1% were living in the home of their parent(s). Another 14% of early adults lived alone, were a single parent, or lived with one or more roommates. The remaining 22% lived in the home of another family member (such as a grandparent, in-law, or sibling), a non-relative, or in group quarters (e.g., college dormitories). Comparing ethnic groups, 36% of black and Hispanic early adults lived at home, while 30% of white young adults lived at home.

As can be seen in Figure 20.2, gender differences in living arrangements were also noted in that young men were living with parents at a higher rate than young women. In 2014, 35% of young men were residing with their parents, while 28% were living with a spouse or partner in their own household. Young women were more likely to be living with a spouse or partner (35%) than living with their parents (29%). Additionally, more young women (16%) than young men (13%) were heading up a household without a spouse or partner, primarily because women are more likely to be single parents living with their children. Lastly, young men (25%) were more likely than young women (19%) to be living in the home of another family member, a non-relative, or in some type of group quarters (Fry, 2016).

What are some factors that help explain these changes in living arrangements? First, early adults are increasingly postponing marriage or choosing not to marry or cohabitate. Lack of employment and lower wages have especially contributed to males residing with their parents. Men who are employed are less likely to live at home. Wages for young men (adjusting for inflation) have been falling since 1970 and correlate with the rise in young men living with their parents. The recent recession and recovery (2007-present) has also contributed to the increase in early adults living at home. College enrollments increased during the recession, which further increased early adults living at home. However, once early adults possess a college degree, they are more likely to establish their own households (Fry, 2016).

Cognitive Development in Early Adulthood

Emerging adulthood brings with it the consolidation of formal operational thought, and the continued integration of the parts of the brain that serve emotion, social processes, and planning and problem solving. As a result, rash decisions and risky behavior decrease rapidly across early adulthood. Increases in epistemic cognition are also seen, as young adults’ meta-cognition, or thinking about thinking, continues to grow, especially young adults who continue with their schooling.

Perry’s Scheme.  One of the first theories of cognitive development in early adulthood originated with William Perry (1970), who studied undergraduate students at Harvard University.  Perry noted that over the course of students’ college years, cognition tended to shift from dualism (absolute, black and white, right and wrong type of thinking) to multiplicity (recognizing that some problems are solvable and some answers are not yet known) to relativism (understanding the importance of the specific context of knowledge—it’s all relative to other factors). Similar to Piaget’s formal operational thinking in adolescence, this change in thinking in early adulthood is affected by educational experiences.

Table 8.1 Stages of Perry's Scheme

Adapted from Lifespan Development by Lumen Learning

Some researchers argue that a qualitative shift in cognitive development tales place for some emerging adults during their mid to late twenties. As evidence, they point to studies documenting continued integration and focalization of brain functioning, and studies suggesting that this developmental period often represents a turning point, when young adults engaging in risky behaviors (e.g., gang involvement, substance abuse) or an unfocused lifestyle (e.g., drifting from job to job or relationship to relationship) seem to “wake up” and take ownership for their own development. It is a common point for young adults to make decisions about completing or returning to school, and making and following through on decisions about vocation, relationships, living arrangements, and lifestyle. Many young adults can actually remember these turning points as a moment when they could suddenly “see” where they were headed (i.e., the likely outcomes of their risky behaviors or apathy) and actively decided to take a more self-determined pathway.

Optional Reading: Current Trends in Post-secondary Education

According to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) (2016a, 2016b, 2016c, 2016d), in the United States:

• 84% of 18 to 24 year olds and 88% of those 25 and older have a high school diploma or its equivalent
• 36% of 18 to 24 year olds and 7% of 25 to 49 year olds attend college
• 59% of those 25 and older have completed some college
• 32.5% of those 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, with slightly more women (33%) than men (32%) holding a college degree (Ryan & Bauman, 2016).

The rate of college attainment has grown more slowly in the United States than in a number of other nations in recent years (OCED, 2014). This may be due to fact that the cost of attaining a degree is higher in the U.S. than in most other nations.

In 2017, 65% of college seniors who graduated from private and public nonprofit colleges had student loan debt, and nationally owed an average of $28,650, a 1% decline from 2016 (The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), 2018).

According to the most recent TICAS annual report, the rate of debt varied widely across states, as well as between colleges. The after graduation debt ranged from $18,850 in Utah to $38,500 in Connecticut. Low-debt states are mainly in the West, and high-debt states in the Northeast. In recent years there has been a concern about students carrying more debt and being more likely to default when attending for-profit institutions. In 2016, students at for-profit schools borrowed an average of $39,900, which was 41% higher than students at non-profit schools that year. In addition, 30% of students attending for-profit colleges default on their federal student loans. In contrast, the default level of those who attended public institutions is only 4% (TICAS, 2018).

College student debt has become a key political issue at both the state and federal level, and some states have been taking steps to increase spending and grants to help students with the cost of college. However, 15% of the Class of 2017’s college debt was owed to private lenders (TICAS, 2018). Such debt has less consumer protection, fewer options for repayment, and is typically negotiated at a higher interest rate. See Table 7.1 for a debt comparison of 6 U.S. States.

Graduate School: Larger amounts of student debt actually occur at the graduate level (Kreighbaum, 2019). In 2019, the highest average debts were concentrated in the medical fields. Average median debt for graduate programs included:

• $42,335 for a master’s degree
• $95,715 for a doctoral degree
• $141,000 for a professional degree

Worldwide, over 80% of college educated adults are employed, compared with just over 70% of those with a high school or equivalent diploma, and only 60% of those with no high school diploma (OECD, 2015). Those with a college degree will earn more over the course of their life time. Moreover, the benefits of college education go beyond employment and finances. The OECD found that around the world, adults with higher educational attainment were more likely to volunteer, felt they had more control over their lives, and thus were more interested in the world around them. Studies of U.S. college students find that they gain a more distinct identity and become more socially competent and less dogmatic and ethnocentric compared to those not in college (Pascarella, 2006).

Is college worth the time and investment? College is certainly a substantial investment each year, with the financial burden falling on students and their families in the U.S., and covered mainly by the government in many other nations. Nonetheless, the benefits both to the individual and the society outweighs the initial costs. As can be seen in Figure 7.18, those in America with the most advanced degrees earn the highest income and have the lowest unemployment.

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55 , 469-480.

Arnett, J. J. (2001). Conceptions of the transitions to adulthood: Perspectives from adolescence to midlife. Journal of Adult Development, 8, 133-143.

Arnett, J. J. (2003). Conceptions of the transition to adulthood among emerging adults in American ethnic groups. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 100 , 63–75.

Arnett, J. J. (2004). Conceptions of the transition to adulthood among emerging adults in American ethnic groups. In J. J. Arnett & N. Galambos (Eds.), Cultural conceptions of the transition to adulthood: New directions in child and adolescent development . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Arnett, J. J. (2006). G. Stanley Hall’s adolescence: Brilliance and non-sense. History of Psychology, 9, 186-197.

Arnett, J. J. (2011). Emerging adulthood(s): The cultural psychology of a new life stage. In L.A. Jensen (Ed.), Bridging cultural and developmental psychology: New syntheses in theory, research, and policy (pp. 255–275). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Arnett, J. J. (2016). Does emerging adulthood theory apply across social classes? National data on a persistent question. Emerging Adulthood, 4 (4), 227-235.

Arnett, J. J., & Taber, S. (1994). Adolescence terminable and interminable: When does adolescence end? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 23 , 517–537.

Arnett, J.J. (2007). The long and leisurely route: Coming of age in Europe today. Current History, 106 , 130-136.

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Douglass, C. B. (2007). From duty to desire: Emerging adulthood in Europe and its consequences. Child Development Perspectives, 1 , 101–108.

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Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis . New York: Norton.

Fry, R. (2016). For first time in modern era, living with parents edges out other living arrangements for 18- to 34- year-olds. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/05/24/for-first-time-in-modern-era-living-with-parents-edges-out-other-living-arrangements-for-18-to-34-year-olds/st_2016-05-24_young-adults-living-03/

Fry, R. (2018). Millenials are the largest generation in the U. S. labor force. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center. Retrieved from: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2018/04/11/millennials-largest-generation-us-labor-force/

Laursen, B., & Jensen-Campbell, L. A. (1999). The nature and functions of social exchange in adolescent romantic relationships. In W. Furman, B. B. Brown, & C. Feiring (Eds.), The development of romantic relationships in adolescence (pp. 50–74). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Nelson, L. J., Badger, S., & Wu, B. (2004). The influence of culture in emerging adulthood: Perspectives of Chinese college students. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28 , 26–36.

Perry, W.G., Jr. (1970). Forms of ethical and intellectual development in the college years: A scheme. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Phinney, J. S. & Baldelomar, O. A. (2011). Identity development in multiple cultural contexts. In L. A. Jensen (Ed.), Bridging cultural and developmental psychology: New syntheses in theory, research and policy (pp. 161-186). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Rankin, L. A. & Kenyon, D. B. (2008). Demarcating role transitions as indicators of adulthood in the 21st century. Who are they? Journal of Adult Development, 15 (2), 87-92. doi: 10.1007/s10804-007-9035-2

Rosenberger, N. (2007). Rethinking emerging adulthood in Japan: Perspectives from long-term single women. Child Development Perspectives, 1 , 92–95.

Sinnott, J. D. (1998). The development of logic in adulthood . NY: Plenum Press.

Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA). (2016). Overview. Retrieved from http://ssea.org/about/index.htm

UNdata (2010). Gross enrollment ratio in tertiary education. United Nations Statistics Division. Retrieved November 5, 2010, from http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=GenderStat&f=inID:68

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Psychology in Action

Early adulthood: changes and challenges.

In psychological research, we tend to assume that people fall into just a few developmental groups: children (before puberty), adolescents (going through puberty), and adults (after puberty). However, if you were to approach the average college freshman and ask her if she felt like she behaved and thought like the average 40-year-old woman, she would probably say no. This idea of continued development after adolescence isn’t a particularly new one, having been described for decades now by various researchers in psychology, but it wasn’t until the year 2000 that Jeffrey Arnett, a researcher at the University of Maryland, proposed that it be recognized as a distinct period of development known as emerging (or early) adulthood (EA; Arnett 2000).

EA is a time period in an individual’s life that is characterized by both external and internal changes. Externally, secondary schooling ends at age 18, and graduates make the decision whether they want to continue into postsecondary education, join the workforce, or do something else entirely. Environments change, often multiple times, as these early adults move out of their parents’ homes and into dorms, apartments, or other living situations with friends, significant others, spouses, or strangers. Once high school is finished, the world opens up to seemingly endless possibilities of what one could do next. Any early adult is already aware of this phenomenon; a 20-year-old might have a friend in college, another who got married and had a baby right out of high school, and another who started their own company and is making a six-figure salary.

We often tend to think of things like self-exploration and identity formation in terms of adolescence, as teenagers begin to push away their parents and feel more influenced by their peers, but college is famous for being a coming-of-age sort of environment. Early adults in college start to associate more with peers that are like-minded and discover, out of the confines of high school class requirements, what they truly enjoy studying. Those who join the workforce start to figure out what kind of work they want to do for the rest of their lives and who they want to associate with in their spare time. With all of these external changes, it’s no wonder that things internally haven’t finished developing yet. Yet research and society still have a strong tendency to associate anyone over the age of 18 with the idea of adulthood. In the United States, at the age of 18, you have a voice in choosing the leadership of the nation; you can decide to join the armed forces; you no longer have to share any academic or medical information with your parents (including decisions to engage in psychological research). For all intents and purposes, you are an adult. But we have learned, increasingly so over just the past couple of decades, that both behaviorally and neurologically, you might not quite be there yet.

Research on this stage of life is still in its early years, so we don’t know everything yet that there is to know about how EA is different than adolescence or later adulthood. Many studies, though, have shown us time and time again that there are developmental trajectories that continue past puberty and into legal adulthood. In terms of the brain, we know that white matter (the axons and myelin sheaths that physically connect brain regions and transmit messages from one part of the brain to another) does not stop developing until the twenties (Lebel et al. 2008), with some tracts (or pathways) not reaching peak maturity until as late as age 40 (Lebel et al. 2012). What this means is that even after leaving behind the life stage of adolescence, early adults’ brains are still working to optimize connectivity between different regions.

One white matter tract in particular that continues to develop post-adolescence is the uncinate fasciculus. This tract connects the limbic system, which is associated with functions like emotion and episodic memory, to the frontal lobe, which is one of the evolutionarily newest parts of the brain and is associated with higher-order functioning like reasoning, decision-making, and planning. The uncinate fasciculus is one of the later tracts to develop, and, while its exact function isn’t entirely known, its association with clinical disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and conduct disorder provide some evidence for its role in socio-emotional functioning (Olson et al. 2015).

Looking at gray matter in the brain tells a similar story; the total amount of gray matter continues to change even past adolescence, with some of the most noticeable and important differences occurring in the prefrontal cortex, which is part of the frontal lobe mentioned earlier. Vijayakumar and colleagues (2017) showed this in a task-based context. They looked at a number of previously completed studies (a method called a meta-analysis) to see what brain regions were most associated with a social exclusion task known as Cyberball in an early adult sample. In this meta-analysis, they found that the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex continued to show changes in how it responded to social exclusion after the end of adolescence (Vijayakumar et al. 2017). Studies like these provide us with a biological lens through which to view the changes still occurring in EA.

On the other hand, we can also see differences between early adults as compared to adolescents and later adults without looking at the brain itself. An area that has caught the attention of some EA researchers is that of risk-taking. Here, we again see this story of continued development in EA, where early adults engage with risk differently than adolescents, but have not yet reached the optimal level of risk taking that adults generally achieve (Brodbeck et al. 2013). Not only does this bring into focus how some of the continued brain development might play out in EA (the higher-level functions of prefrontal cortex are needed in order to inhibit risky behaviors), but it also shines a light on where these developmental processes can lead to psychological issues like addiction (Sussman and Arnett 2014).

In general, psychological research tends to focus on adolescence as a period of heightened vulnerability to mental disorders, and while this is true, the field is starting to recognize that EA is also an important period that exhibits sensitivity to the development of disorders like addiction, but also like depression and schizophrenia (Taber-Thomas and Perez-Edgar 2015). EA is a life stage associated with great external and internal change, and this kind of instability can render a person vulnerable to additional changes that could develop into a full-blown disorder. To give just one example, schizophrenia has been shown to be associated with less gray matter in parts of the prefrontal cortex (e.g. Hooker et al. 2011), a region that is already undergoing changes during EA (as discussed above).

With so many illnesses exhibiting an increased prevalence during this life stage, and so many changes in the brain and behavior occurring even in normal development after adolescence, studying EA provides us with a wealth of knowledge that will help us both to understand what is happening in the internal life of early adults and what it looks like when something abnormal is happening. Continued research on EA will lead us to a clearer understanding of why a college freshman and a 40-year-old woman don’t think the same way, a fact that is often overlooked in many contexts both within and outside of psychological research.

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American psychologist , 55 (5), 469.

Brodbeck, J., Bachmann, M. S., Croudace, T. J., & Brown, A. (2013). Comparing growth trajectories of risk behaviors from late adolescence through young adulthood: An accelerated design. Developmental psychology , 49 (9), 1732.

Hooker, C. I., Bruce, L., Lincoln, S. H., Fisher, M., & Vinogradov, S. (2011). Theory of mind skills are related to gray matter volume in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. Biological psychiatry , 70 (12), 1169-1178.

Lebel, C., Walker, L., Leemans, A., Phillips, L., & Beaulieu, C. (2008). Microstructural maturation of the human brain from childhood to adulthood. Neuroimage , 40 (3), 1044-1055.

Lebel, C., Gee, M., Camicioli, R., Wieler, M., Martin, W., & Beaulieu, C. (2012). Diffusion tensor imaging of white matter tract evolution over the lifespan. Neuroimage , 60 (1), 340-352.

Olson, I. R., Von Der Heide, R. J., Alm, K. H., & Vyas, G. (2015). Development of the uncinate fasciculus: implications for theory and developmental disorders. Developmental cognitive neuroscience , 14 , 50-61.

Sussman, S., & Arnett, J. J. (2014). Emerging adulthood: developmental period facilitative of the addictions. Evaluation & the health professions , 37 (2), 147-155.

Taber-Thomas, B., & Perez-Edgar, K. (2015). Emerging adulthood brain development. In The Oxford handbook of emerging adulthood (pp. 126-141). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Vijayakumar, N., Cheng, T. W., & Pfeifer, J. H. (2017). Neural correlates of social exclusion across ages: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional MRI studies. Neuroimage , 153 , 359-368.

Early Adulthood

Why learn about development changes during early adulthood.

When we are children and teens, we eagerly anticipate each and every birthday, waiting for the next big one…when we’ll finally be grown up and have all the freedoms and rights enjoyed by those who are older than us. Indeed, there are opportunities to drive, buy a car, vote, go to college, join the military, drink, move out on our own, date, live together, get married, work, have children, buy a house, and more. This can be an awesome time in our lives, as we tend to be physically and cognitively strong and healthy, we dream and make plans for the future, find people to share our experiences, and try out new roles. It can also be challenging, stressful, and scary as we realize that a lot of responsibility comes with such freedom. We have probably all seen the coffee mugs that proclaim, “Adulting is hard,” or the t-shirts that announce, “I can’t adult today” (typically worn by young adults!).

Development is a process, and we aren’t suddenly adults at a certain age. In fact, we may even take longer to grow up these days. In this module, we’ll learn about norms, trends, and theories about why certain patterns are forming. It’s even been proposed that there is a new stage of development between adolescence and early adulthood, called “emerging adulthood,” when young people don’t quite feel like they are adults yet and wait longer to join the workforce, move out on their own, get married, and have children. Yet by the end of early adulthood, most of us will have accomplished the important developmental tasks of becoming more autonomous, taking care of ourselves and even others, committing to relationships and jobs/careers, getting married, raising families, and becoming part of our communities. There are, of course, many individual and cultural differences.

Think of your own life. When will you feel like an adult? Or do you already feel like an adult? Why or why not? Did your parents become adults earlier or later in their lives, compared to you?

What you’ll learn to do: explain developmental tasks and physical changes during early adulthood

In this section, we will see how young adults are often at their peak physically, sexually, and in terms of health and reproduction; yet they are also particularly at risk for injury, violence, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and more. As you read, consider whether or not you think young adults are in the prime of their lives.

Learning outcomes

• Summarize the developmental tasks of early adulthood
• Describe physical development and health in early adulthood
• Summarize risky behaviors and causes of death in early adulthood
• Describe sexuality and fertility issues related to early adulthood

Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood

Before we dive into the specific physical changes and experiences of early adulthood, let’s consider the key developmental tasks during this time—the ages between 18 and 40. The beginning of early adulthood, ages 18-25, is sometimes considered its own phase, emerging adulthood, but the developmental tasks that are the focus during emerging adulthood persist throughout the early adulthood years. Look at the list below and try to think of someone you know between 18 and 40 who fits each of the descriptions.

Havighurst (1972) describes some of the developmental tasks of young adults. These include:

• Achieving autonomy: trying to establish oneself as an independent person with a life of one’s own
• Establishing identity: more firmly establishing likes, dislikes, preferences, and philosophies
• Developing emotional stability: becoming more stable emotionally which is considered a sign of maturing
• Establishing a career: deciding on and pursuing a career or at least an initial career direction and pursuing an education
• Finding intimacy: forming first close, long-term relationships
• Becoming part of a group or community: young adults may, for the first time, become involved with various groups in the community. They may begin voting or volunteering to be part of civic organizations (scouts, church groups, etc.). This is especially true for those who participate in organizations as parents.
• Establishing a residence and learning how to manage a household: learning how to budget and keep a home maintained.
• Becoming a parent and rearing children: learning how to manage a household with children.
• Making marital or relationship adjustments and learning to parent.

Think It Over

To what extent do you think these early adulthood developmental tasks have changed in the last several years? How might these tasks vary by culture?

Physical Development in Early Adulthood

The physiological peak.

People in their twenties and thirties are considered young adults. If you are in your early twenties, you are probably at the peak of your physiological development. Your body has completed its growth, though your brain is still developing (as explained in the previous module on adolescence). Physically, you are in the “prime of your life” as your reproductive system, motor ability, strength, and lung capacity are operating at their best. However, these systems will start a slow, gradual decline so that by the time you reach your mid to late 30s, you will begin to notice signs of aging. This includes a decline in your immune system, your response time, and your ability to recover quickly from physical exertion. For example, you may have noticed that it takes you quite some time to stop panting after running to class or taking the stairs. But, remember that both nature and nurture continue to influence development. Getting out of shape is not an inevitable part of aging; it is probably due to the fact that you have become less physically active and have experienced greater stress. The good news is that there are things you can do to combat many of these changes. So keep in mind, as we continue to discuss the lifespan, that some of the changes we associate with aging can be prevented or turned around if we adopt healthier lifestyles.

In fact, research shows that the habits we establish in our twenties are related to certain health conditions in middle age, particularly the risk of heart disease. What are healthy habits that young adults can establish now that will prove beneficial in later life? Healthy habits include maintaining a lean body mass index, moderate alcohol intake, a smoke-free lifestyle, a healthy diet, and regular physical activity. When experts were asked to name one thing they would recommend young adults do to facilitate good health, their specific responses included: weighing self often, learning to cook, reducing sugar intake, developing an active lifestyle, eating vegetables, practicing portion control, establishing an exercise routine (especially a “post-party” routine, if relevant), and finding a job you love.

Being overweight or obese is a real concern in early adulthood. Medical research shows that American men and women with moderate weight gain from early to middle adulthood have significantly increased risks of major chronic disease and mortality (Zheng et al., 2017). Given the fact that American men and women tend to gain about one to two pounds per year from early to middle adulthood, developing healthy nutrition and exercise habits across adulthood is important (Nichols, 2017).

A Healthy, but Risky Time

Early adulthood tends to be a time of relatively good health. For instance, in the United States, adults ages 18-44 have the lowest percentage of physician office visits than any other age group, younger or older.   However, early adulthood seems to be a particularly risky time for violent deaths (rates vary by gender, race, and ethnicity). The leading causes of death for both age groups 15-24 and 25-34 in the U.S. are unintentional injury, suicide, and homicide. Cancer and heart disease follows as the fourth and fifth top causes of death among young adults (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019).

Substance Abuse

Rates of violent death are influenced by substance abuse, which peaks during early adulthood. Some young adults use drugs and alcohol as a way of coping with stress from family, personal relationships, or concerns over being on one’s own. Others “use” because they have friends who use and in the early 20s, there is still a good deal of pressure to conform. Youth transitioning into adulthood have some of the highest rates of alcohol and substance abuse. For instance, rates of binge drinking (drinking five or more drinks on a single occasion) in 2014 were: 28.5 percent for people ages 18 to 20 and 43.3 percent for people ages 21-25. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show increases in drug overdose deaths between 2006 and 2016 (with higher rates among males), but with the steepest increases between 2014 and 2016 occurring among males aged 24-34 and females aged 24-34 and 35-44. Rates vary by other factors including race and geography; increased use and abuse of opioids may also play a role.

Drugs impair judgment, reduce inhibitions, and alter mood, all of which can lead to dangerous behavior. Reckless driving, violent altercations, and forced sexual encounters are some examples. College campuses are notorious for binge drinking, which is particularly concerning since alcohol plays a role in over half of all student sexual assaults. Alcohol is involved nearly 90 percent of the time in acquaintance rape (when the perpetrator knows the victim). Over 40 percent of sexual assaults involve alcohol use by the victim and almost 70 percent involve alcohol use by the perpetrator.

Drug and alcohol use increase the risk of sexually transmitted infections because people are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior when under the influence. This includes having sex with someone who has had multiple partners, having anal sex without the use of a condom, having multiple partners, or having sex with someone whose history is unknown. Such risky sexual behavior puts individuals at increased risk for both sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). STDs are especially common among young people. There are about 20 million new cases of STDs each year in the United States and about half of those infections are in people between the ages of 15 and 24. Also, young people are the most likely to be unaware of their HIV infection, with half not knowing they have the virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019).

Sexual Responsiveness and Reproduction in Early Adulthood

Sexual responsiveness.

Men and women tend to reach their peak of sexual responsiveness at different ages. For men, sexual responsiveness tends to peak in the late teens and early twenties .  Sexual arousal can easily occur in response to physical stimulation or fantasizing. Sexual responsiveness begins a slow decline in the late twenties and into the thirties although a man may continue to be sexually active throughout adulthood. Over time, a man may require more intense stimulation in order to become aroused. Women often find that they become more sexually responsive throughout their 20s and 30s and may peak in the late 30s or early 40s. This is likely due to greater self-confidence and reduced inhibitions about sexuality.

There are a wide variety of factors that influence sexual relationships during emerging adulthood; this includes beliefs about certain sexual behaviors and marriage. For example, among emerging adults in the United States, it is common for oral sex to not be considered “real sex”. In the 1950s and 1960s, about 75 percent of people between the ages of 20–24 engaged in premarital sex; today, that number is 90 percent. Unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections and diseases (STIs/STDs) are a central issue. As individuals move through emerging adulthood, they are more likely to engage in monogamous sexual relationships and practice safe sex.

Reproduction

For many couples, early adulthood is the time for having children. However, delaying childbearing until the late 20s or early 30s has become more common in the United States. The mean age of first-time mothers in the United States increased 1.4 years, from 24.9 in 2000 to 26.3 in 2014. This shift can primarily be attributed to a larger number of first births to older women along with fewer births to mothers under age 20 (CDC, 2016).

Couples delay childbearing for a number of reasons. Women are now more likely to attend college and begin careers before starting families. And both men and women are delaying marriage until they are in their late 20s and early 30s. In 2018, the average age for a first marriage in the United States was 29.8 for men and 27.8 for women.

Infertility

Infertility affects about 6.7 million women or 11 percent of the reproductive age population (American Society of Reproductive Medicine [ASRM], 2006-2010. Male factors create infertility in about a third of the cases. For men, the most common cause is a lack of sperm production or low sperm production.  Female factors cause infertility in another third of cases. For women, one of the most common causes of infertility is an ovulation disorder. Other causes of female infertility include blocked fallopian tubes, which can occur when a woman has had pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) or endometriosis . PID is experienced by 1 out of 7 women in the United States and leads to infertility about 20 percent of the time. One of the major causes of PID is Chlamydia , the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infection in young women. Another cause of pelvic inflammatory disease is gonorrhea . Both male and female factors contribute to the remainder of cases of infertility and approximately 20 percent are unexplained.

Fertility Treatment

The majority of infertility cases (85-90 percent) are treated using fertility drugs to increase ovulation or with surgical procedures to repair the reproductive organs or remove scar tissue from the reproductive tract.   In vitro fertilization (IVF)  is used to treat infertility in less than 5 percent of case s. IVF is used when a woman has blocked or deformed fallopian tubes or sometimes when a man has a very low sperm count. This procedure involves removing eggs from the female and fertilizing the eggs outside the woman’s body. The fertilized egg is then reinserted in the woman’s uterus. The average cost of an IVF cycle in the U.S. is $10,000-15,000 and the average live delivery rate for IVF in 2005 was 31.6 percent per retrieval.  IVF makes up about 99 percent of artificial reproductive procedures. (ASRM, 2006-2010)

Less common procedures include  gamete intrafallopian tube transfer (GIFT) which involves implanting both sperm and ova into the fallopian tube and fertilization is allowed to occur naturally.  Zygote intrafallopian tube transfer (ZIFT) is another procedure in which sperm and ova are fertilized outside of the woman’s body and the fertilized egg or zygote is then implanted in the fallopian tube. This allows the zygote to travel down the fallopian tube and embed in the lining of the uterus naturally. 

Insurance coverage for infertility is required in fourteen states, but the amount and type of coverage available vary greatly (ASRM, 2006-2010). The majority of couples seeking treatment for infertility pay much of the cost. Consequently, infertility treatment is much more accessible to couples with higher incomes. However, grants and funding sour ces may be available for lower-income couples seeking infertility treatment.

Fertility for Singles and Same-Sex Couples

The journey to parenthood may look different for singles same-sex couples.  However, there are several viable options available to them to have their own biological children. Men and women may choose to donate their sperm or eggs to help others reproduce for monetary or humanitarian reasons. Some gay couples may decide to have a surrogate pregnancy. One or both of the men would provide the sperm and choose a carrier. The chosen woman may be the source of the egg and uterus or the woman could be a third party that carries the created embryo.

Reciprocal IVF is used by couples who both possess female reproductive organs. Using in vitro fertilization, eggs are removed from one partner to be used to make embryos that the other partner will hopefully carry in a successful pregnancy.

Artificial insemination  ( AI ) is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female’s cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. AI is most often used by single women who desire to give birth to their own child, women who are in a lesbian relationship, or women who are in a heterosexual relationship but with a male partner who is infertile or who has a physical impairment that prevents intercourse. The sperm used could be anonymous or from a known donor.

What you’ll learn to do: explain cognitive development in early adulthood

We have learned about cognitive development from infancy through adolescence, ending with Piaget’s stage of formal operations. Does that mean that cognitive development stops with adolescence? Couldn’t there be different ways of thinking in adulthood that come after (or “post”) formal operations?

In this section, we will learn about these types of postformal operational thought and consider research done by William Perry related to types of thought and advanced thinking. We will also look at education in early adulthood, the relationship between education and work, and some tools used by young adults to choose their careers.

• Distinguish between formal and postformal thought
• Describe cognitive development and dialectical thought during early adulthood

Cognitive Development in Early Adulthood

Beyond formal operational thought: postformal thought.

In the adolescence module, we discussed Piaget’s formal operational thought. The hallmark of this type of thinking is the ability to think abstractly or to consider possibilities and ideas about circumstances never directly experienced. Thinking abstractly is only one characteristic of adult thought, however. If you compare a 14-year-old with someone in their late 30s, you would probably find that the latter considers not only what is possible, but also what is likely. Why the change? The young adult has gained experience and understands why possibilities do not always become realities. This difference in adult and adolescent thought can spark arguments between the generations.

Here is an example. A student in her late 30s relayed such an argument she was having with her 14-year-old son. The son had saved a considerable amount of money and wanted to buy an old car and store it in the garage until he was old enough to drive. He could sit in it, pretend he was driving, clean it up, and show it to his friends. It sounded like a perfect opportunity. The mother, however, had practical objections. The car would just sit for several years while deteriorating. The son would probably change his mind about the type of car he wanted by the time he was old enough to drive and they would be stuck with a car that would not run. She was also concerned that having a car nearby would be too much temptation and the son might decide to sneak it out for a quick ride before he had a permit or license.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development ended with formal operations, but it is possible that other ways of thinking may develop after (or “post”) formal operations in adulthood (even if this thinking does not constitute a separate “stage” of development). Postformal thought is practical, realistic, and more individualistic, but also characterized by understanding the complexities of various perspectives. As a person approaches the late 30s, chances are they make decisions out of necessity or because of prior experience and are less influenced by what others think. Of course, this is particularly true in individualistic cultures such as the United States. Postformal thought is often described as more flexible, logical, willing to accept moral and intellectual complexities, and dialectical than previous stages in development.

Perry’s Scheme

One of the first theories of cognitive development in early adulthood originated with William Perry (1970), who studied undergraduate students at Harvard University.  Perry noted that over the course of students’ college years, cognition tended to shift from dualism (absolute, black and white, right and wrong type of thinking) to multiplicity (recognizing that some problems are solvable and some answers are not yet known) to relativism (understanding the importance of the specific context of knowledge—it’s all relative to other factors). Similar to Piaget’s formal operational thinking in adolescence, this change in thinking in early adulthood is affected by educational experiences.

Dialectical Thought

In addition to moving toward more practical considerations, thinking in early adulthood may also become more flexible and balanced. Abstract ideas that the adolescent believes in firmly may become standards by which the individual evaluates reality. As Perry’s research pointed out, adolescents tend to think in dichotomies or absolute terms; ideas are true or false; good or bad; right or wrong and there is no middle ground. However, with education and experience, the young adult comes to recognize that there are some right and some wrong in each position. Such thinking is more realistic because very few positions, ideas, situations, or people are completely right or wrong.

Some adults may move even beyond the relativistic or contextual thinking described by Perry; they may be able to bring together important aspects of two opposing viewpoints or positions, synthesize them, and come up with new ideas. This is referred to as  dialectical thought and is considered one of the most advanced aspects of postformal thinking (Basseches, 1984). There isn’t just one theory of postformal thought; there are variations, with emphasis on adults’ ability to tolerate ambiguity or to accept contradictions or find new problems, rather than solve problems, etc. (as well as relativism and dialecticism that we just learned about). What they all have in common is the proposition that the way we think may change during adulthood with education and experience.

Learning Objectives

• Describe the role of parenting in early adulthood
• Differentiate between the various parenting styles

Having Children

Do you want children? Do you already have children? Increasingly, families are postponing or not having children. Families that choose to forego having children are known as childfree families, while families that want but are unable to conceive are referred to as childless families. As more young people pursue their education and careers, age at first marriage has increased; similarly, so has the age at which people become parents. With a college degree, the average age for women to have their first child is 30.3, but without a college degree, the average age is 23.8.  Marital status is also related, as the average age for married women to have their first child is 28.8, while the average age for unmarried women is 23.1. Overall, the average age of first-time mothers has increased to 26, up from 21 in 1972, and the average age of first-time fathers has increased to 31, up from 27 in 1972 in the United States. T he age of first-time parents in the U.S. increased sharply in the 1970s after abortion was legalized. Since the age of first-time parents varies by geographic region in the U.S. and women’s rights to abortion are being challenged in some states, it will be interesting to follow the norms and trends for first-time parents in the future.

The decision to become a parent should not be taken lightly. There are positives and negatives associated with parenting that should be considered. Many parents report that having children increases their well-being (White & Dolan, 2009). Researchers have also found that parents, compared to their non-parent peers, are more positive about their lives (Nelson, Kushlev, English, Dunn, & Lyubomirsky, 2013). On the other hand, researchers have also found that parents, compared to non-parents, are more likely to be depressed, report lower levels of marital quality, and feel like their relationship with their partner is more businesslike than intimate (Walker, 2011).

If you do become a parent, your parenting style will impact your child’s future success in romantic and parenting relationships. Recall from the module on early childhood that there are several different parenting styles.  Authoritative  parenting, arguably the best parenting style, is both demanding and supportive of the child (Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Support refers to the amount of affection, acceptance, and warmth a parent provides. Demandingness refers to the degree a parent controls their child’s behavior. Children who have authoritative parents are generally happy, capable, and successful (Maccoby, 1992).

Other, less advantageous parenting styles include authoritarian (in contrast to authorit ative ), permissive, and uninvolved (Tavassolie, Dudding, Madigan, Thorvardarson, & Winsler, 2016).  Authoritarian  parents are low in support and high in demandingness. Arguably, this is the parenting style used by Harry Potter’s harsh aunt and uncle, and Cinderella’s vindictive stepmother. Children who receive authoritarian parenting are more likely to be obedient and proficient but score lower in happiness, social competence, and self-esteem.  Permissive  parents are high in support and low in demandingness. Their children rank low in happiness and self-regulation and are more likely to have problems with authority.  Uninvolved  parents are low in both support and demandingness. Children of these parents tend to rank lowest across all life domains, lack self-control, have low self-esteem, and are less competent than their peers.

Support for the benefits of authoritative parenting has been found in countries as diverse as the Czech Republic (Dmitrieva, Chen, Greenberger, & Gil-Rivas, 2004), India (Carson, Chowdhurry, Perry, & Pati, 1999), China (Pilgrim, Luo, Urberg, & Fang, 1999), Israel (Mayseless, Scharf, & Sholt, 2003), and Palestine (Punamaki, Qouta, & Sarraj, 1997). In fact, authoritative parenting appears to be superior in Western, individualistic societies—so much so that some people have argued that there is no longer a need to study it (Steinberg, 2001). Other researchers are less certain about the superiority of authoritative parenting and point to differences in cultural values and beliefs. For example, while many European-American children do poorly with too much strictness (authorit arian  parenting), Chinese children often do well, especially academically. The reason for this likely stems from Chinese culture viewing strictness in parenting as related to training, which is not central to American parenting (Chao, 1994).

Class and Culture

The impact of class and culture cannot be ignored when examining parenting styles. It is assumed that authoritative styles are best because they are designed to help the parent raise a child who is independent, self-reliant, and responsible. These are qualities favored in “individualistic” cultures such as the United States, particularly by the middle class.

Authoritarian parenting has been used historically and reflects the cultural need for children to do as they are told. African-American, Hispanic, and Asian parents tend to be more authoritarian than non-Hispanic whites. In collectivistic cultures such as China or Korea, being obedient and compliant are favored behaviors. In societies where family members’ cooperation is necessary for survival, as in the case of raising crops, rearing children who are independent and who strive to be on their own makes no sense. But in an economy based on being mobile in order to find jobs and where one’s earnings are based on education, raising a child to be independent is very important.

Working-class parents are more likely than middle-class parents to focus on obedience and honesty when raising their children. In a classic study on social class and parenting styles called  Class and Conformity , Kohn (1977) explained that parents tend to emphasize qualities that are needed for their own survival when parenting their children. Working-class parents are rewarded for being obedient, reliable, and honest in their jobs. They are not paid to be independent or to question the management; rather, they move up and are considered good employees if they show up on time, do their work as they are told, and can be counted on by their employers. Consequently, these parents reward honesty and obedience in their children. Middle-class parents who work as professionals are rewarded for taking initiative, being self-directed, and assertive in their jobs. They are required to get the job done without being told exactly what to do. They are asked to be innovative and to work independently. These parents encourage their children to have those qualities as well by rewarding independence and self-reliance. Parenting styles can reflect many elements of culture.

The Development of Parents

Think back to an emotional event you experienced as a child. How did your parents react to you? Did your parents get frustrated or criticize you, or did they act patiently and provide support and guidance? Did your parents provide lots of rules for you or let you make decisions on your own? Why do you think your parents behaved the way they did?

Psychologists have attempted to answer these questions about the influences on parents and understand why parents behave the way they do. Because parents are critical to a child’s development, a great deal of research has been focused on the impact that parents have on children. Less is known, however, about the development of parents themselves and the impact of children on parents. Nonetheless, parenting is a major role in an adult’s life. Parenthood is often considered a normative developmental task of adulthood. Cross-cultural studies show that adolescents around the world plan to have children. In fact, most men and women in the United States will become parents by the age of 40 years (Martinez, Daniels, & Chandra, 2012).

People have children for many reasons, including emotional reasons (e.g., the emotional bond with children and the gratification the parent-child relationship brings), economic and utilitarian reasons (e.g., children provide help in the family and support in old age), and social-normative reasons (e.g., adults are expected to have children; children provide status) (Nauck, 2007).

The Changing Face of Parenthood

Parenthood is undergoing changes in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Children are less likely to be living with both parents, and women in the United States have fewer children than they did previously. The average fertility rate of women in the United States was about seven children in the early 1900s and has remained relatively stable at 2.1 since the 1970s (Hamilton, Martin, & Ventura, 2011; Martinez, Daniels, & Chandra, 2012). Not only are parents having fewer children, but the context of parenthood has also changed. Parenting outside of marriage has increased dramatically among most socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups, although college-educated women are substantially more likely to be married at the birth of a child than are mothers with less education (Dye, 2010). Parenting is occurring outside of marriage for many reasons, both economic and social. People are having children at older ages, too. Despite the fact that young people are more often delaying childbearing, most 18- to 29-year-olds want to have children and say that being a good parent is one of the most important things in life (Wang & Taylor, 2011).

Galinsky (1987) was one of the first to emphasize the development of parents themselves, how they respond to their children’s development, and how they grow as parents. Parenthood is an experience that transforms one’s identity as parents take on new roles. Children’s growth and development force parents to change their roles. They must develop new skills and abilities in response to children’s development. Galinsky identified six stages of parenthood that focus on different tasks and goals (see Table 2).

1. The Image-Making Stage

As prospective parents think about and form images about their roles as parents and what parenthood will bring, and prepare for the changes an infant will bring, they enter the image-making stage. Future parents develop their ideas about what it will be like to be a parent and the type of parent they want to be. Individuals may evaluate their relationships with their own parents as a model of their roles as parents.

2. The Nurturing Stage

The second stage, the nurturing stage, occurs at the birth of the baby. A parent’s main goal during this stage is to develop an attachment relationship with their baby. Parents must adapt their romantic relationships, their relationships with their other children, and with their own parents to include the new infant. Some parents feel attached to the baby immediately, but for other parents, this occurs more gradually. Parents may have imagined their infant in specific ways, but they now have to reconcile those images with their actual baby. In incorporating their relationship with their child into their other relationships, parents often have to reshape their conceptions of themselves and their identity. Parenting responsibilities are the most demanding during infancy because infants are completely dependent on caregiving.

3. The Authority Stage

The authority stage occurs when children are 2 years old until about 4 or 5 years old. In this stage, parents make decisions about how much authority to exert over their children’s behavior. Parents must establish rules to guide their child’s behavior and development. They have to decide how strictly they should enforce rules and what to do when rules are broken.

4. The Interpretive Stage

The interpretive stage occurs when children enter school (preschool or kindergarten) to the beginning of adolescence. Parents interpret their children’s experiences as children are increasingly exposed to the world outside the family. Parents answer their children’s questions, provide explanations, and determine what behaviors and values to teach. They decide what experiences to provide their children, in terms of schooling, neighborhood, and extracurricular activities. By this time, parents have experience in the parenting role and often reflect on their strengths and weaknesses as parents, review their images of parenthood, and determine how realistic they have been. Parents have to negotiate how involved to be with their children, when to step in, and when to encourage children to make choices independently.

5. The Interdependent Stage

Parents of teenagers are in the interdependent stage. They must redefine their authority and renegotiate their relationship with their adolescent as the children increasingly make decisions independent of parental control and authority. On the other hand, parents do not permit their adolescent children to have complete autonomy over their decision-making and behavior, and thus adolescents and parents must adapt their relationship to allow for greater negotiation and discussion about rules and limits.

6. The Departure Stage

During the departure stage of parenting, parents evaluate the entire experience of parenting. They prepare for their child’s departure, redefine their identity as the parent of an adult child, and assess their parenting accomplishments and failures. This stage forms a transition to a new era in parents’ lives. This stage usually spans a long time period from when the oldest child moves away (and often returns) until the youngest child leaves. The parenting role must be redefined as a less central role in a parent’s identity.

Despite the interest in the development of parents among laypeople and helping professionals, little research has examined developmental changes in parents’ experience and behaviors over time. Thus, it is not clear whether these theoretical stages are generalizable to parents of different races, ages, and religions, nor do we have empirical data on the factors that influence individual differences in these stages. On a practical note, how-to books and websites geared toward parental development should be evaluated with caution, as not all advice provided is supported by research.

Influences on Parenting

Parenting is a complex process in which parents and children influence one another. There are many reasons that parents behave the way they do. The multiple influences on parenting are still being explored. Proposed influences on parental behavior include 1) parent characteristics, 2) child characteristics, and 3) contextual and sociocultural characteristics (Belsky, 1984; Demick, 1999).

Parent Characteristics

Parents bring unique traits and qualities to the parenting relationship that affect their decisions as parents. These characteristics include the age of the parent, gender, beliefs, personality, developmental history, knowledge about parenting and child development, and mental and physical health. Parents’ personalities affect parenting behaviors. Mothers and fathers who are more agreeable, conscientious, and outgoing are warmer and provide more structure to their children. Parents who are more agreeable, less anxious, and less negative also support their children’s autonomy more than parents who are anxious and less agreeable (Prinzie, Stams, Dekovic, Reijntjes, & Belsky, 2009). Parents who have these personality traits appear to be better able to respond to their children positively and provide a more consistent, structured environment for their children.

Parents’ developmental histories, or their experiences as children, also affect their parenting strategies. Parents may learn parenting practices from their own parents. Fathers whose own parents provided monitoring, consistent and age-appropriate discipline, and warmth were more likely to provide this constructive parenting to their own children (Kerr, Capaldi, Pears, & Owen, 2009). Patterns of negative parenting and ineffective discipline also appear from one generation to the next. However, parents who are dissatisfied with their own parents’ approach may be more likely to change their parenting methods with their own children.

Child Characteristics

Parenting is bidirectional. Not only do parents affect their children, but children also influence their parents. Child characteristics, such as gender, birth order, temperament, and health status, affect parenting behaviors and roles. For example, an infant with an easy temperament may enable parents to feel more effective, as they are easily able to soothe the child and elicit smiling and cooing. On the other hand, a cranky or fussy infant elicits fewer positive reactions from his or her parents and may result in parents feeling less effective in the parenting role (Eisenberg et al., 2008). Over time, parents of more difficult children may become more punitive and less patient with their children (Clark, Kochanska, & Ready, 2000; Eisenberg et al., 1999; Kiff, Lengua, & Zalewski, 2011). Parents who have a fussy, difficult child are less satisfied with their marriages and have greater challenges in balancing work and family roles (Hyde, Else-Quest, & Goldsmith, 2004). Thus, child temperament is one of the child characteristics that influences how parents behave with their children.

Another child characteristic is the gender of the child. Parents respond differently to boys and girls. Parents often assign different household chores to their sons and daughters. Girls are more often responsible for caring for younger siblings and household chores, whereas boys are more likely to be asked to perform chores outside the home, such as mowing the lawn (Grusec, Goodnow, & Cohen, 1996). Parents also talk differently with their sons and daughters, providing more scientific explanations to their sons and using more emotion words with their daughters (Crowley, Callanan, Tenenbaum, & Allen, 2001).

Contextual Factors and Sociocultural Characteristics

The parent-child relationship does not occur in isolation. Sociocultural characteristics, including economic hardship, religion, politics, neighborhoods, schools, and social support, also influence parenting. Parents who experience economic hardship are more easily frustrated, depressed, and sad, and these emotional characteristics affect their parenting skills (Conger & Conger, 2002). Culture also influences parenting behaviors in fundamental ways. Although promoting the development of skills necessary to function effectively in one’s community is a universal goal of parenting, the specific skills necessary vary widely from culture to culture. Thus, parents have different goals for their children that partially depend on their culture (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2008). For example, parents vary in how much they emphasize goals for independence and individual achievements, and goals involving maintaining harmonious relationships and being embedded in a strong network of social relationships. These differences in parental goals are influenced by culture and by immigration status. Other important contextual characteristics, such as the neighborhood, school, and social networks, also affect parenting, even though these settings don’t always include both the child and the parent (Brofenbrenner, 1989). For example, Latina mothers who perceived their neighborhood as more dangerous showed less warmth with their children, perhaps because of the greater stress associated with living a threatening environment (Gonzales et al., 2011). Many contextual factors influence parenting.

Child Care Concerns

About 75.7 percent of mothers of school-aged and 65.1 percent of mothers of preschool-aged children in the United States work outside the home. Since more women have been entering the workplace, there has been a concern that families do not spend as much time with their children. This, however, may not be true. Between 1981 and 1997, the amount of time that parents spent with children increased overall (Sandberg and Hofferth, 2001). Modern numbers for this vary widely, as many parents who work outside of the home also devote significant amounts of time to childcare, to 14 hours a week, compared with 10 in 1965. The amount of this time that is undistracted and involved may be close to 34 minutes a day.

Seventy-five percent of children under age 5 are in scheduled child care programs. Others are cared for by family members, friends, or are in Head Start Programs. Older children are often in after school programs, before school programs, or stay at home alone after school once they are older. Quality childcare programs can enhance a child’s social skills and can provide rich learning experiences. But long hours in poor quality care can have negative consequences for young children in particular. What determines the quality of child care? One very important consideration is the teacher/child ratio. States specify the maximum number of children that can be supervised by one teacher. In general, the younger the children, the more teachers required for a given number of children. The lower the teacher to child ratio, the more time the teacher has for involvement with the children and the less stressed the teacher may be so that the interactions can be more relaxed, stimulating, and positive. The more children there are in a program, the less desirable the program as well. This is because the center may be more rigid in rules and structure to accommodate a large number of children in the facility.

The physical environment should be colorful, stimulating, clean, and safe. The philosophy of the organization and the curriculum available should be child-centered, positive, and stimulating. Providers should be trained in early childhood education as well. A majority of states do not require training for their child care providers. And while a formal education is not required for a person to provide a warm, loving relationship to a child, knowledge of a child’s development is useful for addressing their social, emotional, and cognitive needs in an effective way. By working toward improving the quality of childcare and increasing family-friendly workplace policies, such as more flexible scheduling and perhaps childcare facilities at places of employment, we can accommodate families with smaller children and relieve parents of the stress sometimes associated with managing work and family life.

Learning and Behavior Modification

Parenting and behaviorism.

Parenting generally involves many opportunities to apply principles of behaviorism, especially operant conditioning. In discussing operant conditioning, we use several everyday words—positive, negative, reinforcement, and punishment—in a specialized manner. In operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. Instead,  positive  means you are adding something, and  negative  means you are taking something away.  Reinforcement  means you are increasing a behavior, and  punishment  means you are decreasing a behavior. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, and punishment can also be positive or negative. All reinforcers (positive or negative)  increase  the likelihood of a behavioral response. All punishers (positive or negative)  decrease  the likelihood of a behavioral response. Now let’s combine these four terms: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. (See table below.)

The most effective way to teach a person or animal a new behavior is with positive reinforcement. In  positive reinforcement , a stimulus is added to the situation to increase a behavior. Parents and teachers use positive reinforcement all the time, from offering dessert after dinner, praising children for cleaning their room or completing some work, offering a toy at the end of a successful piano recital, or earning more time for recess. The goal of providing these forms of positive reinforcement is to increase the likelihood of the same behavior occurring in the future.

Positive reinforcement is an extremely effective learning tool, as evidenced by nearly 80 years worth of research. That said, there are many ways to introduce positive reinforcement into a situation. Many people believe that reinforcers must be tangible, but research shows that verbal praise and hugs are very effective reinforcers for people of all ages. Further, research suggests that constantly providing tangible reinforcers may actually be counterproductive in certain situations. For example, paying children for their grades may undermine their intrinsic motivation to go to school and do well. While children who are paid for their grades may maintain good grades, it is to receive the reinforcing pay, not because they have an intrinsic desire to do well. The impact is especially detrimental to students who initially have a high level of intrinsic motivation to do well in school. Therefore, we must provide appropriate reinforcement, and be careful to ensure that the reinforcement does not undermine intrinsic motivation.

In  negative reinforcement , an aversive stimulus is removed to increase a behavior. For example, car manufacturers use the principles of negative reinforcement in their seatbelt systems, which go “beep, beep, beep” until you fasten your seatbelt. The annoying sound stops when you exhibit the desired behavior, increasing the likelihood that you will buckle up in the future. Negative reinforcement is also used frequently in horse training. Riders apply pressure—by pulling the reins or squeezing their legs—and then remove the pressure when the horse performs the desired behavior, such as turning or speeding up. The pressure is the negative stimulus that the horse wants to remove.

Sometimes, adding something to the situation is reinforcing as in the cases we described above with cookies, praise, and money. Positive reinforcement involves adding something to the situation in order to encourage a behavior. Other times, taking something away from a situation can be reinforcing. For example, the loud, annoying buzzer on your alarm clock encourages you to get up so that you can turn it off and get rid of the noise. Children whine in order to get their parents to do something and often, parents give in just to stop the whining. In these instances, children have used negative reinforcement to get what they want.

Operant conditioning tends to work best if you focus on encouraging a behavior or moving a person into the direction you want them to go rather than telling them what not to do. Reinforcers are used to encourage behavior; punishers are used to stop the behavior. A punisher is anything that follows an act and decreases the chance it will reoccur. As with reinforcement, there are also two types of punishment: positive and negative.

Positive punishment involves adding something in order to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur again in the future. Spanking is an example of positive punishment. Receiving a speeding ticket is also an example of positive punishment. Both of these punishers, the spanking and the speeding ticket, are intended to decrease the reoccurrence of the related behavior.

Negative punishment involves removing something that is desired in order to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur again in the future. Putting a child in time out can serve as a negative punishment if the child enjoys social interaction. Taking away a child’s technology privileges can also be a negative punishment. Taking away something desired encourages the child to refrain from engaging in that behavior again to avoid losing the desired object or activity.

Often, punished behavior doesn’t really go away. It is just suppressed and may reoccur whenever the threat of punishment is removed. For example, a child may not cuss around you because you’ve washed his mouth out with soap, but he may cuss around his friends. A motorist may only slow down when the trooper is on the side of the freeway. Another problem with punishment is that when a person focuses on punishment, they may find it hard to see what the other does right or well. Punishment is stigmatizing; when punished, some people start to see themselves as bad and give up trying to change.

Reinforcement can occur in a predictable way, such as after every desired action is performed (called continuous reinforcement), or intermittently, after the behavior is performed a number of times or the first time it is performed after a certain amount of time (called partial reinforcement whether based on the number of times or the passage of time). The schedule of reinforcement has an impact on how long a behavior continues after reinforcement is discontinued. So a parent who has rewarded a child’s actions each time may find that the child gives up very quickly if a reward is not immediately forthcoming. Children will learn quickest under a continuous schedule of reinforcement. Then the parent should switch to a partial reinforcement schedule to maintain the behavior .

Everyday Connection: Behavior Modification in Children

Parents and teachers often use behavior modification to change a child’s behavior. Behavior modification uses the principles of operant conditioning to accomplish behavior change so that undesirable behaviors are switched for more socially acceptable ones. Some teachers and parents create a sticker chart, in which several behaviors are listed. Sticker charts are a form of token economies. Each time children perform the behavior, they get a sticker, and after a certain number of stickers, they get a prize or reinforcer. The goal is to increase acceptable behaviors and decrease misbehavior. Remember, it is best to reinforce desired behaviors, rather than to use punishment. In the classroom, the teacher can reinforce a wide range of behaviors, from students raising their hands to walking quietly in the hall, to turning in their homework. Parents might create a behavior chart at home that rewards children for things such as putting away toys, brushing their teeth, and helping with dinner. For behavior modification to be effective, the reinforcement needs to be connected with the behavior; the reinforcement must matter to the child and be provided consistently.

Time-out is another popular technique used in behavior modification with children. It operates on the principle of negative punishment. When a child demonstrates an undesirable behavior, she is removed from the desirable activity at hand. For example, say that Sophia and her brother Mario are playing with building blocks. Sophia throws some blocks at her brother, so you give her a warning that she will go to time-out if she does it again. A few minutes later, she throws more blocks at Mario. You remove Sophia from the room for a few minutes. When she comes back, she doesn’t throw blocks.

There are several important points that you should know if you plan to implement time-out as a behavior modification technique. First, ensure the child is removed from a desirable activity and placed in a less desirable location. If the activity is something undesirable for the child, this technique will backfire because it is more enjoyable for the child to be removed from the activity. Second, the length of the time-out is important. The general rule of thumb is one minute for each year of the child’s age. Sophia is five; therefore, she sits in a time-out for five minutes. Setting a timer helps children know how long they have to sit in time-out. Finally, as a caregiver, keep several guidelines in mind over the course of a time-out: remain calm when directing your child to time-out; ignore your child during a time-out (because caregiver attention may reinforce misbehavior), and give the child a hug or a kind word when time-out is over.

Do parents socialize children or do children socialize parents?

Bandura’s (1986) findings suggest that there is interplay between the environment and the individual. We are not just the product of our surroundings, rather we influence our surroundings. There is an interplay between our personality, how we interpret events, and how they influence us. This concept is called reciprocal determinism . An example of this might be the interplay between parents and children. Parents not only influence their child’s environment, perhaps intentionally through the use of reinforcement, etc., but children influence parents as well. Parents may respond differently to their first child than with their fourth. Perhaps they try to be the perfect parents with their firstborn, but by the time their last child comes along, they have very different expectations of themselves and their child. Our environment creates us and we create our environment. Today there are numerous other social influences, from TV, games, the Internet, i-pads, phones, social media, influencers, advertisements, etc.

learning outcomes

• Summarize Levinson’s theory of early adulthood transitions

Theories of Early Adult Psychosocial Development

Gaining adult status.

Many of the developmental tasks of early adulthood involve becoming part of the adult world and gaining independence. Young adults sometimes complain that they are not treated with respect, especially if they are put in positions of authority over older workers. Consequently, young adults may emphasize their age to gain credibility from even slightly younger people. “You’re only 23? I’m 27!” a young adult might exclaim. [Note: This kind of statement is much less likely to come from someone in their 40s!]

The focus of early adulthood is often on the future. Many aspects of life are on hold while people go to school, go to work, and prepare for a brighter future. There may be a belief that the hurried life now lived will improve ‘as soon as I finish school’ or ‘as soon as I get promoted’ or ‘as soon as the children get a little older.’ As a result, time may seem to pass rather quickly. The day consists of meeting many demands that these tasks bring. The incentive for working so hard is that it will all result in a better future.

Levinson’s Theory

In 1978, Daniel Levinson published a book entitled, The Seasons of a Man’s Life  in which he presented a theory of development in adulthood. Levinson’s work was based on in-depth interviews with 40 men between the ages of 35-45. According to Levinson, young adults have an image of the future that motivates them. This image is called “the dream” and for the men interviewed, it was a dream of how their career paths would progress and where they would be at midlife.   Dreams are very motivating. Dreams of a home bring excitement to couples as they look, save, and fantasize about how life will be. Dreams of careers motivate students to continue in school as they fantasize about how much their hard work will pay off. Dreams of playgrounds on a summer day inspire would-be parents. A dream is perfect and retains that perfection as long as it remains in the future. But as the realization of it moves closer, it may or may not measure up to its image. If it does, all is well. But if it does not, the image must be replaced or modified. And so, in adulthood, plans are made, efforts follow, and plans are reevaluated. This creating and recreating characterizes Levinson’s theory. (The shift from idealistic dreams to more realistic experiences might remind us of the cognitive development progression from formal to postformal thought in adulthood.)

Levinson’s stages (at least up to midlife) are presented below (Levinson, 1978). He suggested that periods of transition last about five years and periods of stability last about seven years. The ages presented below are based on life in the middle-class several decades ago. Think about how these ages and transitions might be different today, or in other cultures, or for women compared to men.

• Early adult transition (17-22): Leaving home, leaving family; making first choices about career and education
• Entering the adult world (22-28): Committing to an occupation, defining goals, finding intimate relationships
• Age 30 transition (28-33): Reevaluating those choices and perhaps making modifications or changing one’s attitude toward love and work
• Settling down (33 to 40): Reinvesting in work and family commitments; becoming involved in the community
• Midlife transition (40-45): Reevaluating previous commitments; making dramatic changes if necessary; giving expression to previously ignored talents or aspirations; feeling more of a sense of urgency about life and its meaning
• Entering middle adulthood (45-50): Committing to new choices made and placing one’s energies into these commitments

Nearly twenty years after his original research, Levinson interviewed 45 women ages 35-45 and published the book, The seasons of a woman’s life.  He reported similar patterns with women, although women held a “split dream”—an image of the future in both work and family life and a concern with the timing and coordination of the two. Traditionally, by working outside the home, men were seen as taking care of their families. However, for women, working outside the home and taking care of their families were perceived as separate and competing for their time and attention. Hence, one aspect of the women’s dreams was focused on one goal for several years and then their time and attention shifted towards the other, often resulting in delays in women’s career dreams.

Adulthood is a period of building and rebuilding one’s life. Many decisions in early adulthood are made before a person has had enough experience to really understand the consequences of such decisions. And, perhaps, many of these initial decisions are made with one goal in mind – to be se en as an adult. As a result, early decisions may be driven more by the expectations of others. For example, imagine someone who chose a career path based on other’s advice but now finds that the job is not what was expected. 

The age 30 transition may involve recommitting to the same job, not because it’s stimulating, but because it pays well; or the person may decide to return to school and change careers. Settling down may involve settling down with a new set of expectations. As the adult gains status, he or she may be freer to make more independent choices. And sometimes these are very different from those previously made. The midlife transition differs from the age 30 transition in that the person is more aware of how much time has gone by and how much time is left. This brings a sense of urgency and impatience about making changes. The future focus of early adulthood gives way to an emphasis on the present in midlife–we will explore this in our next module. Overall, Levinson calls our attention to the dynamic nature of adulthood.

• How well do you think Levinson’s theory translates culturally? Do you think that personal desire and a concern with reconciling dreams with the realities of work and family is equally important in all cultures? Do you think these considerations are equally important in all social classes, races, and ethnic groups? Why or why not? How might this model be modified in today’s economy?

As we have learned in this module, young adults are often in the “prime of life,” especially physically and sexually. However, young adults may be engaged in risky behaviors and be particularly vulnerable to injuries, accidents, alcohol, and drug use/abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, rape, and suicide. Nutrition and exercise habits in this stage are important since they are associated with health and certain illnesses in middle age. Cognitive and brain development continues, with the influences of education and experience. Young adults may move from formal logical thinking to postformal thinking, becoming better at considering multiple perspectives and contexts, appreciating ambiguity and uncertainty, and using practical experience in making decisions.

Higher education plays an important role for more and more young adults—in this module we examined the connections between education and work and learned about how exploring and choosing one’s career is key during this stage. We saw that establishing intimacy in friendships, romance, and family relationships is another significant aspect of young adulthood; love, dating, cohabitation, marriage, and becoming parents were all examined.

We were introduced to the major theories of adult development, primarily those of Erikson and Levinson, and we learned about Arnett’s “emerging adulthood,” a potentially new stage involving the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, with young adults taking on “adult roles” later than expected. By the late thirties, though, most young adults have become independent of their parents/families of origin and are in the throes of adult work, family, and community activities and responsibilities.

Please read the article below for a summary of some of these early adulthood topics, but from a slightly different perspective—that of generations or cohorts. “Millennials” are defined as individuals who were born between 1981 and 1996, and as such, they make up a large part of today’s young adults. Read about this group regarding education, work, finances, living with parents, getting married, and having children, comparing their norms with those of previous generations and potentially future generations of young adults. Consider “emerging adulthood”; how much do you think generation, history, and culture affect this observed phenomenon? Will it continue to be part of early adulthood development in the future? Why or why not?

Link to Learning: Millenials and other generations

Read this article “ Millennial life: How young adulthood today compares with prior generations ” from the Pew Research Center.

Additional Supplemental Resources

• Read about social and demographic trends in the article “Millennial life: How young adulthood today compares with prior generations”
• Why do we crave love so much, even to the point that we would die for it? To learn more about our very real, very physical need for romantic love, Helen Fisher and her research team took MRIs of people in love — and people who had just been dumped.
• Attachment theory refers to a set of ideas formulated by psychologists in the 1960s that gives us an exceptionally useful guide to how we behave in relationships. Knowing whether we are secure, anxious, or avoidant in our attachment patterns gives us a vocabulary with which to get on top of some very tricky dynamics and helps us grow into more predictable and more joyful companions in love.

Erikson on Intimacy vs Isolation

• Listen to Erik Erikson explain this stage in his theory of psychosocial development in his own words.

Why do we love? A philosophical inquiry – Skye C. Cleary

• Ah, romantic love; beautiful and intoxicating, heart-breaking and soul-crushing… often all at the same time! If romantic love has a purpose, neither science nor psychology has discovered it yet – but over the course of history, some of our most respected philosophers have put forward some intriguing theories. Skye C. Cleary outlines five of these philosophical perspectives on why we love.

The Use of Reinforcement and Punishment in Shaping a Child’s Behavior When a child throws a tantrum, a parent’s sympathetic reaction may only serve to increase such outbursts. More appropriate behavior, though, can be strengthened through negative reinforcement, for example, a reward for improvement in demeanor after a fit of temper.

Parenting styles and their effects on children.

• In this video, we continue our discussion of developmental–or child–psychology by learning about parenting styles. We’ll focus specifically on the outcomes associated with each parenting style, as well as which parenting style is best long term.

Lifespan Development Copyright © 2020 by Julie Lazzara is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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8.7: Cognitive Development in Early Adulthood

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Learning Outcomes

• Distinguish between formal and postformal thought
• Describe cognitive development and dialectical thought during early adulthood

Beyond Formal Operational Thought: Postformal Thought

In the adolescence module, we discussed Piaget’s formal operational thought. The hallmark of this type of thinking is the ability to think abstractly or to consider possibilities and ideas about circumstances never directly experienced. Thinking abstractly is only one characteristic of adult thought, however. If you compare a 14-year-old with someone in their late 30s, you would probably find that the later considers not only what is possible, but also what is likely. Why the change? The young adult has gained experience and understands why possibilities do not always become realities. This difference in adult and adolescent thought can spark arguments between the generations.

Here is an example. A student in her late 30s relayed such an argument she was having with her 14-year-old son. The son had saved a considerable amount of money and wanted to buy an old car and store it in the garage until he was old enough to drive. He could sit in it, pretend he was driving, clean it up, and show it to his friends. It sounded like a perfect opportunity. The mother, however, had practical objections. The car would just sit for several years while deteriorating. The son would probably change his mind about the type of car he wanted by the time he was old enough to drive and they would be stuck with a car that would not run. She was also concerned that having a car nearby would be too much temptation and the son might decide to sneak it out for a quick ride before he had a permit or license.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development ended with formal operations, but it is possible that other ways of thinking may develop after (or “post”) formal operations in adulthood (even if this thinking does not constitute a separate “stage” of development). Postformal thought is practical, realistic and more individualistic, but also characterized by understanding the complexities of various perspectives. As a person approaches the late 30s, chances are they make decisions out of necessity or because of prior experience and are less influenced by what others think. Of course, this is particularly true in individualistic cultures such as the United States. Postformal thought is often described as more flexible, logical, willing to accept moral and intellectual complexities, and dialectical than previous stages in development.

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/16627

Perry’s Scheme

One of the first theories of cognitive development in early adulthood originated with William Perry (1970) [1] , who studied undergraduate students at Harvard University. Perry noted that over the course of students’ college years, cognition tended to shift from dualism (absolute, black and white, right and wrong type of thinking) to multiplicity (recognizing that some problems are solvable and some answers are not yet known) to relativism (understanding the importance of the specific context of knowledge—it’s all relative to other factors). Similar to Piaget’s formal operational thinking in adolescence, this change in thinking in early adulthood is affected by educational experiences.

Please watch this brief lecture by Dr. Eric Landrum to better understand the way that thinking can shift during college, according to Perry’s scheme. Notice the overall shifts in beliefs over time. Do you recognize your own thinking or the thinking of others you know in this clip?

You can view the transcript for “Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual Development” here (opens in new window) .

Dialectical Thought

In addition to moving toward more practical considerations, thinking in early adulthood may also become more flexible and balanced. Abstract ideas that the adolescent believes in firmly may become standards by which the individual evaluates reality. As Perry’s research pointed out, adolescents tend to think in dichotomies or absolute terms; ideas are true or false; good or bad; right or wrong and there is no middle ground. However, with education and experience, the young adult comes to recognize that there is some right and some wrong in each position. Such thinking is more realistic because very few positions, ideas, situations, or people are completely right or wrong.

Some adults may move even beyond the relativistic or contextual thinking described by Perry; they may be able to bring together important aspects of two opposing viewpoints or positions, synthesize them, and come up with new ideas. This is referred to as dialectical thought and is considered one of the most advanced aspects of postformal thinking (Basseches, 1984). There isn’t just one theory of postformal thought; there are variations, with emphasis on adults’ ability to tolerate ambiguity or to accept contradictions or find new problems, rather than solve problems, etc. (as well as relativism and dialecticism that we just learned about). What they all have in common is the proposition that the way we think may change during adulthood with education and experience.

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/16628

[glossary-page] [glossary-term]dialectical thought:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]the ability to reason from multiple perspectives and synthesize various viewpoints in order to come up with new ideas[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]dualism:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]absolute, black and white, right and wrong type of thinking[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]multiplicity:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]recognizing that some problems are solvable and some answers are not yet known[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]postformal thought:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]a more individualistic and realistic type of thinking that occurs after Piaget’s last stage of formal operations[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]relativism:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]understanding the importance of the specific context of knowledge—it’s all relative to other factors[/glossary-definition] [/glossary-page]

• Perry, W.G., Jr. (1970). Forms of ethical and intellectual development in the college years: A scheme. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ↵

Contributors and Attributions

• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Margaret Clark-Plaskie. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology. Authored by : Laura Overstreet. Located at : http://opencourselibrary.org/econ-201/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Millennials Jam Workshop: Youth and ICTs beyond 2015. Authored by : ITU Pictures. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/9024333319 . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Summary of Perry's research. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Perry . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Postformal thought. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Postformal_thought . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Perry's Scheme of Intellectual Development. Authored by : Eric Landrum. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkEJIXvwROs . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License

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The Formal Operational Stage of Cognitive Development

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Carly Snyder, MD is a reproductive and perinatal psychiatrist who combines traditional psychiatry with integrative medicine-based treatments.

Aaron Johnson is a fact checker and expert on qualitative research design and methodology. 

• Conceptualizing Balance
• Abstraction of Ideas
• Next in Stages of Cognitive Development Guide Support and Criticism of Piaget's Stage Theory

The formal operational stage is the fourth and final stage of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development . It begins at approximately age 12 and lasts into adulthood.

In the formal operational stage, children's thinking becomes much more sophisticated and advanced. Kids can think about abstract and theoretical concepts and use logic to come up with creative solutions to problems. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this stage.

Piaget tested formal operational thought in a few different ways. Two of the better-known tests explored physical conceptualization and the abstraction of thought.

Balance in the Formal Operational Stage

One task involved having children of different ages balance a scale by hooking weights on each end. To balance the scale, the children needed to understand that both the heaviness of the weights and the distance from the center played a role.

• Younger children around the ages of 3 and 5 were unable to complete the task because they did not understand the concept of balance.
• Seven-year-olds knew that they could adjust the scale by placing weights on each end, but failed to understand that where they put the weights was also important.
• By age 10, the kids considered location as well as weight but had to arrive at the correct answer using trial and error.

It wasn't until around age 13 that children could use logic to form a hypothesis about where to place the weights to balance the scale and then complete the task.

Abstraction in the Formal Operational Stage

In another experiment on formal operational thought, Piaget asked children to imagine where they would want to place a third eye if they had one.

Younger children said that they would put the imagined third eye in the middle of their forehead. Older children, however, were able to come up with a variety of creative ideas about where to place this hypothetical eye and various ways the eye could be used.

For example, an eye in the middle of one's hand would be useful for looking around corners. An eye at the back of one's head could be helpful for seeing what is happening in the background.

Creative ideas represent the use of abstract and hypothetical thinking, both important indicators of formal operational thought.

Formal Operational Stage Skills

Important skills that emerge during the formal operational stage include the following:

Deductive Logic

Piaget believed that deductive reasoning becomes necessary during the formal operational stage. Deductive logic requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a particular outcome. Science and mathematics often require this type of thinking about hypothetical situations and concepts.

Abstract Thought

While children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages, the ability to think about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. This type of thinking is important in long-term planning.

Problem-Solving

In earlier stages, children used trial-and-error to solve problems . During the formal operational stage, the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical way emerges. Children at the formal operational stage of cognitive development are often able to plan quickly an organized approach to solving a problem.

Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

Piaget believed that what he referred to as "hypothetical-deductive reasoning" was essential at this stage of intellectual development. At this point, teens become capable of thinking about abstract and hypothetical ideas. They often ponder "what-if" type situations and questions and can think about multiple solutions or possible outcomes.

While kids in the previous stage ( concrete operations ) are very particular in their thoughts, kids in the formal operational stage become increasingly abstract in their thinking.

As children gain greater awareness and understanding of their own thought processes, they develop what is known as metacognition, or the ability to think about their thoughts as well as the ideas of others.

Criticisms of the Formal Operational Stage

Some researchers have noted that while Piaget's theory indicates there are four stages of cognitive development, there is also evidence that indicates that not all adolescents reach the formal operational stage.

The formal operational stage hinges on the emergence of critical thinking skills. Depending on factors such as education, parenting, and cultural influences, some children do not necessarily develop the requisite thinking skills to fully approach this stage.

It has also been noted that formal operational thought may, in some cases, be domain specific. A trained engineer may be able to engage in formal operational thought with regard to their profession, but they may lack the ability to apply similar skills in domains such as economics, politics, or social science.

Babakr ZH, Mohamedamin P, Kakamad K. Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory: Critical review . Education Quarterly Reviews . 2019;2(3).

Malik F, Marwaha R. Cognitive development . PubMed.

Inhelder B, Piaget J. The Growth of Logical Thinking: From Childhood to Adolescence . Basic Books; 1958. doi:10.1037/10034-000

Sortino DP. Brain Changers: Major Advances in Children’s Learning and Intelligence . Rowman & Littlefield; 2020.

Jeon M, Draney K, Wilson M, Sun Y. Investigation of adolescents’ developmental stages in deductive reasoning: An application of a specialized confirmatory mixture IRT approach . Behavior Research Methods . 2019;52. doi:10.3758/s13428-019-01221-5

Wright L, Kutcher S. Adolescent brain development . Colloquium Series on The Developing Brain . 2016;5(1). doi:10.4199/c00133ed1v01y201602dbr012

Senan D. Enhancing educational effectiveness in physics through cognitive development model: An investigation in formal operational stage . The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES) . 2013;2(8).

Padmanabha CH. Metacognition: Conceptual framework . i-Manager’s Journal on Educational Psychology . 2020;14(1). doi:10.26634/jpsy.14.1.16710

Piaget, J. (1977). Gruber, H.E.; Voneche, J.J. eds. The essential Piaget. New York: Basic Books.

Piaget, J. (1983). Piaget's theory. In P. Mussen (ed). Handbook of Child Psychology. 4th edition. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Coping and Emotion Regulation from Childhood to Early Adulthood: Points of Convergence and Divergence

Processes of coping with stress and the regulation of emotion reflect basic aspects of development and play an important role in models of risk for psychopathology and the development of preventive interventions and psychological treatments. However, research on these two constructs has been represented in two separate and disconnected bodies of work. We examine possible points of convergence and divergence between these constructs with regard to definitions and conceptualization, research methods and measurement, and interventions to prevent and treat psychopathology. There is clear evidence that coping and emotion regulation are distinct but closely related constructs in all of these areas. The field will benefit from greater integration of methods and findings in future research.

The skills needed to cope with stressful events and chronic adversity and to regulate emotions, including emotions that arise in response to stress, are fundamental and pervasive aspects of development that emerge over the course of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. These abilities are implicated in normative development (e.g., Cole et al., 2004 ), distinguishing between resilience and risk for psychopathology ( Compas & Reeslund, 2009 ; Curtis & Cicchetti, 2007 ), and adaptation to chronic and acute illness ( Compas, Jaser, Dunn, & Rodriguez, 2012 ; DeSteno, Gross, & Kubzansky, 2013 ), among many other domains. The development of coping and emotion regulation skills reflects the coordination and interplay of processes of social, cognitive, affective, and brain development over these developmental periods. Further, coping and emotion regulation skills play a central role in transdiagnostic models of preventive interventions and psychological treatments for a range of psychological problems and disorders ( Compas, Watson, Reising, & Dunbar, 2013 ; Mennin, Ellard, Fresco, & Gross, 2013 ; Trosper, Buzzella, Bennett, & Ehrenreich, 2009 ). In spite of their importance, and despite the many features they may share, research on these concepts has remained decidedly separate. As a result, the common vs. distinct elements of coping and emotion regulation remain poorly understood. We propose that the cumulative knowledge base in these fields will be stronger if we recognize both the shared and unique characteristics of these processes.

Several issues are central to advancing our understanding of the intersection of processes of coping and emotion regulation. First, a comparison of the definitions and conceptualizations of coping and emotion regulation is crucial for determining the shared vs. unique contributions of research on these processes. Second, comparison of the methods and measures used to study these processes can lead to greater integration of research and to the identification of ways in which findings from these two areas of research can complement and extend each other. And third, integration of research on interventions that involve the teaching of coping and emotion regulation skills designed to prevent or treat psychological disorders could lead to stronger, more targeted and more comprehensive interventions. We now address each of these issues.

Definition and Conceptualization

For research on coping and emotion regulation to continue to move forward, clear definitions and conceptualizations of each construct are needed to guide the development and selection of measures and research designs, and the integration of findings. Two questions are central to this task: (1) Are coping and emotion regulation distinct constructs, or are these constructs synonymous? (2) Is coping a subset of emotion regulation or is emotion regulation a subset of coping? One of the challenges in distinguishing between coping and emotion regulation has come from problems in defining each of these constructs separately (e.g., Cole et al., 2004 ; Compas et al., 2001 ; Eisenberg, 2010 ; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004 ; Skinner et al., 2003 ). Concerns have been raised about the lack of consensus regarding definitions of each of these constructs and, most importantly, there has been little or no systematic examination of the consistencies and differences in the definitions between coping and emotion regulation ( Compas, Jaser, & Benson, 2009 ). In Table 1 , we present several of the most widely used definitions of both constructs to facilitate the identification of similarities and differences.

Definitions of coping and emotion regulation.

Perhaps the most widely cited definition of coping continues to be that of Lazarus and Folkman (1984) , almost 30 years since it was first presented (see Table 1 ). This definition highlights several features of coping, including the role of both cognitive and behavioral processes and a focus on responses to demands that are appraised as stressful, in that they tax or exceed the resources of the individual. With an increasing focus on coping processes in children and adolescents, several definitions following the seminal work of Lazarus and Folkman have shifted toward a focus on childhood and adolescence ( Compas et al., 2001 ; Eisenberg, Fabes, & Guthrie, 1997 ; Skinner et al., 2003 ). For example, Skinner and Wellborn (1994) have conceptualized coping as “action regulation under stress” and defined it as “how people mobilize, guide, manage, energize, and direct behavior, emotion, and orientation, or how they fail to do so” (p. 113). More recently, Compas et al. (2001) defined coping as, “conscious volitional efforts to regulate emotion, cognition, behavior, physiology, and the environment in response to stressful events or circumstances” (p.89). However, in spite of their increased emphasis on coping in children and adolescents, these definitions do not include explicit developmental elements.

These recent definitions represent increasing consensus in defining coping and share several features. First, similar to the earlier perspective of Lazarus and Folkman, these definitions focus on processes that occur exclusively in response to acute or chronic stressful events or circumstances; i.e., coping refers to processes that are enacted in response to stress. Second, these definitions focus on effortful processes in response to stress. The focus on effort implies that coping is controlled, purposeful, within conscious awareness, and goal-directed. Third, there has been an increasing emphasis on coping as a form of regulation in response to stress. This emphasis on regulation has broadened the scope of coping since the earlier work of Lazarus and Folkman to include more than the “management” of stressful demands. The regulation of a wider range of functions, including emotion, behavior, cognitions, physiology, and the environment, is now included within the sphere of coping. In spite of this increasing consensus, however, there is continued debate about the underlying structure of coping and the subtypes that best capture the varied nature of coping responses. For example, Skinner et al. (2003) identified over 400 subtypes of coping that have been studied, noting that progress in determining the structure of coping has been slow. Thus, while some progress has been made in clarifying the conceptualization of coping in the broadest sense, there continues to be confusion about the organization and subtypes of coping.

Emotion regulation

Several definitions of emotion regulation have been offered, reflecting a promising degree of consensus regarding the core features of emotion regulation (see Table 1 ). An influential perspective is offered by Gross (1998) , who defined emotion regulation as, “ the process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions” (p. 275) and more recently as the process by which individuals influence the occurrence, timing, nature, experience, and expression of their emotions ( Gross, 2013 ). Similarly, Eisenberg, Hofer, and Vaughn (2007) defined emotion regulation as, “processes used to manage and change if, when, and how (e.g., how intensely) one experiences emotions and emotion-related motivational and physiological states, as well as how emotions are expressed behaviorally” (p. 288). Emotion regulation is organized around specific emotions (e.g., sadness, fear, anger) and includes efforts to up- or down-regulate both positive and negative emotions. Conceptualizations of emotion regulation include both intrinsic and extrinsic processes to accomplish goals or function adaptively ( Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995 ; Thompson, 1994 ). Similar to the state of research on coping, a number of different emotion regulation strategies have been identified and there is not consensus on the underlying structure of emotion regulation (e.g., Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010 ). And similar to the wide range of strategies that are included within the framework of coping, the number of emotion regulation strategies continues to increase in number and breadth. For example, Aldao et al. (2010) include problem solving as one example of emotion regulation, even though the explicit intent of such strategies is not the regulation of emotions.

Coping and emotion regulation: Common elements

Examination of the definitions presented in Table 1 suggests that the concepts of coping and emotion regulation share several important elements. First, both coping and emotion regulation are conceptualized as processes of regulation . As noted by Eisenberg et al. (1997) not only is coping “motivated by the presence or expectation of emotional arousal (generally resulting from stress or danger),” but “many forms of coping are very similar to types of regulation discussed in the emotion regulation literature” (p. 288). Similarly, Skinner and Zimmer-Gembeck (2007) conceptualize coping as “action regulation under stress.” In their conceptualization of coping, Compas et al. (2001) note that regulation includes efforts to initiate, terminate or delay, modify or change in form or content, redirect the focus, or modulate the amount or intensity of a thought, behavior, emotion, or physiological response. By definition, regulatory processes are also at the core of emotion regulation. For example, Thompson (1994) noted that emotion regulatory processes include monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensity and duration. Aldao et al. (2010) noted that individuals deploy regulatory strategies to modify the magnitude and/or type of their emotional experience or the emotion-eliciting event.

Second, both coping and emotion regulation include controlled, purposeful efforts . This is reflected in the early work of Lazarus and Folkman (1984) , who viewed coping as purposeful responses that are directed toward resolving the stressful relationship between the self and the environment. These responses are represented in goal-directed processes in which the individual orients thoughts and behaviors toward the goals of resolving the source of stress and managing emotional reactions to stress. Compas et al. (2001) recognize that both automatic and controlled processes are enacted in response to stress, but argue that coping is limited to responses that are volitional, purposeful, within conscious awareness, and goal directed. Similarly, Gross (2013) views emotion regulation as part of a continuum from automatic processes to explicit, conscious, effortful, and controlled regulation. Aldao and Nolen-Hoeksema (2010) note that emotion regulation includes processes through which individuals consciously modulate their emotions. As we discuss below, however, the role of automatic processes is a point of distinction between coping and emotion regulation.

Third, coping includes emotion regulation under stress . Because emotion regulation is conceptualized as an ongoing process that occurs under both stressful and non-stressful circumstances ( Gross, 2013 ), coping can be conceived as a special case of emotion regulation under stress (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2010 ). Skinner and Zimmer-Gembeck (2007) noted that, “all strategies of emotion regulation can be considered ways of coping” (p. 122). Therefore, the intersection or common ground of coping and emotion regulation involves efforts to regulate emotions in response to stressful events and circumstances.

And fourth, coping and emotion regulation are conceptualized as temporal processes that unfold and may change over time. For example, although most forms of coping are viewed as responses to stressful events and circumstances, anticipatory coping has been described as a process that occurs prior to the onset of a stressor to prevent, forestall, or reduce the severity of the stressful event (e.g., Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997 ). Similarly, emotion regulation can include modification of situations in advance of the arousal of an emotion as well as modification of emotions once they arise. For example, John and Gross (2004) consider cognitive-reappraisal to be an antecedent-focused strategy, such that it is employed before the emotion response tendencies have been activated. On the other hand, emotional suppression is considered to be a response-focused strategy, such that it is employed after the emotion has been experienced, modifying the behavioral expression of the emotion.

Coping vs. emotion regulation: Distinguishing features

These similarities notwithstanding, coping and emotion regulation are distinct in several ways. First, emotion regulation includes both controlled and automatic processes whereas coping includes only controlled volitional processes. Gross (2013) conceptualizes emotion regulation as including both automatic and controlled processes that may be conscious or non-conscious. Although some conceptualizations of coping have included automatic processes as a part of coping ( Somerfield & McRae, 2000 ), most definitions distinguish coping as controlled responses to stress from automatic processes reflected in stress reactivity (e.g., Compas et al., 2001 ).

Second, coping exclusively refers to responses to stress, whereas emotion regulation encompasses efforts to manage emotions under a much wider range of situations and in reaction to a wider range of stimuli ( Compas et al., 2001 ; Folkman & Mosowitz, 2004 ). Emotion regulation includes processes directed towards positive and negative emotions that arise under normative, non-stressful circumstances (e.g., Webb et al., 2012 ). Therefore, it follows that emotion regulation occurs in a much wider range of circumstances than only those that are stressful. For example, emotion regulation involves responses to non-stressful circumstances such as suppressing a laugh when seeing someone make a mistake or managing a strong emotion in response to a film or a book (Webb et al.) Positive and negative emotions arise in the course of ongoing encounters in daily life, the majority of which do not represent sources of stress for the individual. Although coping is limited to responses to stress, the boundary between stressful and non-stressful circumstances is admittedly blurry (e.g., Grant et al., 2004 ).

Third, as highlighted in the definition offered by Thompson (1994) presented in Table 1 , emotion regulation may include both intrinsic processes (i.e., emotion that is regulated by the self) and extrinsic processes (i.e., emotion that is regulated by an outside factor). Although coping may involve extrinsic factors (e.g., social support), it is only carried out by the person experiencing stress. In contrast, some aspects of emotion regulation can be managed by another person, particularly early in development (e.g., a parent providing solace and soothing for a young child).

Fourth, research on emotion regulation and coping has focused on different developmental stages. While extensive research has examined emotion regulation in infants and young children, coping has almost exclusively been studied in later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Research on the developmental course of these regulatory strategies is still in its early stages (for reviews, see Skinner & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2007 ; Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2011), and how the structure of coping may change across different developmental periods with the emergence of new capacities (e.g., language, locomotion, executive function) is not well understood. Although infants and young children experience stressors and engage in regulatory processes, many of these responses involve direct assistance and comfort from caregivers and the extent to which young children’s own behaviors (e.g., sucking, gaze aversion) are conscious and volitional responses is not clear. Consequently, coping research has mainly focused on childhood, adolescence, and adulthood when the cognitive and behavioral skills needed to engage in more complex, effortful, and goal-directed regulatory behaviors (e.g., cognitive reappraisal, distraction, avoidance) emerge. However, future research should more closely and systematically examine the use of regulatory strategies in infants and young children to better understand the developmental course of coping and emotion regulation strategies.

To return to our two questions about coping and emotion regulation, current conceptualizations would suggest that they are not synonymous. That is, coping and emotion regulation are closely related but distinct constructs. However, the relationship between these constructs is complex. On the one hand, emotion regulation is a broader construct than coping as it encompasses ongoing emotional events whereas coping is a subset of emotion regulation that is enacted in response to stressful events or circumstances. On the other hand, coping includes a broader array of regulatory efforts than emotion regulation within the context of stressful encounters and emotion regulation is a subset of responses to stress. Thus, coping is both broader and more specific in its focus than emotion regulation. This suggests that an important focus of research could be the relations between coping that is enacted under stress and emotion regulation under non-stressful circumstances. For example, what is the association between the ongoing regulation of emotions in daily life and coping that is enacted in response to stress? And what is the developmental sequence between emotion regulation and coping skills?

Measurement and Methodology

Reflective of both their shared and distinct features, research on coping and emotion regulation has involved both similar and different methods and measures to study these processes. Extensive research using questionnaires has assessed both coping with stress and the regulation of emotions as they occur during ongoing transactions with the environment. However, processes of emotion regulation have been uniquely studied using experimental designs in which emotions are either elicited using arousing stimuli or through instruction to participants to experience specific emotions. Although these experimental methods offer important insights into emotion regulation and coping (e.g., Gross 1998 ; Gross & John, 2003 ; Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008 ; Webb et al., 2012 ), we focus here on questionnaire measures as a way to highlight similarities in the measurement of these two constructs.

In Table 2 , we present items on two questionnaires selected as examples of current measures of each construct, the Responses to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ; Connor-Smith et al., 2000 ) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003 ). Although the RSQ measures both controlled and automatic responses to stress, we focus here on the portion of the measure that reflects controlled responses to stress, or coping strategies. Similarly, the ERQ measures conscious, controlled efforts to regulate emotion. When we compare these two measures of emotion regulation and coping at the item level, it becomes clear that there is considerable overlap. Two key examples of this overlap emerge in measures of both coping and emotion regulation as strategies that are used across developmental stages, demonstrate associations with psychopathology, and are capable of change in response psychological interventions. These are cognitive reappraisal/restructuring and emotional suppression/expression.

Measurement of Coping and Emotion Regulation: Similarities Across Items on the RSQ and ERQ on the Constructs of Cognitive Reappraisal and Emotional Expression/Suppression

Note . RSQ: Responses to Stress Questionnaire (Connor-Smith et al., 200). ERQ: Emotion Regulation Questionnaire ( Gross & John, 2003 ).

Cognitive reappraisal/restructuring

Cognitive reappraisal/restructuring is defined as “a form of cognitive change that involves construing a potentially emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its emotional impact” ( Lazarus & Alfert, 1964 ). More recently, Gross and Thompson (2007) defined emotion regulation as “a cognitive-linguistic strategy that alters the trajectory of emotional responses by reformulating the meaning of a situation” (p. 14). In research on coping the strategy of cognitive restructuring as measured on the RSQ includes items such as, “I tell myself that things could be worse,” and “I think about the things that I am learning from the situation” ( Connor-Smith et al., 2000 ). The ERQ, similarly, includes items such as, “When I’m faced with a stressful situation, I make myself think about it in a way that helps me stay calm,” and “When I want to feel less negative emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation” ( Gross & John, 2003 ). Although there are semantic differences in these items, they all reflect efforts to change one’s thoughts to address a stressor or one’s emotions.

In research on both coping and emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal/restructuring is associated with better psychological adjustment, including lower symptoms of depression and anxiety. In emotion regulation research, cognitive reappraisal/restructuring on the ERQ is generally related to higher levels of positive emotion and lower levels of negative emotion ( Gross & John, 2003 ). In a recent meta-analysis of emotion regulation and psychopathology, Aldao et al. (2010) found that cognitive reappraisal/restructuring was associated with fewer symptoms of psychopathology as reflected in a small but significant negative effect (mean d = −.14). And in emotion regulation research, cognitive reappraisal/restructuring on the ERQ is generally related to higher levels of positive emotion and lower levels of negative emotion ( Gross & John, 2003 ).

Likewise, studies using the RSQ have shown that secondary control coping strategies, which includes cognitive reappraisal/restructuring, are related to better adjustment (e.g., fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression; Compas et al., 2006 ; Jaser et al., 2005 ). One limitation of this measure is that cognitive restructuring is grouped with other strategies that are involved in adapting to a stressor or one’s emotional response to a stressor (i.e., positive thinking, acceptance, and distraction) and is analyzed as part of a higher-order factor, secondary control coping. As such, no analyses have been conducted at the specific level of cognitive reappraisal/restructuring, and we cannot determine whether that particular strategy relates to better adjustment. Conversely, the problem with only measuring cognitive reappraisal/restructuring is that other important information about closely related strategies of secondary control coping might be lost.

In one of the only studies to use both the RSQ (as a measure of coping with interpersonal stress) and the ERQ, Andreotti et al. (2013) found that cognitive restructuring on the RSQ and cognitive reappraisal on the ERQ were significantly correlated, but this effect was only moderate in magnitude ( r = .33). Further, cognitive reappraisal as measured by the ERQ was more strongly associated with positive affect, while secondary control coping (including cognitive restructuring) was more strongly associated with negative affect, including symptoms of depression and anxiety (Andreotti et al.). These associations are striking in light of one important difference between the two measures-- the RSQ asks what people do in response to a specific domain of stress (in this case, interpersonal stressors), whereas the ERQ asks individuals what they do in response to their emotions (e.g., sadness). While the process of cognitive reappraisal is similar, the goal of the actions are different – the ERQ is focused on emotions, while the RSQ is focused on a stressor.

Emotional expression/suppression

Emotional expression (e.g., letting someone know how you are feeling) and emotional modulation (e.g., keeping feelings under control until an appropriate time to express them) are constructs found in coping measures that are similar to emotional expression/suppression constructs found in emotion regulation measures. For example, the RSQ strategy of emotional modulation includes items such as, “I keep my feelings under control when I have to, then let them out when they won’t make things worse” ( Connor-Smith et al., 2000 ). Similarly, the ERQ strategy of emotional suppression, “I keep my emotions to myself” ( Gross & John, 2003 ) asks about individuals’ attempts to keep the expression or display of emotions under control. Both measures include scales that focus on emotion, but while the ERQ is focused on suppression of the expression of emotion, the RSQ is focused on the modulated expression of emotion.

The suppression of the expression of emotions in real-world settings has been linked with increases in negative emotions. For example, in their meta-analysis of emotion regulation and psychopathology, Aldao and colleagues (2010) found that emotional suppression was significantly associated with greater symptoms of psychopathology ( d = .34). It is hypothesized that this is due to people’s awareness of lack of authenticity in suppressing the expression of a feeling ( Gross & John, 2003 ). In the coping literature, strategies related to emotional expression and emotional modulation have often been considered part of the broader category of emotion-focused coping which has been associated with poorer adjustment ( Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004 ). However, confirmatory factor analyses of the RSQ indicate that these strategies (emotional expression and emotional modulation) load together with problem solving as part of the primary control coping factor ( Benson et al., 2011 ; Connor-Smith et al., 2000 ; Compas et al., 2006 ; Wadsworth et al., 2004 ), and several studies have found that primary control coping is associated with lower symptoms of anxiety and depression and other internalizing symptoms (e.g., Campbell et al., 2009 ; Jaser & White, 2011 ).

Perhaps the difference in the direction of effects of emotional modulation/emotional expression found in coping measures and emotional suppression is due to an important distinction between the constructs – while emotional suppression describes individuals’ attempts to suppress the expression of negative emotions, emotional modulation acknowledges that individuals may need to express their emotions at a later, potentially more appropriate time. The work of Stanton and colleagues on emotional approach coping, which includes strategies related to expressing emotion and emotional processing, is instructive in this regard. For example, Hoyt, Stanton et al. (2013) found that emotional approach coping was associated with lower symptoms of psychological distress than earlier measures of emotion-focused coping, which often included items related to letting feelings out inappropriately (e.g., crying, worrying). In a longitudinal study, emotional processing and emotional expression were found to predict fewer symptoms of depression and higher satisfaction with life ( Stanton et al., 2000 ). This is in line with results showing that expressive writing about emotions reduces symptoms after traumatic events (e.g., Smyth & Pennebaker, 1999 ).

In spite of the active lines of research using questionnaires to assess coping and emotion regulation, this method has been the target of significant criticism (see Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004 , for a review) due to the inherent limitations in the use of self-reports to assess both coping or emotion regulation and symptoms of distress or psychopathology (i.e., shared method variance due to use of self-reports, possible reporting biases, confounding of items, problems with recall of coping and emotions). However, recent work reflects progress in the use of questionnaires to assess coping. The use of cross-informant reports from children and parents offers supporting evidence that the constructs measured by these questionnaires do capture important aspects of coping. For example, significant cross-informant correlations have been found in children’s self-reports and parents’ reports of the way in which children cope with stress related to parental depression ( Jaser et al., 2005 ). Similarly, the way in which children cope with chronic pain has been measured with both parent- and self-report and found to predict cross-informant reports of anxiety and depression using latent indicators of both constructs in structural equation analyses ( Compas et al., 2006 ). These studies demonstrate that coping can be effectively measured using questionnaires and can achieve convergence across multiple informants. Further, coping questionnaires have been validated with cognitive and physiological measures (e.g., Campbell et al., 2009 ; Dufton et al., 2011 ). For example, Campbell et al. found that measures of executive function (assessing the domains of working memory, cognitive flexibility, behavioral inhibition, and self-monitoring) were significantly related to primary control coping, secondary control coping, and disengagement coping in childhood cancer survivors. In addition, Andreotti and colleagues (2013) showed significant associations between measures of working memory and secondary control coping (including cognitive restructuring).

Similar to the considerable level of coherence in the definitions of these distinct constructs, examination of measures of coping and emotion regulation further highlights both convergence and divergence between these constructs. More studies are needed using measures from both fields to better understand the overlap between these constructs. Careful measurement of coping and emotion regulation is important, as we turn to the interventions designed to improve these skills.

Preventive Interventions and Psychological Treatments

The development of interventions to enhance coping and emotion regulation skills represents one of the most important applications of these constructs. These interventions have all been included within the general family of cognitive-behavioral interventions; have been designed for children, adolescents, and adults; and have focused on both the prevention and treatment of psychological problems (e.g., Compas et al., 2013 ; Mennin et al., 2013 ). In light of the considerable overlap in definitions, conceptualizations, and measures of coping and emotion regulation, it is not surprising that coping and emotion regulation interventions share many common features. Below, we review several interventions aimed at improving the concepts highlighted above: cognitive reappraisal/restructuring and emotional expression/suppression (see Table 3 ).

Skills Taught Across Coping and Emotion Regulation Interventions

Interventions to enhance coping skills

A recent example of a coping skills interventions focuses on teaching secondary control coping skills to children of depressed parents, including cognitive reappraisal (positive thinking), acceptance, and distraction to children of depressed parents ( Compas et al., 2009 , 2010 , 2011 ). These coping skills (as measured by both child self-reports and parent reports) increased in children who participated in the intervention as compared to those in a control condition, and changes in children’s use of secondary control coping mediated (i.e., accounted for) subsequent changes in children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms ( Compas et al., 2010 ). This study provides strong evidence that teaching coping skills is an important, active ingredient in this preventive intervention.

Interventions to enhance emotion regulation skills

A recent intervention developed by Kovacs and colleagues (2006) , Contextual Emotion-Regulation Therapy (CERT), targets emotion-regulation in childhood depression. The intervention targeted cognitions as one of several emotion regulation domains, and cognitive skills included “conjuring up some image to counter the dysphoric emotion, helpful ‘self-talk’… or changing how you think about what makes you sad”. In addition, CERT targeted behavioral, biological, and social/interpersonal emotion regulation strategies, teaching a number of skills, including participating in a play activity, physical exercise, or other projects, receiving physical comfort, talking to a trusted adult, or talking with peers. Similarly, Suveg et al. (2009) developed an emotion-regulation treatment for child anxiety, Emotion-Focused CBT (ECBT). ECBT teaches youth cognitive reappraisal skills common to CBT in treatment for child anxiety, as well as problem solving and relaxation training.

Mennin and colleagues describe the development of emotion regulation therapy for generalized anxiety disorder in adults ( Fresco et al., 2013 ; Mennin et al., 2013 ). Based in cognitive regulation skills training and experiential exposure to promote contextual learning. The three main emotion regulation skills taught are acceptance and allowance, cognitive distancing (decentering), and cognitive change (reframing) ( Fresco et al., 2013 ). Acceptance is taught through an in-session exercise designed to increase clients’ awareness of emotional, tactile, and cognitive sensations. Cognitive distancing or decentering is taught through perspective taking, allowing the client to deliberately respond “counteractively” instead of mindlessly responding reactively (Fresco et al.). In the cognitive change component of the treatment clients are encouraged to adopt a “self-compassionate” reappraisal stance by imagining they are telling a very caring, interested, compassionate individual about their difficult thoughts and feelings and reminding themselves of their strengths and coping abilities. By noticing their self-critical thoughts clients are encouraged to “soften” them when they arise by invoking of alternative, self-validating statements (Fresco et al.).

Summary and Future Directions

Coping with stress and the regulation of emotions are important psychological processes that are represented in two vibrant areas of theory, research and clinical application. There is now considerable evidence that these two constructs share many features in their basic definition and conceptualization, measurement, and interventions to enhance skills in the prevention and treatment of psychopathology. However, while coping and emotion regulation are closely linked, they are not synonymous, suggesting that there is potential benefit in examining these separate constructs together in future research.

Given the substantial overlap between these constructs, it is important to examine the degree to which research has examined possible connections between them. Both coping and emotion regulation are the focus of highly active areas of research. Several authors have noted that coping is a historically older construct, reflecting over 50 years of research ( Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004 ), whereas emotion regulation has emerged more recently but has experienced a rapid ascension to an active area of research ( Gross, 2013 ). In spite of the considerable degree of overlap, this work has largely proceeded separately with little evidence of dialogue between these two lines of research. This is clearly reflected in the number of citations to these constructs over the last 10 years. Based on a PsycINFO search of the key words “coping” and “emotion regulation” from 2003 through 2012, the number of citations for coping has increased annually from 1,656 in 2003 to 2,061 in 2012, and the citations for emotion regulation have increased from 68 to 467 (see Figure 1 ). However, citations that included both terms have increased from only 8 in 2003 to 39 in 2012. Thus, citations that included both coping and emotion regulation as key terms reflect only 1% of the total publications on these processes in the past 10 years (i.e., only 208 articles out of 20,804 articles in the last 10 years included the identifiers of coping and emotion regulation), demonstrating that researchers continue to examine these two constructs separately.

Citations in PsycInfo including coping and emotion regulation as key terms from 2003 through 2012.

Based on the findings reviewed above, we believe that it is time for researchers who study coping and emotion regulation to break down the barriers between these two lines of research and further examine the possible linkages between these constructs. This can take at least two forms, one at a broad, macro level and the other at a more focused, micro level. At the broadest level, it is important to test the developmental pattern and possible sequences in the emergence of skills to cope with stress and regulate emotions over the course of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We propose the ability to regulate emotions under normative conditions of daily life emerges early in childhood and precedes the ability to bring these skills, and the ability to regulate other aspects of cognition and behavior, into action in response to stressful events and conditions of chronic adversity. Such a sequence would suggest that emotion regulation skills provide a foundation that individuals can learn to call upon when faced with the heightened levels of arousal that accompany exposure to stress.

At a more micro level we hypothesize that coping efforts that are initiated in response to a defined stressful event are supported by efforts to regulate emotions before and after a stressful encounter. Poor emotion regulation skills prior to stress may contribute to the onset or occurrence of dependent stressful events; i.e., stressors that are at least in part the result of actions by the individual (e.g., Conway, Hammen, & Brennan, 2012 ). And after the termination of a stressful event, problems in the regulation of residual negative emotions following the event could lead to heightened and prolonged negative emotions even in the absence of stress, leaving the individual vulnerable. For such individuals, everyday, non-stressful encounters may trigger sustained periods of distress. These are but two examples of the kinds of hypotheses that will come into focus if researchers make a more concerted effort to take an integrated approach to the study of coping and emotion regulation.

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Chapter 8: Early Adulthood

Learning Objectives

At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Understand the concept of emerging adulthood and how it differs from adolescence.
• Be familiar with the characteristics of early adulthood physical development.
• Be familiar with the characteristics of early adulthood cognitive development.
• Be familiar with the characteristics associated with early adulthood psychosocial development.
• Understand how culture plays a role in early adulthood development.
• Be familiar with the theoretical development stages that take place during early adulthood.
• Be familiar with the common factors associated with academic or career achievement for early adulthood and the potential barriers they face to success.
• Be familiar with relationships during early adulthood.

Louisiana Snapshot

Laissez les bon temps rouler.

Louisianians often use the French Creole phrase “Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler,” which means “Let the Good Times Roll.” This motto can resonate with those entering early adulthood as they begin to experience newfound freedoms that allow them to live according to their choices without much input or consensus from outside influences. In this age group, there is a tendency to explore one’s identity, which can often involve engaging in risky behaviors. It is, therefore, essential to navigate this phase sensibly and responsibly. So, by all means, let the good times roll, but do so in a way that doesn’t put your safety at risk.

How Do You Define Early Adulthood?

The trend of prolonging adolescence has led to a new developmental phase called emerging adulthood. This phase occurs from ages 18 to 29 and captures the transition from adolescence to adulthood. In the past, most people in this age group had already entered stable adult roles, including romantic relationships and work. However, today’s young adults in industrialized societies are taking longer to achieve early adulthood developmental tasks, such as completing formal education, financial independence from their parents, marriage, and parenthood. This has brought about a new developmental period called emerging adulthood that captures these changes. Emerging adulthood is when many different directions remain possible, and the scope of independent exploration of life’s possibilities is more significant than at any other period of the life course (Arnett, 2000).

Arnett identified five distinguishing characteristics of emerging adulthood: a prolonged transitional period, which sets it apart from adolescence and young adulthood.

Identity Exploration – According to Erik Erikson’s (1968) observations, industrialized societies have experienced a trend known as “prolonged adolescence” during the 20th century. Nowadays, most people develop their sense of identity in their late teens and early twenties instead of adolescence. During this period, known as emerging adulthood, individuals explore their career choices and intimate relationships, forming the foundation for adulthood. Part of this exploration involves attending tertiary or postsecondary education, which includes community colleges, universities, and trade schools, to broaden their career opportunities.

Instability – According to Erik Erikson’s (1968) observations, industrialized societies have experienced a “prolonged adolescence” trend during the 20th century. Nowadays, most people develop their sense of identity in their late teens and early twenties instead of adolescence. During this period, known as emerging adulthood, individuals explore their career choices and intimate relationships, forming the foundation for adulthood. Part of this exploration involves attending tertiary or postsecondary education, which includes community colleges, universities, and trade schools, to broaden their career opportunities.

Self-Focused – Emerging adults are different from adolescents in that they tend to be less self-centered and more empathetic towards others, especially their parents. During this stage, they focus on themselves, make independent decisions about their lives, and develop the skills, knowledge, and self-understanding they need for adult life. This sense of independence can be seen in different cultures, whether they move out of their parents’ homes or not.

Feeling In-Between – Most emerging adults have already experienced puberty and no longer attend high school. Many have also moved out of their parents’ homes, which makes them feel less dependent than they were as teenagers. However, they may still rely on their parents or primary caregivers for financial support to some extent, and they have not achieved specific markers of adulthood, such as finishing their education, securing a full-time job, being in a committed relationship, or being responsible for others. It’s not surprising that Arnett discovered that about 60% of 18-to-25-year-olds felt like adults in specific ways but not in others (Arnett, 2004). Most people feel like they have reached adulthood in their late twenties or early thirties. This “in-between” feeling during emerging adulthood has been observed in several countries, including Argentina, Austria, Israel, the Czech Republic, and China.

Many Possibilities

During emerging adulthood, individuals tend to have high expectations and optimistic hopes. In a national survey conducted in the United States, about 89% of 18-to-24-year-olds agreed with the statement, “I am confident that one day I will get to where I want to be in life.” This positive outlook is also reflected in other countries. Arnett (2000, 2006) suggests this optimism is because these dreams have yet to be tested.

This stage of life allows individuals to change the direction of their lives. The choices and decisions of primary caregivers heavily influence the experiences of children and adolescents. If the primary caregivers are dysfunctional, the child has little control over it. However, in emerging adulthood, people can move out and away from unhealthy environments and transform their lives. Even those who had a happy and fulfilling childhood can become independent and decide the direction they want their life to take.

If you are interested in understanding the concept of emerging adulthood and why it seems to take longer to reach adulthood in developed nations nowadays, you may find it helpful to watch this video featuring Dr. Jeffrey Arnett. In the first six and a half minutes of the video, Dr. Arnett discusses four societal revolutions that may have contributed to the emergence of this life stage. Later in the video, he explains why “30 is the new 20” and how young adults today have more freedom than previous generations.

You can  view the transcript for “Why does it take so long to grow up today? | Jeffrey Jensen Arnett | TEDxPSU” here (opens in new window) .

Emerging Adulthood around the Globe

The five features proposed in the theory of emerging adulthood were initially based on research involving about 300 Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 from various ethnic groups, social classes, and geographical regions (Arnett, 2003). To what extent does the theory of emerging adulthood apply internationally?

The answer to this question depends significantly on what part of the world is considered. Demographers make a helpful distinction between the developing countries that comprise the majority of the world’s population and the economically developed countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The rest of the human population resides in developing countries, which have much lower median incomes, median educational attainment, and a much higher incidence of illness, disease, and early death. Consider emerging adulthood in OECD countries first, then in developing countries.

The same demographic changes described above for the United States have also occurred in other OECD countries. This is true of participation in postsecondary education and median ages for entering marriage and parenthood (UN Data, 2010). However, there is also substantial variability in how emerging adulthood is experienced across OECD countries.

In Europe, emerging adulthood is the longest and most leisurely (Douglass, 2007). Today, Europe comprises the world’s most affluent, generous, and egalitarian societies (Arnett, 2007). Governments pay for tertiary education, assist young people in finding jobs, and provide great unemployment benefits for those who cannot find work. In northern Europe, many governments also offer housing support. Emerging adults in European societies make the most of these advantages, gradually reaching adulthood during their twenties while enjoying travel and leisure with friends.

The lives of  Asian   emerging adults in developed countries such as Japan and South Korea are similar to those of emerging adults in Europe and, in some ways, strikingly different. Like European emerging adults, Asian emerging adults tend to enter marriage and parenthood around 30 (Arnett, 2011). Like European emerging adults, Asian emerging adults in Japan and South Korea enjoy the benefits of living in affluent societies with generous social welfare systems that support them in transitioning to adulthood—for example, free university education and substantial unemployment benefits.

However, in other ways, the experience of emerging adulthood in Asian OECD countries is markedly different than in Europe. Europe has a long history of individualism, and today’s emerging adults carry that legacy with them in their focus on self-development and leisure during emerging adulthood. In contrast, Asian cultures have a shared history emphasizing collectivism and family obligations. Although many Asian cultures have become more individualistic in recent decades due to globalization, the legacy of collectivism persists in the lives of most emerging adults.

For young people in developing countries, emerging adulthood typically only exists for the wealthier segment of society, mainly the urban middle class. In contrast, the rural and urban poor—the majority of the population—have no emerging adulthood and may even have no adolescence because they enter adult-like work early and begin marriage and parenthood relatively early. However, as globalization proceeds and economic development along with it, the proportion of young people who experience emerging adulthood will most likely increase as the middle class expands. By the end of the 21st century, emerging adulthood may be normative worldwide.

​According to Arnett, a delay in entering early adulthood marks the “emerging adulthood” period, but not everyone shares his opinion. Dr. Meg Jay cautions young adults against procrastination and highlights the significance of the events in their twenties, as these experiences shape their entire adulthood.​

Physical Development In Early Adulthood

People in their twenties and thirties are considered categorized as young adults. If you are in your early twenties, you are likely at the zenith of your physiological development. Your body has completed its growth, but your brain is still evolving (as explained in the previous module on adolescence). Physically, you are in the “prime of your life” as your reproductive system, motor ability, strength, and lung capacity are functioning at their best. However, these systems will gradually decline, and you will notice signs of aging by the time you reach your mid to late 30s. This includes a decline in your immune system, response time, and ability to recover quickly from physical exertion.

It’s essential to remember that both nature and nurture influence development. Getting out of shape is not an inevitable part of aging; it is probably because you have become less physically active and have experienced more significant stress. The good news is that you can adopt healthier lifestyles and take steps to combat many of these changes. So remember that some of the changes we associate with aging can be prevented or turned around.

Research suggests that the habits we establish in our twenties are linked to specific health conditions in middle age, particularly the risk of heart disease. What healthy habits can young adults develop now that will prove beneficial later in life?

Healthy habits include:

• Maintaining a realistic body mass index
• Moderate alcohol intake
• A smoke-free lifestyle
• A healthy diet
• Regular physical activity

When asked to name one thing that young adults can do to promote good health, experts provided a range of specific recommendations, including learning to cook, reducing sugar intake, developing an active lifestyle, eating vegetables, practicing portion control, establishing an exercise routine, finding a job that one loves, establishing healthy relationships, and creating healthy boundaries.

Health in Early Adulthood

Obesity is a medical condition that can be considered a disease characterized by the accumulation of excess body fat that negatively affects health. Maintaining physical health is a top priority for young adults, but the current obesity rate is a concern. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2016), obesity is caused by a complex set of factors, including environment, behavior, and genetics. Societal factors such as culture, education, food marketing and promotion, the quality of food, and the availability of a physical activity environment can contribute to obesity. Unhealthy behaviors such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, and medication use can also lead to obesity. Although no single gene is responsible for obesity, studies have identified variants in several genes that may contribute to it by increasing hunger and food intake.

Another genetic explanation is the mismatch between the modern-day environment and “energy-thrifty genes” that were beneficial in the past when food sources were scarce. These genes helped our ancestors survive occasional famines but are now challenged by environments with abundant food. Obesity is likely the result of complex interactions between the environment and multiple genes.

Obesity Health Consequences

Obesity is considered to be one of the leading causes of death in the United States and worldwide. According to the CDC (2016), compared to those with a standard or healthy weight, people who are obese are at increased risk for many severe diseases and health conditions, including:

• All causes of death (mortality)
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• High LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides (dyslipidemia)
• Type 2 diabetes
• Coronary heart disease
• Gallbladder disease
• Osteoarthritis (a breakdown of cartilage and bone within a joint)
• Sleep apnea and breathing problems
• Some cancers (endometrial, breast, colon, kidney, gallbladder, and liver)
• Low quality of life
• Mental illness such as clinical depression, anxiety, and other disorders
• Body pain and difficulty with physical functioning

Obesity in Louisiana

Louisiana ranks among the top ten states in the United States—many of which are in the South—for both adult and childhood obesity. Nearly one out of four adults in Louisiana are considered obese (Louisiana Department of Health, n.d.). This statement is not surprising, possibly since food is immersed in almost every area of Louisiana culture. Many Louisiana festivals and gatherings are centered around food. Cuisines cooked in Louisiana are rich in flavor and factors that can lead to obesity if these delicacies are a part of their daily dietary intake. As with any good thing, the best practice would be to enjoy it in moderation. To explore Adult Obesity Data in Louisiana further, click here .

A Healthy but Risky Time

During early adulthood, individuals generally enjoy good health. For instance, in the United States, adults aged between 18 and 44 tend to have the lowest percentage of physician office visits compared to any other age group, regardless of whether they are younger or older. However, this phase of life can be difficult when it comes to violent deaths, with rates varying by gender, race, and ethnicity. The leading causes of death for both age groups, 15-24 and 25-34 in the U.S., are unintentional injuries, suicide, and homicide. Cancer and heart disease follow as the fourth and fifth top causes of death among young adults (CDC, 2022).

Substance Use, Abuse, and Risky Behaviors

Substance use influences violent death rates, which tend to peak during emerging and early adulthood. Drugs impair judgment, reduce inhibitions, and alter mood, all of which can lead to dangerous behavior. Reckless driving, violent altercations, and forced sexual encounters are some examples. Drug and alcohol use increases the risk of sexually transmitted infections because people are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior when under the influence. This includes having sex with someone who has had multiple partners, having anal sex without the use of a condom, having multiple partners, or having sex with someone whose history is unknown. Lastly, as previously discussed, drugs and alcohol ingested during pregnancy have a teratogenic effect on the developing embryo and fetus.

Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids more than quadrupled from 1999 through 2016, followed by significant declines reported in both 2018 and 2019, and then an increase in 2020 (CDC, n.d.). Overall, the prevalence of drug use disorders is highest amongst people in their twenties, is consistent across most countries, and is typically related to risky behaviors.

Alcohol Use

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) (2015), binge drinking is defined as when blood alcohol concentration levels reach 0.08 g/dL. Typically, this happens after four drinks for women and five for men in about two hours. The NIAAA warns that binge drinking can have severe health and safety consequences, such as car accidents, DUI arrests, sexual assaults, and injuries. Furthermore, frequent binge drinking can cause long-term damage to the liver and other organs.

Alcohol and College Students

Alcohol consumption is a significant factor in predicting acquaintance rape on college campuses. Studies have shown that alcohol use is one of the strongest predictors of rape and sexual assault in such settings (Carroll, 2016). According to Krebs et al. (2009), alcohol was involved in more than 80% of sexual assaults on college campuses. Unfortunately, many college students tend to perceive perpetrators who drink alcohol as less responsible, while victims who drink are often seen as more accountable for the assaults (Untied et al., 2012). However, it is essential to note that in most states, individuals cannot legally give consent while under the influence of alcohol or other substances.

Factors Affecting College Students’ Drinking

Alcohol consumption is a significant issue for college students, with several factors contributing to their involvement. These include the easy availability of alcohol, the lack of consistent enforcement of underage drinking laws, ample unstructured time, difficulty in coping with stress, and limited interactions with adults such as parents and caregivers. During the first six weeks of their first year, students are particularly vulnerable due to social pressure and expectations of college life. Schools with active Greek systems and athletic programs tend to have higher rates of alcohol consumption. Conversely, students who live with their families and commute have lower rates of alcohol consumption compared to those living in fraternities and sororities.

College Strategies to Curb Drinking

College drinking can be addressed through individual and campus community levels. It is helpful to identify at-risk groups like first-year students, fraternity/sorority members, and athletes and provide them with interventions that aim to change their knowledge, attitudes, and behavior regarding alcohol. Health professionals can also intervene when needed. At the college level, reducing the availability of alcohol has proven to be effective in decreasing both consumption and negative consequences. Education and awareness programs can also be implemented to raise awareness among students and prevent excessive drinking.

Alcohol Consumption in Louisiana

Excessive drinking is more prevalent in some areas of the United States than in others. In Louisiana, alcohol consumption may start early in life, as it is sometimes permitted as a rite of passage during teenage years at family gatherings and celebrations. Besides, Louisiana residents celebrate their good times with food and alcohol, embodying the Creole phrase “Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler,” which means “Let the Good Times Roll.” However, Louisiana ranks 21st in alcohol consumption amongst states, with residents consuming 2.59 gallons per person aged 14 and older in 2020, according to data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA, 2022). In comparison, the nationwide alcohol consumption was 2.45 gallons per person in the same year.

The health risks of excessive alcohol consumption extend beyond chronic conditions. A troubling 31.2% of all driving deaths in Louisiana between 2016 and 2020 involved alcohol (Stubbins, 2023).

Nicotine Use

It was estimated that in 2018, around 6.5 million young adults aged between 18 and 25 smoked cigarettes in the past month. This means that roughly one-fifth of young adults (19.1 percent) were current cigarette smokers. However, the percentage of young adults who smoked cigarettes in 2018 was lower than the percentages from the years 2002 to 2017.

According to the CDC (2020), the use of e-cigarettes has become increasingly popular among young adults in the recent past. However, it reached its highest prevalence in 2019 and is slowly declining. It is important to note that e-cigarettes are not safe for kids, teens, and young adults as they can contain other harmful substances besides nicotine, which is highly addictive and can impair brain development at this age. Moreover, young people who use e-cigarettes are more likely to start smoking cigarettes in the future (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2016). Additionally, the use of e-cigarettes has been linked to severe and fatal lung injuries due to the combination of nicotine, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinoid (CBD) oils, and other substances, flavorings, and additives.

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) , also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or venereal diseases (VDs), are illnesses that have a significant probability of transmission through sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral sex. Some STIs can also be contracted by sharing intravenous drug needles with an infected person and through childbirth or breastfeeding.

Common STIs include:

• herpes (HSV-1 and HSV-2);
• human papillomavirus (HPV);
• trichomoniasis;
• HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).

The most effective ways to prevent transmission of STIs are practicing abstinence , the ability to refrain from participating in sexual activities, or safe sex by altogether avoiding direct contact with skin and fluids, which can lead to transfer with infected partners. Proper use of safe-sex supplies (such as condoms, gloves, or dental dams) reduces contact and risk and can be effective in limiting exposure; however, some disease transmission may occur even with these barriers.

Human sexuality  refers to people’s sexual interest in and attraction to others, as well as their capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Sexuality may be experienced and expressed in a variety of ways, including thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles, and relationships. These may manifest in biological, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual aspects. The natural and physical aspects of sexuality primarily concern human reproductive functions, including the human sexual response cycle and the primary biological drive that exists in all species. Emotional aspects of sexuality include bonds between individuals expressed through profound feelings or physical manifestations of love, trust, and care. Social aspects deal with the effects of human society on one’s sexuality, while spirituality concerns an individual’s spiritual connection with others through sexuality. Sexuality is also impacted by cultural, political, legal, philosophical, moral, ethical, and religious aspects of life.

Sexual Responsiveness

People tend to reach their peak of sexual responsiveness at different ages. Sexual arousal can quickly occur in response to physical stimulation or fantasizing. Sexual responsiveness tends to decline in the late twenties and into the thirties, although they may continue to be sexually active throughout adulthood. Over time, individuals may require more intense stimulation to become aroused.

Sexlessness

There has been a sharp increase in the number of individuals ages 18 to 35 who reported not having sexual intercourse (sexlessness) in the prior year, and it continued into 2021 (Lyman, 2021). This research shows at least two separate trends related to the increase in sexlessness: one is that people are delaying marriage, and the other is the increasing sexlessness among individuals who have never been married.

What Types of Cognitive Development Are Experienced during Early Adulthood?

The study of cognitive development covers the progression of cognitive abilities from infancy through adolescence, culminating in the formal operational stage described by Piaget. However, does this mean that cognitive development ceases to progress after adolescence? Could there be additional thinking methods in adulthood after the formal operations stage?

This section will explore postformal operational thought and examine research conducted by William Perry on advanced thinking and types of thought. We will also investigate the relationship between education and work in early adulthood and the tools young adults use to select their careers.

Beyond Formal Operational Thought: Postformal Thought

During the adolescence module, we talked about Piaget’s formal operational thought. This type of thinking is characterized by the ability to think abstractly or to consider possibilities and ideas about situations never experienced directly. However, thinking abstractly is only one aspect of adult thought. If you compare a 14-year-old with someone in their late 30s, you will probably find that the latter considers not only what is possible but also what is likely. The young adult has gained experience and understands why possibilities do not always become realities. This difference in thought between adults and adolescents can sometimes lead to generational disagreements.

It is important to note that Piaget’s theory of cognitive development concludes with formal operations. However, other ways of thinking may develop after formal operations in adulthood (even if this thinking does not constitute a separate “stage” of development). Postformal thought is practical, realistic, more individualistic, and characterized by understanding the complexities of various perspectives. As a person approaches their late 30s, they are more likely to make decisions based on prior experience and necessity rather than being influenced by the opinions of others. This is particularly true in individualistic cultures like the United States. Postformal thought is often described as more flexible, logical, willing to accept moral and intellectual complexities, and dialectical than previous stages of development.

Perry’s Scheme

Perry (1998) was one of the first to theorize about cognitive development during early adulthood. In his study of undergraduate students at Harvard University, he observed how their cognition evolved from dualism thinking (which is characterized by absolute, true/false, right and wrong types of thinking) to multiplicity thinking (which recognizes that some problems are solvable and some answers are not yet known) and eventually to relativism thinking (which understands the importance of the specific context of knowledge—it is all relative to other factors). This shift in thinking during early adulthood is similar to Piaget’s formal operational thinking in adolescence, and educational experiences influence it.

Please watch this brief lecture by Dr. Eric Landrum to better understand how thinking can shift during college.

Notice the overall shifts in beliefs over time. Do you recognize your thinking or those of others you know in this clip?

You can  view the “Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual Development” transcript.

Dialectical Thought

During early adulthood, individuals tend to think more practically, and their thinking may become more flexible and balanced. In their adolescent years, they tend to think in dichotomies or absolute terms, where ideas are either true or false, good or bad, right or wrong, and there is no middle ground. However, with education and experience, the young adult recognizes that each position has some right and some wrong. This is more realistic because few positions, ideas, situations, or people are right or wrong.

Moreover, some adults may move beyond relativistic or contextual thinking and be able to synthesize essential aspects of two opposing viewpoints or positions to come up with new ideas. This is known as dialectical thought and is considered one of the most advanced aspects of post-formal thinking. There is no single theory of post-formal thought; variations emphasize adults’ ability to tolerate ambiguity, accept contradictions, or find new problems rather than solve existing ones, among other things. Regardless, they all have one thing in common: how we think may change with education and experience during adulthood.

Dialectical thinking is defined as seeing things from multiple perspectives and is a hallmark of post-formal thinking.

What Are Some Psychosocial Experiences That Occur during Early Adulthood?

From a lifespan developmental perspective, growth and development do not stop in childhood or adolescence; they continue throughout adulthood. In this section, we will build on Erikson’s psychosocial stages and then be introduced to theories about transitions that occur during adulthood. More recently, Arnett notes that transitions to adulthood happen later than in the past and proposes a new stage between adolescence and early adulthood called “emerging adulthood.”

Erikson’s Theory

Intimacy vs. isolation.

Erikson (1950) proposed that the primary goal of early adulthood is to establish intimate relationships and avoid feelings of isolation. Intimacy is not restricted to romantic relationships; it involves caring for another person and sharing oneself without losing one’s identity. This developmental crisis of “intimacy vs. isolation” is influenced by how the adolescent crisis of “identity vs. role confusion” was resolved, as well as how the earlier developmental crises in infancy and childhood were resolved. The young adult may be hesitant to get too close to someone and lose their sense of self, or they may define themselves in terms of another person. Intimate relationships are more challenging if one struggles with one’s identity. Although achieving a sense of identity is a lifelong process, there are periods of identity crisis and stability. According to Erikson’s theory, having a sense of identity is crucial for establishing intimate relationships. However, it is worth considering what that would mean for previous generations of women who may have defined themselves through their husbands and marriages or for contemporary Eastern cultures that value interdependence over independence.

Friendships as a Source of Intimacy

In our twenties, friendships can fulfill intimacy needs while long-term commitments are postponed.

Gaining Adult Status

During early adulthood, many developmental tasks involve gaining independence and becoming part of the adult world. Young adults often feel they are not treated with respect, especially if they are in positions of authority over older individuals. Therefore, they may emphasize their age to gain credibility from slightly younger people. For instance, a young adult might exclaim, “You’re only 23? I’m 27!” It’s worth noting that people in their 40s are less likely to express themselves this way.

In early adulthood, the focus is frequently on the future. Many aspects of life are put on hold while people seek additional education, go to work, and prepare for a better future. There may be a belief that the hurried life now lived will improve “as soon as I finish school,” “as soon as I get promoted,” or “as soon as the children get a little older.” As a result, time may seem to pass rather quickly, and the day may consist of meeting many demands that these tasks bring. The incentive for working so hard is that it will all result in a better future.

Adulthood is a period of building and rebuilding one’s life. Many decisions in early adulthood are made before a person has had enough experience to understand their consequences. Additionally, many of these initial decisions are made to be seen as adults. Consequently, early decisions may be driven more by the expectations of others. For example, imagine someone who chose a career path based on others’ advice but now finds that the job is not what was expected.

Temperament and Personality in Early Adulthood

Temperament is defined as the natural characteristics of an infant, such as mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity, which are noticeable soon after birth. The question arises whether one’s temperament remains stable throughout one’s life. Does a shy and inhibited baby grow up to be a nervous adult, while a friendly child continues to be the life of the party? The answer is not as simple as a yes or no. Research conducted by Chess and Thomas (1984), who identified children as easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up, or blended, found that children identified as easy grew up to become well-adjusted adults, while those who exhibited a difficult temperament were not as well-adjusted. Kagan studied the temperamental category of inhibition to unfamiliarity in children. Infants exposed to unfamiliarity reacted strongly to the stimuli, cried loudly, pumped their limbs, and increased their heart rates. Research has indicated that these highly reactive children show temperamental stability into early childhood, and Bohlin and Hagekull (2009) found that shyness in infancy was linked to social anxiety in adulthood.

Although temperamental stability holds for many individuals throughout their lifespan, an individual’s environment can also significantly impact them. Environmental factors are thought to change gene expression by switching genes on and off, known as epigenesis. Many cultural and ecological factors can affect one’s temperament, including child-rearing practices, socioeconomic status, stable homes, illnesses, teratogens, etc. Additionally, individuals often choose environments that support their temperament, further strengthening them (Cain, 2012).

Personality refers to a person’s characteristic manner of thinking, feeling, behaving, and relating to others. Personality traits refer to the distinctive, routine ways of thinking, feeling, and relating to others. Personality integrates one’s temperament with cultural and environmental influences. As a result, there are signs or indicators of these traits in childhood, but they become particularly evident when the person is an adult. Personality traits are integral to each person’s sense of self, involving what people value, think, and feel about things, what they like to do, and what they are like almost daily throughout their lives.

Personality can change throughout adulthood. Longitudinal studies reveal average changes during adulthood in the expression of some traits (e.g., neuroticism and openness decrease with age, and conscientiousness increases) and individual differences in these patterns due to idiosyncratic life events (e.g., divorce, illness). Longitudinal research also suggests that adult personality traits, such as conscientiousness, predict important life outcomes, including job success, health, and longevity (Roberts et al., 2007).

Attachment in Emerging/Young Adulthood

Adapted from Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987).

Hazan and Shaver (1987) categorized the attachment styles of adults into three categories: secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent. Their classification was based on the same three categories proposed by Ainsworth’s research on young children. Hazan and Shaver developed three brief paragraphs describing one of the three adult attachment styles. Adults were then asked to think about their romantic relationships and choose the paragraph that best represented their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in those relationships (as shown in Table 7.3 of Lumen Learning’s Lifespan Development).

However, Bartholomew (1990) challenged the categorical view of attachment in adults and proposed that adult attachment could be better described as varying along two dimensions: attachment-related anxiety and avoidance. Attachment-related anxiety refers to the extent to which an adult worries about whether their partner loves them. Those who score high in this dimension fear their partner will reject or abandon them. On the other hand, attachment-related avoidance refers to whether an adult can open up to others and trust and depend on them. Those who score high on attachment-related avoidance are uncomfortable with opening up and may fear that such dependency may limit their autonomy. Bartholomew (1990) suggested that this would yield four possible attachment styles in adults: secure, dismissing, preoccupied, and fearful-avoidant.

Securely attached adults score lower on both dimensions. They are comfortable trusting their partners and do not worry excessively about their partner’s love for them. Adults with a dismissing style score low on attachment-related anxiety but higher on attachment-related avoidance. Such adults dismiss the importance of relationships. They trust themselves but do not trust others, and thus do not share their dreams, goals, and fears with others. They do not depend on other people and feel uncomfortable when they have to do so.

Those with a preoccupied attachment are low in attachment-related avoidance but high in attachment-related anxiety. Such adults are often prone to jealousy and worry that their partner does not love them as much as they need to be loved. Adults whose attachment style is fearful-avoidant score high on both attachment-related avoidance and attachment-related anxiety. These adults want close relationships but are uncomfortable getting emotionally close to others. They have trust issues with others and often do not trust their social skills in maintaining relationships.

Research on attachment in adulthood has found that:

• Adults with insecure attachments report lower satisfaction in their relationships.
• Those high in attachment-related anxiety tend to report more daily conflict in their relationships.
• Those with avoidant attachment exhibit less support for their partners.
• Young adults tend to show more significant attachment-related anxiety than middle-aged or older adults.
• Some studies report that young adults tend to show more attachment-related avoidance, while others find that middle-aged adults tend to offer higher avoidance than younger or older adults.
• Young adults with more secure and positive relationships with their parents tend to transition to adulthood more quickly than those with more insecure attachments.

Do People with Certain Attachment Styles Attract Those with Similar Styles?

When seeking a romantic partner, people often desire someone who is kind, caring, trustworthy, and understanding, attributes that describe a “secure” caregiver. However, it is common for people not to end up with someone who meets their ideal preferences. So, are secure individuals more inclined to end up with safe partners and vice versa? The answer seems to be “yes,” according to most research studies.

One crucial question is whether these findings exist because (a) secure individuals are more attracted to other secure individuals, (b) secure individuals tend to instill security in their partners over time, or (c) some combination of both factors. Research studies support the first alternative, where individuals tend to express greater interest in more secure individuals when interacting with people who vary in security within a speed-dating context. However, there is evidence that people’s attachment styles influence one another in close relationships.

Do Childhood Experiences Shape Adult Attachment?

Most research on this issue relies on adults’ recollections of childhood experiences. This work suggests that adults with secure attachments tend to describe their early childhood experiences with their parents as supportive, loving, and kind (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Various longitudinal studies demonstrate that early attachment experiences are associated with adult attachment styles and interpersonal functioning in the future.

It is easy to misunderstand these findings and assume that early experiences “determine” later outcomes. However, attachment theorists believe that the relationship between early experiences and subsequent outcomes is probabilistic, not deterministic. Having supportive and responsive experiences with caregivers early in life is thought to set the stage for positive social development.

Attachment patterns can change over time, even for individuals who have had far from optimal experiences in early life. Attachment theory suggests that these individuals can develop well-functioning adult relationships through several corrective experiences, including relationships with siblings, other family members, teachers, and close friends. Security is best viewed as a culmination of a person’s attachment history rather than a reflection of only the person’s early experiences. While these early experiences are essential, they do not determine a person’s fate. Instead, they provide the foundation for subsequent experiences.

What Do Relationships Look Like During Early Adulthood?

As per Erikson’s theory, the major psychosocial developmental challenge during early adulthood is “intimacy versus isolation.” Successfully resolving this stage can lead to the virtue of “love.” The following section will examine relationships during early adulthood, such as love, dating, cohabitation, marriage, and parenting.

Relationships with Parents, Caregivers, and Siblings

As children grow up, their relationship with their parents must transform into a relationship between two adults. This requires a reevaluation of their relationship by both the parents and the young adults. However, some parents struggle to interact with their grown-up children as adults. This reluctance or inability can prevent young adults from developing their identity. Moving out of home often helps young adults to grow psychologically and become independent.

Sibling relationships are some of the most durable bonds in people’s lives, but there is limited research on the nature of sibling relationships in adulthood. Research has shown that the nature of these relationships changes since adults can choose whether to maintain a close bond and remain part of each other’s lives. Siblings must also appraise each other as adults, just as parents do with their children. During early adulthood, interactions between siblings reduce as peers, romantic relationships, and children become more critical in the lives of young adults. Nevertheless, it is crucial to maintain a strong enough bond to have a foundation for the relationship in later life. Successful people can move beyond childhood conflicts and establish an equal relationship between two adults. Siblings close to each other in childhood tend to remain tight in adulthood.

Attraction and Love

Psychologists have investigated factors influencing attraction, such as similarity, proximity, familiarity, and reciprocity. This research helps explain why some people hit it off quickly.

Developing relationships with friends or romantic partners often happens by chance. This can be attributed, at least in part, to how close we are to those people. Proximity, or physical nearness, is among the most significant factors in building relationships. For instance, when young adults leave their family home, they tend to make friends with nearby classmates, roommates, and teammates. Proximity enables people to get to know each other and discover their similarities, which can lead to friendship or a romantic relationship. Proximity refers to not just geographical distance but also functional distance, which is the frequency with which we cross paths. For example, young adults who live in the same building tend to become closer and develop relationships because they see each other more frequently than people on different floors. How does proximity apply in the context of online relationships? Levine (2000) argues that in terms of developing online relationships and attraction, functional distance refers to being online simultaneously, such as in a chat room or an internet forum, and crossing virtual paths.

Familiarity

Proximity plays a crucial role in attraction because it creates a sense of familiarity, often leading to increased attraction. Spending more time around someone or being exposed to them repeatedly can increase the chances of feeling attracted to them. We also tend to feel safe and comfortable with people we know well since we know what to expect from them. Dr. Zajonc (1968) labeled this as the mere exposure effect, which means that the more we are exposed to a stimulus like a person’s voice or presence, the more likely we are to view it positively.

Research indicates that we tend to like what is familiar to us, even if we are not aware of it consciously. This fundamental principle of attraction (Zajonc, 1980) means that young people with overbearing primary caregivers may be attracted to authoritative individuals, not because they enjoy being dominated but because they perceive such behavior as usual and familiar.

Although some people may believe that opposite personalities can attract, research has shown that people prefer those similar. This similarity is significant in the context of marriage. Studies have suggested that couples are very similar in age, social status, race, education, physical appearance, values, and beliefs (McCann, 2016). This phenomenon is called the matching hypothesis (Mckillip & Redel, 1983). Essentially, we are attracted to individuals who share our perspectives and have similar attitudes toward life.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity plays a vital role in attraction. It means we tend to like people more if they like us back. In other words, it’s hard to form a bond with someone who doesn’t reciprocate our friendliness. Relationships are built on give-and-take, so the relationship is unlikely to work if one side is not reciprocating. We feel compelled to give back what we receive and maintain equilibrium in our relationships. This phenomenon has been observed by researchers across cultures (Gouldner, 1960).

Most individuals will experience a romantic relationship in their lifetime. However, is love the same for everyone? Are there different types of love? Psychologist Robert Sternberg (2007) proposes that all kinds of love include three key elements: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy involves closeness, emotional support, and caring. Passion, on the other hand, entails both emotional and physiological arousal, such as sexual attraction and arousal. Finally, commitment refers to the decision to love and maintain that love over time. All types of close relationships, such as the love between a mother and child or the bond between friends, tend to include intimacy. However, passion is unique to romantic love.

Anthropologist Helen Fisher conducted a study using fMRI scans to observe brain activity in individuals who had recently fallen in love. Her research showed that the participants’ brain chemistry was similar to that of individuals with substance use disorders on a drug high (Cohen, 2007). Specifically, serotonin production increased by 40% in people who had just fallen in love. Additionally, these individuals displayed obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Conversely, the brain processes a breakup similarly to quitting a heroin habit (Fisher et al., 2010). Therefore, the physical pain and emotional distress experienced after a breakup are valid.

It’s also worth noting that long-term love and sexual desire activate different areas of the brain. Sexual desire starts in the striatum, a part of the brain that responds to pleasurable things like food, sex, and drugs. On the other hand, love requires conditioning and positive reinforcement to develop into a habit. Positive rewards, expectancies, and habits help love grow over time (Cacioppo, 2012).

Trends in Dating, Cohabitation, and Marriage

It is common for people in their early 20s to lead a lifestyle of being single in the United States. There has been a noticeable increase in adults opting to stay single. In 1960, only 1 in 10 adults aged 25 or older had never been married. However, in 2012, this number had increased to 1 in 5 (Wang & Parker, 2014). This trend is not limited to the United States alone but has been observed worldwide over the last 30 years. Being single has become a more acceptable way of life than in the past, and many people are content with their single status. However, whether or not someone is happy being single depends on their circumstances.

Reasons for Staying Single

There are many reasons why young adults choose to remain single. Some haven’t yet found the right partner, while others prefer to focus on their financial stability and career before settling down. Moreover, many young adults feel they are too young to get married and like waiting until they are prepared. It’s becoming increasingly common for adults to marry later in life, live together, or raise children outside of marriage. This shift in attitudes towards marriage may be due to young adults’ changing priorities, such as pursuing higher education and establishing their careers.

Technology and social media have diversified recently, making it easier for teens and young adults to connect.

Dating and the Internet

The Internet has revolutionized the way people find relationships. According to Finkel and colleagues (2007), social networking sites and the Internet perform three essential tasks. Firstly, they provide access to a database of individuals interested in meeting someone. Secondly, dating sites reduce proximity issues, allowing individuals to meet even if they are not geographically close. Thirdly, they provide a medium for communication between individuals. Some internet dating websites advertise unique matching strategies based on personality, hobbies, and interests to identify the “perfect match” for people looking for love online. However, scientific questions about the effectiveness of Internet matching or online dating compared to face-to-face dating remain unanswered.

It is important to note that social networking sites have opened doors for many people to meet individuals they may not have had an opportunity to meet otherwise. Unfortunately, social networking sites can also be forums for unsuspecting people to be duped. Joost & Schulman’s (2010) documentary Catfish highlights how a man met a woman online and had an emotional relationship with her for months, only to discover later that the person he thought he was talking to did not exist. Therefore, individuals should be cautious when meeting others from online sources and research people’s backgrounds before meeting them in person.

Online communication is different from face-to-face interaction in several ways. In face-to-face meetings, people have many cues to base their first impressions on, such as a person’s looks, voice, mannerisms, dress, scent, and surroundings. In contrast, written messages are the only cues provided in computer-mediated meetings. Fantasy is used to conjure up images of voice, physical appearance, mannerisms, and so forth. The anonymity of online involvement may make it easier to become intimate without fear of interdependence. People tend to disclose more personal details about themselves more quickly when online, and a shy person may open up more without worrying about whether or not the partner is frowning or looking away. Additionally, someone who has been abused may feel safer in virtual relationships.

United States demographic changes have significantly affected romantic relationships among emerging and early adults. As previously described, the age for puberty has declined, while the times for one’s first marriage and first child have increased. This results in a “historically unprecedented time gap where young adults are physiologically able to reproduce but not psychologically or socially ready to settle down and begin a family and child-rearing” (Garcia et al., 2012). Consequently, traditional forms of dating have shifted for some people to include more casual hookups that involve uncommitted sexual encounters (Bogle, 2008).

Emotional Consequences of Hooking Up

Concerns regarding hooking-up behavior are evident in the research literature. One significant finding is the high comorbidity of hooking up and substance use. Those engaging in non-monogamous sex are more likely to have used marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol, and the overall risks of sexual activity are drastically increased with the addition of alcohol and drugs (Garcia et al., 2012). Regret has also been expressed, and those who had the most regret after hooking up also had more symptoms of depression (Welsh et al., 2006). Hookups were also found to be associated with lower self-esteem, increased guilt, and fostered feelings of using someone.

Hooking up can best be explained from a biological, psychological, and social perspective. Research indicates that some emerging adults feel it is necessary to engage in hooking-up behavior as part of the sexual script depicted in the culture and media. Additionally, they desire sexual gratification. However, many also want a more committed romantic relationship and may feel regret about uncommitted sex.

“Friends with Benefits”

Hookups are different than those relationships that involve continued mutual exchange. These relationships are often called “Friends with Benefits” (FWB) or “Booty Calls.” These relationships involve friends having casual sex without commitment. Hookups do not include a friendship relationship. Bisson and Levine (2009) found that 60% of 125 undergraduates reported a FWB relationship. The concern with FWB is that one partner may feel more romantically invested than the other (Garcia et al., 2012).

Cohabitation

Cohabitation is an arrangement where two or more people who are not married live together.  These often involve a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a more long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increasingly common in Western countries during the past few decades due to changing social views regarding marriage, gender roles, employment, and religious and economic changes. With many jobs requiring advanced educational attainment, a competition between marriage and pursuing postsecondary education has ensued (Yu & Xie, 2015).

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2022), cohabitation has increased, while marriage has decreased in young adulthood. As seen in the graph below, over the past 50 years, 18-24-year-olds in the U.S. living with an unmarried partner have gone from 0.1 percent to 9.4 percent, while living with a spouse has gone from 39.2 percent to 7 percent. More 18-24-year-olds live with an unmarried partner now than a married one.

Similar increases in cohabitation have also occurred in other industrialized countries. For example, rates are high in Great Britain, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. More children in Sweden are born to cohabiting couples than to married couples. The Scandinavian countries have been the first to start this leading trend in Europe. However, many countries have since followed. Mediterranean Europe has traditionally been very conservative, with religion playing a substantial role.

Engagement and Marriage

Marriage Trends Worldwide: According to Cohen (2013), marriage has declined globally in recent decades. This decline has been observed in both rich and poor countries. The countries with the most significant drops in marriage were primarily wealthy countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and the United States. This decline is not only due to people delaying marriage but also due to high rates of non-marital cohabitation. Delayed or reduced marriage is associated with higher income and lower fertility rates worldwide.

Marriage Statistics in the United States: Wang and Taylor (2011) reported that in 1960, 72% of adults aged 18 or older were married. However, this number dropped to only 50% in 2010. Additionally, the age of first marriage has increased for both genders. In 1960, the average age for first marriage was 20 years for women and 23 years for men. In 2010, the average age had increased to 26.5 for women and almost 29 for men. Many reasons explain increases in singlehood and cohabitation, which can also account for the drop and delay in marriage.

Historical Perspective on Marriage and Elopement: In the past, marriage was a decision made by one’s family, not a personal choice. Arranged marriages ensured the proper transfer of a family’s wealth and the support of ethnic and religious customs. Such marriages were a union of families rather than individuals. In the 18th century, the concept of personal choice in a marriage partner became more prevalent in Western Europe. Arranged marriages were considered “traditional,” and marriages based on love were “modern.” Many early “love” marriages were obtained by eloping (Thornton, 2005).

Elopement means secretly getting married.

In most countries worldwide, most people will marry in their lifetime. Around the world, people tend to get married later in life or not at all. For instance, people in more developed countries (e.g., Nordic and Western Europe) typically marry later in life—at an average age of 30 years. This is very different than, for example, the economically developing country of Afghanistan, which has one of the lowest average age statistics for marriage (United Nations, 2013).

Cultural Influences on Marriage

Many cultures have both explicit and unstated rules that specify who is an appropriate mate. Consequently, mate selection is not entirely left to the individual. Rules of endogamy indicate the groups we should marry within and those we should not marry (Witt, 2010). For example, many cultures specify that people marry within their race, social class, age group, or religion. Endogamy reinforces the cohesiveness of the group.

Additionally, these rules encourage homogamy or marriage between people who share social characteristics.  The majority of marriages in the U.S. are homogamous concerning race, social class, age, and, to a lesser extent, religion. Homogamy is also seen in couples with similar personalities and interests.

Arranged Marriages

In certain countries, it’s common for people to be matched and committed to marriage through arrangements made by their parents or professional marriage brokers.

In some cultures, it’s not unusual for the families of young individuals to find a suitable partner for them. In India, for instance, the marriage market refers to using marriage brokers or bureaus to link eligible singles together (Trivedi, 2013). To Westerners, the idea of arranged marriage may seem to take the romance out of the equation and go against personal freedom values. However, some argue that parents can make more mature decisions than young people.

While such involvement might seem inappropriate based on your upbringing, many individuals expect and appreciate such help. In India, for example, “parental arranged marriages are largely preferred to other forms of marital choices” (Ramsheena, 2015). Of course, one’s religious and social status plays a role in determining how involved a family may be.

Same-Sex Marriage and Couples Worldwide

As of 2022, over 30 countries have legalized same-sex marriage, and this number continues to grow. Additionally, many other countries have taken steps to recognize same-sex couples, such as by granting rights for domestic partnerships or common-law marriage status. On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that guaranteed same-sex marriage under the Constitution. This ruling declared that limiting marriage to heterosexual couples violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. It’s worth noting that this decision came 11 years after Massachusetts first legalized same-sex marriage. By the time of the Supreme Court ruling, 36 states and the District of Columbia had already followed suit (Masci et al., 2019).

What Are the Factors Associated with Education and Work in Early Adulthood?

Education in early adulthood.

Over the last decade, there has been a growing concern about whether formal education is enough to prepare young adults for the workplace. It has become apparent that students need to learn what is often called “soft skills” in addition to the knowledge and skills specific to their chosen field of study. According to Pazich (2018), an education researcher, most American college students today are enrolling in business or other pre-professional programs. To be effective and successful workers and leaders, they not only need the content knowledge gained from liberal arts education but also communication, teamwork, and critical thinking skills. Considering that two-thirds of children who start primary school now will be employed in jobs that do not exist, it is impossible to learn every skill or fact they may need to know. However, they can learn how to learn, think, research, and communicate effectively to continually learn new things and adapt to changes in their careers and lives. Since the economy, technology, and global markets will continue to evolve, workers must have skills in listening, reading, writing, speaking, global awareness, critical thinking, civility, and computer literacy—all of which enhance success in the workplace.

Soft skills are non-technical skills that describe how you work and interact with others.

Career Choices in Early Adulthood

As we live longer and change jobs multiple times, it is essential to become lifelong learners. However, our initial career choice is still significant as many of us will change jobs within the same occupational field. Erikson’s theory suggests that our occupation mainly defines our identity.

Holland’s theory of career choice is well-known and proposes six personality types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional) and various work environments. The better the match between a person’s personality and the workplace characteristics, the more satisfied and successful they are likely to be in their career or vocational choice. Although research support has been mixed, we should note that personality traits alone cannot guarantee satisfaction and success in a career. Education, training, and abilities also need to align with the expectations and demands of the job. Besides, factors such as the state of the economy, availability of positions, and salary rates may also play practical roles in making choices about work.

Career Development and Employment

Work’s role is crucial in people’s lives, especially during emerging and early adulthood. This is when most people make choices that will help shape their careers. However, recent years have seen young adults frequently changing jobs and returning to school for further education and retraining. Despite this, researchers have found that occupational interests remain relatively stable. Thus, most people generally seek jobs with similar interests rather than entirely new careers (Rottinghaus, 2007).

Recent research suggests that Millennials want something different in their place of employment. According to a Gallup (2016) poll, Millennials want more than just a paycheck; they want a purpose. Unfortunately, only 29% of Millennials surveyed by Gallup reported being “engaged” at work. They report being less engaged than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, with 55% of Millennials saying they are not engaged at all with their job. This indifference to their workplace may explain the greater tendency to switch careers. With their current job giving them little reason to stay, they are likelier to take any new opportunity to move on. Only half of Millennials saw themselves working at the same company a year later. Gallup estimates that this employment turnover and lack of engagement costs businesses $30.5 billion annually.

The economic downturn in recent years and Covid-19 have hit teens and young adults hard. Consequently, several young people have become NEETs, neither employed nor in education or training. While the number of young people who are NEETs has declined, there is concern that “without assistance, economically inactive young people won’t gain critical job skills and will never fully integrate into the wider economy or achieve their full earning potential” (Desilver, 2016). In Europe, where the rates of NEETs are persistently high, there is also concern that having such large numbers of young adults with little opportunity may increase the chances of social unrest.

To learn more about these early adulthood topics, but from a slightly different perspective—that of generations or cohorts—please visit the links below. “Millennials” are defined as individuals who were born between 1981 and 1996 and, as such, make up a large part of today’s young adults. “Gen Zers” are defined as those born after 1996.

Links to Learning: GenZ, Millennials, and Other Generations

“ Millennial life: How young adulthood today compares with prior generations. ”

“ Gen Zers: what we know about Gen Z so far,”  from the Pew Research Center.

So, What Have You Learned?

Emerging adults, typically between the ages of 18 and 25, are at the peak of their physical and sexual capacities. However, their tendency towards risk-taking behaviors leaves them vulnerable to various disorders such as accidents, alcohol and drug abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, intimate partner violence, and even suicide. Maintaining a healthy diet and an active lifestyle is crucial during this stage since it’s associated with health and certain illnesses in middle age. Their cognitive and brain development continues to be shaped and influenced by education and life experiences. Young adults may shift from formal logical thinking to postformal thinking, which enables them to consider multiple perspectives and contexts, appreciate ambiguity and uncertainty, and make practical decisions based on their experiences.

Further education plays an essential role in shaping the future for most young adults. Hence, we examined the correlation between education and work and discovered that exploring and choosing one’s career is crucial during this stage. Establishing intimate relationships with friends, family, and significant others is another important aspect of young adulthood. It involves love, dating, cohabitation, and marriage.

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Attribution

Tremika Cleary adapted this chapter from select chapters in Iowa State University Digital Press Individual and Family Development, Health, and Well-being , authored by Alisa Beyer, Julie Lazzara; Diana Lang, Nick Cone; Margaret Clark-Plaskie; Lumen Learning; Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French available under a   Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Lifespan Development

Learning Objectives

• Describe physical, cognitive, and emotional development that occurs in adulthood
• Differentiate between fluid and crystallized intelligence

Adulthood begins around 20 years old and has three distinct stages: early, middle, and late. Each stage brings its own set of rewards and challenges.

Physical Development

By the time we reach early adulthood (20 to early 40s), our physical maturation is complete, although our height and weight may increase slightly. In young adulthood, our physical abilities are at their peak, including muscle strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac functioning. Most professional athletes are at the top of their game during this stage. Many women have children in the young adulthood years, so they may see additional weight gain and breast changes.

Middle adulthood extends from the 40s to the 60s (Figure 1). Physical decline is gradual. The skin loses some elasticity, and wrinkles are among the first signs of aging. Visual acuity decreases during this time. Women experience a gradual decline in fertility as they approach the onset of menopause, the end of the menstrual cycle, around 50 years old. Both men and women tend to gain weight: in the abdominal area for men and in the hips and thighs for women. Hair begins to thin and turn gray.

Late adulthood is considered to extend from the 60s on. This is the last stage of physical change. The skin continues to lose elasticity, reaction time slows further, and muscle strength diminishes. Smell, taste, hearing, and vision, so sharp in our twenties, decline significantly. The brain may also no longer function at optimal levels, leading to problems like memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease in later years.

Link to Learning

Aging doesn’t mean a person can’t explore new pursuits, learn new skills, and continue to grow. Watch this inspiring story about Neil Unger who is a newbie to the world of skateboarding at 60 years old.

Cognitive Development

Because we spend so many years in adulthood (more than any other stage), cognitive changes are numerous. In fact, research suggests that adult cognitive development is a complex, ever changing process that may be even more active than cognitive development in infancy and early childhood (Fischer, Yan, & Stewart, 2003).

Researchers have identified areas of both losses and gains in cognition in older age. Cognitive ability and intelligence are often measured using standardized tests and validated measures. The psychometric approach has identified two categories of intelligence that show different rates of change across the life span (Schaie & Willis, 1996). Fluid intelligence refers to information processing abilities, such as logical reasoning, remembering lists, spatial ability, and reaction time. Crystallized intelligence encompasses abilities that draw upon experience and knowledge. Measures of crystallized intelligence include vocabulary tests, solving number problems, and understanding texts.

With age, systematic declines are observed on cognitive tasks requiring self-initiated, effortful processing, without the aid of supportive memory cues (Park, 2000). Older adults tend to perform poorer than young adults on memory tasks that involve recall of information, where individuals must retrieve information they learned previously without the help of a list of possible choices. For example, older adults may have more difficulty recalling facts such as names or contextual details about where or when something happened (Craik, 2000). What might explain these deficits as we age? As we age, working memory, or our ability to simultaneously store and use information, becomes less efficient (Craik & Bialystok, 2006). The ability to process information quickly also decreases with age. This slowing of processing speed may explain age differences on many different cognitive tasks (Salthouse, 2004). Some researchers have argued that inhibitory functioning, or the ability to focus on certain information while suppressing attention to less pertinent information, declines with age and may explain age differences in performance on cognitive tasks (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Finally, it is well established that our hearing and vision decline as we age. Longitudinal research has proposed that deficits in sensory functioning explain age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities (Baltes & Lindenberger, 1997).

Fewer age differences are observed when memory cues are available, such as for recognition memory tasks, or when individuals can draw upon acquired knowledge or experience. For example, older adults often perform as well if not better than young adults on tests of word knowledge or vocabulary. With age often comes expertise, and research has pointed to areas where aging experts perform as well or better than younger individuals. For example, older typists were found to compensate for age-related declines in speed by looking farther ahead at printed text (Salthouse, 1984). Compared to younger players, older chess experts are able to focus on a smaller set of possible moves, leading to greater cognitive efficiency (Charness, 1981). Accrued knowledge of everyday tasks, such as grocery prices, can help older adults to make better decisions than young adults (Tentori, Osheron, Hasher, & May, 2001).

How do changes or maintenance of cognitive ability affect older adults’ everyday lives? Researchers have studied cognition in the context of several different everyday activities. One example is driving. Although older adults often have more years of driving experience, cognitive declines related to reaction time or attentional processes may pose limitations under certain circumstances (Park & Gutchess, 2000). Research on interpersonal problem solving suggested that older adults use more effective strategies than younger adults to navigate through social and emotional problems (Blanchard-Fields, 2007). In the context of work, researchers rarely find that older individuals perform poorer on the job (Park & Gutchess, 2000). Similar to everyday problem solving, older workers may develop more efficient strategies and rely on expertise to compensate for cognitive decline.

How can we delay the onset of cognitive decline? Mental and physical activity seems to play a part (Figure 2). Research has found adults who engage in mentally and physically stimulating activities experience less cognitive decline and have a reduced incidence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia (Hertzog, Kramer, Wilson, & Lindenberger, 2009; Larson et al., 2006; Podewils et al., 2005).

Psychosocial Development

There are many theories about the social and emotional aspects of aging. Some aspects of healthy aging include activities, social connectedness, and the role of a person’s culture. According to many theorists, including George Vaillant (2002), who studied and analyzed over 50 years of data, we need to have and continue to find meaning throughout our lives. For those in early and middle adulthood, meaning is found through work (Sterns & Huyck, 2001) and family life (Markus, Ryff, Curan, & Palmersheim, 2004). These areas relate to the tasks that Erikson referred to as intimacy versus isolation in early adulthood and  generativity versus stagnation  in middle adulthood. As mentioned previously, adults tend to define themselves by what they do—their careers. Earnings peak during this time, yet job satisfaction is more closely tied to work that involves contact with other people, is interesting, provides opportunities for advancement, and allows some independence (Mohr & Zoghi, 2006) than it is to salary (Iyengar, Wells, & Schwartz, 2006). How might being unemployed or being in a dead-end job challenge adult well-being?

As people enter the final stages of life, they have what Erik Erikson described as a crisis over integrity versus despair. In other words, they review the events of their lives and try to come to terms with the mark (or lack thereof) that they have made on the world. People who believe they have had a positive impact on the world through their contributions live the end of life with a sense of integrity. Those who feel they have not measured up to certain standards—either their own or others’—develop a sense of despair.

Positive relationships with significant others in our adult years have been found to contribute to a state of well-being (Ryff & Singer, 2009). Most adults in the United States identify themselves through their relationships with family—particularly with spouses, children, and parents (Markus et al., 2004). While raising children can be stressful, especially when they are young, research suggests that parents reap the rewards down the road, as adult children tend to have a positive effect on parental well-being (Umberson, Pudrovska, & Reczek, 2010). Having a stable marriage has also been found to contribute to well-being throughout adulthood (Vaillant, 2002).

Another aspect of positive aging is believed to be social connectedness and social support. As we get older, socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that our social support and friendships dwindle in number, but remain as close, if not more close than in our earlier years (Carstensen, 1992) (Figure 3).

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Chapter 9: Late Adulthood

Attention and problem solving.

Changes in Attention in Late Adulthood: Changes in sensory functioning and speed of processing information in late adulthood often translates into changes in attention (Jefferies et al., 2015). Research has shown that older adults are less able to selectively focus on information while ignoring distractors (Jefferies et al., 2015; Wascher, Schneider, Hoffman, Beste, & Sänger, 2012), although Jefferies and her colleagues found that when given double time, older adults could perform at young adult levels. Other studies have also found that older adults have greater difficulty shifting their attention between objects or locations (Tales, Muir, Bayer, & Snowden, 2002). Consider the implication of these attentional changes for older adults.

How do changes or maintenance of cognitive ability affect older adults’ everyday lives? Researchers have studied cognition in the context of several different everyday activities. One example is driving. Although older adults often have more years of driving experience, cognitive declines related to reaction time or attentional processes may pose limitations under certain circumstances (Park & Gutchess, 2000). In contrast, research on interpersonal problem solving suggested that older adults use more effective strategies than younger adults to navigate through social and emotional problems (Blanchard-Fields, 2007). In the context of work, researchers rarely find that older individuals perform poorer on the job (Park & Gutchess, 2000). Similar to everyday problem solving, older workers may develop more efficient strategies and rely on expertise to compensate for cognitive decline.

Problem Solving : Problem solving tasks that require processing non-meaningful information quickly (a kind of task that might be part of a laboratory experiment on mental processes) declines with age. However, many real-life challenges facing older adults do not rely on speed of processing or making choices on one’s own. Older adults resolve everyday problems by relying on input from others, such as family and friends. They are also less likely than younger adults to delay making decisions on important matters, such as medical care (Strough, Hicks, Swenson, Cheng & Barnes, 2003; Meegan & Berg, 2002).

What might explain these deficits as we age? The processing speed theory , proposed by Salthouse (1996, 2004), suggests that as the nervous system slows with advanced age our ability to process information declines . This slowing of processing speed may explain age differences on many different cognitive tasks. For instance, as we age, working memory becomes less efficient (Craik & Bialystok, 2006). Older adults also need longer time to complete mental tasks or make decisions. Yet, when given sufficient time older adults perform as competently as do young adults (Salthouse, 1996). Thus, when speed is not imperative to the task healthy older adults do not show cognitive declines.

In contrast, inhibition theory argues that older adults have difficulty with inhibitory functioning, or the ability to focus on certain information while suppressing attention to less pertinent information tasks (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Evidence comes from directed forgetting research. In directed forgetting people are asked to forget or ignore some information, but not other information. For example, you might be asked to memorize a list of words, but are then told that the researcher made a mistake and gave you the wrong list, and asks you to “forget” this list. You are then given a second list to memorize. While most people do well at forgetting the first list, older adults are more likely to recall more words from the “forget-to-recall” list than are younger adults (Andrés, Van der Linden, & Parmentier, 2004).

Cognitive losses exaggerated: While there are information processing losses in late adulthood, overall loss has been exaggerated (Garrett, 2015). One explanation is that the type of tasks that people are tested on tend to be meaningless. For example, older individuals are not motivated to remember a random list of words in a study, but they are motivated for more meaningful material related to their life, and consequently perform better on those tests. Another reason is that the research is often cross-sectional. When age comparisons occur longitudinally, however, the amount of loss diminishes (Schaie, 1994). A third reason is that the loss may be due to a lack of opportunity in using various skills. When older adults practiced skills, they performed as well as they had previously. Although diminished performance speed is especially noteworthy in the elderly, Schaie (1994) found that statistically removing the effects of speed diminished the individual’s performance declines significantly. In fact, Salthouse and Babcock (1991) demonstrated that processing speed accounted for all but 1% of age-related differences in working memory when testing individuals from 18 to 82. Finally, it is well established that our hearing and vision decline as we age. Longitudinal research has proposed that deficits in sensory functioning explain age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities (Baltes & Lindenberger, 1997).

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Cognitive Predictors of Everyday Problem Solving across the Lifespan

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Xi Chen , Christopher Hertzog , Denise C. Park; Cognitive Predictors of Everyday Problem Solving across the Lifespan. Gerontology 14 June 2017; 63 (4): 372–384. https://doi.org/10.1159/000459622

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Background: An important aspect of successful aging is maintaining the ability to solve everyday problems encountered in daily life. The limited evidence today suggests that everyday problem solving ability increases from young adulthood to middle age, but decreases in older age. Objectives: The present study examined age differences in the relative contributions of fluid and crystallized abilities to solving problems on the Everyday Problems Test (EPT). We hypothesized that due to diminishing fluid resources available with advanced age, crystallized knowledge would become increasingly important in predicting everyday problem solving with greater age. Method: Two hundred and twenty-one healthy adults from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study, aged 24-93 years, completed a cognitive battery that included measures of fluid ability (i.e., processing speed, working memory, inductive reasoning) and crystallized ability (i.e., multiple measures of vocabulary). These measures were used to predict performance on EPT. Results: Everyday problem solving showed an increase in performance from young to early middle age, with performance beginning to decrease at about age of 50 years. As hypothesized, fluid ability was the primary predictor of performance on everyday problem solving for young adults, but with increasing age, crystallized ability became the dominant predictor. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that everyday problem solving ability differs with age, and, more importantly, that the processes underlying it differ with age as well. The findings indicate that older adults increasingly rely on knowledge to support everyday problem solving, whereas young adults rely almost exclusively on fluid intelligence.

An important aspect of successful aging is maintaining the ability to solve everyday problems encountered in daily life. Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) represent one important domain of these problems. IADLs are complex behaviors required for independent management of one's life, including adherence to complex medical regimens, ability to use increasingly complex communication devices, and management of financial resources [ 1 ]. Other everyday problems involve situations where a conflict is present or a goal cannot be reached without some inferential reasoning [ 2 ]. Cross-sectional data show that the practical ability to solve everyday problems increases from young adulthood until middle age [ 3,4,5 ], but that older age is characterized by diminishing performance [ 4,5,6,7 ].

One reason for peak performance during middle adulthood in everyday problem solving may be that middle-aged adults have the ideal balance of fluid and crystallized resources needed for everyday problem solving. Crystallized ability represents accumulated experience and knowledge of the world, and is typically measured by vocabulary and general knowledge. It does not decline, and may even grow, well into late adulthood [ 8,9 ]. In contrast, fluid ability - the ability to abstract and perform efficient mental operations - shows consistent age-related decline beginning in the 20s [ 9 ], but nevertheless, performance is still relatively high in middle-aged adults [ 10 ]. Fluid ability is best measured by different types of inductive and deductive reasoning tasks, and is closely related to the construct of processing resources [ 11 ] as operationalized by working memory [ 12 ].

Previous studies have found fluid ability to be an important predictor of everyday problem solving in healthy older adults [ 6,7,13,14,15,16,17 ]. Gross et al. [ 15 ] found that although memory, reasoning, and processing speed were all significant predictors of everyday functioning and everyday problem solving, inductive reasoning (measured by Letter Series, Word Series, and Letter Sets tasks) independently accounted for the most variance in everyday functioning (measured by the Everyday Problems Test [EPT], the Observed Tasks of Daily Living [OTDL], and the Timed Instrumental Activities of Daily Living test). Willis et al. [ 18 ] also showed that older adults who underwent reasoning training showed less functional decline in IADLs than an untrained control group, indicating the importance of reasoning for everyday problem solving.

Everyday problem solving is also related to other aspects of fluid ability that decline with age, especially working memory and processing speed. Importantly, age-related decreases in working memory, using traditional measures that include Reading Span, Computation Span, and Operation Span tasks, have been strongly associated with lower performance on everyday problem solving tasks [ 13,19 ]. Age-related slowing in processing speed has also been associated with decreased everyday problem solving [ 7,20 ]. Rebok et al. [ 21 ] reported evidence that older adults who had extensive training on processing speed in the ACTIVE trial reported less difficulty in performing IADLs 10 years after training, suggesting that such an intervention confers protection in later life. In sum, there is little doubt that fluid ability plays an important role in everyday problem solving.

What is less certain is the role that crystallized ability and knowledge play in everyday problem solving. There have been a few studies that examined the joint contributions of both fluid ability and crystallized ability to everyday problem solving, and all suggest an important role of fluid ability [ 6,13,14,16,20,22,23 ]. However, the importance of crystallized ability in everyday problem solving seems to be different depending on the age range of the sample included in the study. Three studies in older adults all found that both fluid and crystallized ability played very important roles in everyday problem solving. Diehl et al. [ 14 ] used structural equation modeling and found that both fluid and crystallized abilities had significant paths to everyday problem solving, measured by OTDL. In addition, the effects of memory and speed on OTDL were mediated by crystallized ability, indexed by vocabulary. Burton et al. [ 20 ] used hierarchical regression and found that verbal ability, measured by verbal fluency and vocabulary tasks, predicted performance in EPT beyond the effect of fluid ability and demographic variables (e.g., age, education). Allaire and Marsiske [ 13 ] also found a relationship between vocabulary and some domains of everyday problem solving, measured by Everyday Cognition Battery. However, studies including middle-aged adults yielded somewhat different conclusions on the role of crystallized ability in the relation to everyday problem solving. Kimbler [ 6 ] studied healthy middle-aged and older adults (age 50-92 years) and found no relationship between performance in vocabulary and EPT. Thornton et al. [ 23 ] reported that, although in a sample of healthy adults and chronic disease patients, crystallized ability (measured by Educational Testing Service [ETS] vocabulary) mediated age effects on performance in EPT, the relationship was not significant when the analysis was limited only to healthy adults.

These findings suggest that there is a discrepancy in the role of crystallized ability in predicting everyday problem solving across the adulthood lifespan. A potential explanation is that there may be an age-related shift in the contribution of fluid versus crystallized abilities in solving everyday problems. This shift can only be detected by using a lifespan sample with a broader age range. We are aware of only 2 adult lifespan studies on the cognitive predictors of performance in everyday problem solving [ 5,22 ]. In both studies, the correlation of fluid and crystallized cognitive predictors to everyday problem solving (practical problem solving in [ 5 ]) was significant. However, when the effects of age and education on everyday problem solving were controlled, neither predictor was significant [ 5 ], limiting the understanding of their respective contribution. Moreover, we were unable to find any studies that include young, middle-age and older adults that examined how age affects the contribution of cognitive predictors to everyday problem solving. Therefore, the present study focuses on 2 important and unresolved issues. First, what is the strength of the contributions of fluid and crystallized abilities to everyday problem solving? And second, do these contributions shift in importance as a function of age?

Park [ 24 ] has argued that older adults maintain performance on many cognitive tasks by increasingly relying on knowledge and experience to compensate for declines in fluid abilities. Congruent with this perspective, Baltes et al. [ 25 ] also suggested that crystallized ability can compensate, to some extent, for age-related declines in processing efficiency with advanced age. In support of this theorizing, Hedden et al. [ 26 ] reported that performance on a verbal memory task was mediated by fluid abilities in young and middle-aged adults, but that older adults relied more on vocabulary (an index of crystallized ability) for optimal performance. In the present study, we determine whether such an age-related shift occurs for everyday problem solving in an adult lifespan sample. We predicted that young adults who are rich in cognitive resources such as speed, working memory and reasoning would rely on fluid processing for success; however, as age increased, crystallized ability would play an increasingly important role in everyday problem solving.

Participants

A total of 221 healthy adults from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study (DLBS; 148 women, 73 men, age range: 24-93 years, Mini-Mental Status Examination scores ≥26, mean = 28.37) were recruited locally from the community. All participants were right-handed with normal or corrected to normal vision. Participants with any of following conditions were excluded: history of major psychiatric or neurological disorder, history of prescription drug abuse/illegal drug use, and/or any head trauma. Participants were compensated USD 15.00 per hour for their participation. They completed two 2.5-h sessions that are described below.

Each participant completed a battery of cognitive tests as well as the EPT [ 27 ]. This comprehensive battery included both paper-and-pencil and computerized tasks. The cognitive constructs assessed and the tasks associated with each construct included the following:

Processing speed was measured by Digit Comparison [ 28 ], WAIS-III Digit Symbol [ 29 ], and Pattern Comparison task taken from NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) [ 30 ].

Working memory was measured by the Spatial Working Memory (SWM) task of Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) [ 31 ], WAIS-III Letter-Number Sequencing [ 29 ], and NIHTB-CB List Sorting [ 30 ].

Inductive reasoning was measured by ETS Letter Sets [ 32 ], Raven's Progressive Matrices [ 33 ], and Stockings of Cambridge (SOC) of CANTAB [ 31 ].

Crystallized ability was measured by NIHTB-CB Picture Vocabulary [ 30 ], NIHTB-CB Oral Reading Recognition [ 30 ], and the ETS Advanced Vocabulary Scale [ 32 ]. Although the ETS Vocabulary task was timed, we made sure that no participants failed to complete the task because of the time limit, so the performance on this task was not affected by their speed.

Everyday problem solving ability was measured by EPT [ 27 ]. It is a paper-pencil task that has 42 questions, which assesses the ability to solve tasks that are important to live independently in our society. The EPT is comprised of 7 scales that include problems from the domains of Health/Medications, Meal Preparation/Nutrition, Phone Usage, Consumer/Shopping, Financial Management, Household Management, and Transportation. For each of these 7 scales, participants are presented with 3 sample stimuli (e.g., prescription drug label, bus schedule, catalog order form) and 2 questions about each stimulus. Figure 1 is an example of one EPT stimulus with 2 questions based on the stimulus. The performance on this task is measured as the total number of correct answers to the 42 questions. Compared to other neuropsychological tasks that assessed traditional problem solving ability, EPT was designed to be a better indicator of problem solving performance in real life. Schmitter-Edgecombe et al. [ 34 ] found that EPT was strongly associated with directly observed everyday functioning performance in real world, and therefore considered to be a valid and useful measure for assessing everyday functioning in cognitively healthy older population.

Example questions of the Everyday Problems Test.

Data Analyses

Altogether, there were 13 tasks subjected to analyses: 3 measures each for processing speed, working memory, inductive reasoning, crystallized ability, and a single measure of everyday problem solving. We created standard scores for the 12 cognitive measures that were used for further analyses. A confirmatory factor analysis validated the expected factor structure of cognitive measures (χ 2 (60) = 147.941, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.953, RMSEA = 0.081, SRMR = 0.076; Fig. 2 ). The standardized scores for each crystallized and fluid test were averaged to produce composite crystallized and fluid scores in a standard score (z-score) metric in the aggregate cross-sectional sample.

Confirmatory factor analysis of cognitive tasks, after controlling for age. χ 2 (60) = 147.941, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.953, RMSEA = 0.081, SRMR = 0.076.

To test the hypothesis that crystallized intelligence would be a more potent predictor of everyday problem solving for older adults, relative to earlier ages, we conducted a hierarchical moderated regression analysis with age, fluid ability, and crystallized ability as predictors using product variables to capture interactions. Prior to evaluating the interaction effects, we introduced quadratic age effects to test for possible curvilinearity in the relation of age and the variables to the EPT score. This approach was taken because curvilinear age relations were expected in abilities [ 35 ] and everyday problem solving performance, and because methodological studies have shown that failing to account for curvilinear relations of predictors to dependent variables in the context of moderated regression can create spurious product variable effects that are an artifact of curvilinear relations of both predictors to the dependent variable [ 36 ]. To foreshadow our results, we did detect curvilinear relations of age and abilities to EPS tests, requiring that moderated regression tests for age × ability interaction effects include quadratic terms for each predictor variable.

Linear predictor terms were first centered at the sample mean, and then squared predictors were computed to reduce collinearity issues in the multiple regression. Significant moderated regression effects were decomposed by computing simple slopes at the mean and at ±1 SD of the predictor variables.

To further understand age differences in the predictive utility of fluid and crystallized abilities for everyday problem solving, we used bootstrapping to examine the regression coefficients for each of the 3 age groups (young, middle-aged, older). Finally, to assess the stability of the observed effects across individual problem solving domains, we examined the contributions of fluid and crystallized abilities for each of the 7 domains in everyday problem solving for young, middle-aged, and older adults.

Demographic Data and Age-Related Differences

Demographic data are presented in Table 1 , broken down by 3 age groups (young: 24-49 years old; middle: 50-69 years old; old: 70-93 years old). The 3 age groups differed on years of formal education ( F (2, 218) = 6.16, p = 0.002), with young adults having somewhat higher levels than the other 2 age groups. Means and standard deviations of cognitive measures and EPT scores are also presented in Table 1 . For descriptive purposes, we presented age effects associated with fluid ability, crystallized ability and everyday problem solving score in scatter plots (Fig. 3 ). Figure 3 a portrays a significant linear age-related decrease in fluid ability ( R 2 = 0.626, R 2 adjusted = 0.625, F (1, 212) = 355.312, p < 0.001), and the quadratic relationship was also statistically significant ( R 2 = 0.64, R 2 adjusted = 0.637, F (2, 211) = 187.72, p < 0.001). In contrast, crystallized ability (Fig. 3 b) did not have a significant linear relationship with age ( p = 0.628). However, there was a significant quadratic relationship between crystallized ability and age ( R 2 = 0.038, R 2 adjusted = 0.029, F (2, 217) = 4.258, p = 0.015), with increasing performance until about age 59. We also examined both linear and quadratic relationships between everyday problem solving ability and age. While the simple linear relationship showed significance ( R 2 = 0.237, R 2 adjusted = 0.234, F (1, 219) = 68.091, p < 0.001), adding age 2 significantly improved the model (Δ R 2 = 0.105, Δ F = 34.810, p < 0.001), suggesting a quadratic relation with age was a better fit for everyday problem solving ability (Fig. 3 c) ( R 2 = 0.342, R 2 adjusted = 0.336, F (2, 218) = 56.707, p < 0.001), with the peak performance at 47.2 years of age.

Demographic and descriptive data ( n = 221)

a Age-related differences in fluid ability. Fluid ability is comprised of the measures on processing speed, working memory, and inductive reasoning. b Age-related differences in crystallized ability. Crystallized ability is comprised of ETS Advanced Vocabulary Scale, NIHTB-CB Picture Vocabulary, and NIHTB-CB Oral Reading Recognition. c Age-related differences in everyday problem solving. Everyday problem solving is measured by number of correct answers on the Everyday Problems Test (EPT).

Cognitive Predictors across the Lifespan

We used hierarchical multiple regression to examine the role that fluid and crystallized abilities play in solving everyday problems. In the first model, we included years of education and linear and quadratic components for age. Then in the second model, we added fluid ability and crystallized ability as cognitive predictors. In the third model, we included quadratic components (crystallized 2 and fluid 2 ) to examine if there was a curvilinear relationship between cognitive predictors and everyday problem solving. In the fourth model, we added interactions among fluid ability, crystallized ability and age. Each of the aforementioned steps improved the fit of the overall model significantly (Table 2 ). We also examined a further model that included interactions between cognitive ability and age 2 , and found that it did not improve the model significantly. Therefore, the fourth model was chosen as the final model depicting the relationship between cognitive predictors and everyday problem solving across the lifespan.

Hierarchical multiple regression

As shown in Table 2 , model 4 explained a substantial amount of variance in everyday problem solving ( R 2 = 0.683, R 2 adjusted = 0.666). There was a main effect of age, age 2 , fluid ability, and crystallized ability on everyday problem solving. Although the quadratic terms of fluid ability and crystallized ability were not each statistically significant in the final model, adding quadratic terms of these predictors significantly improved the fit of the model. The partial residual plots of crystallized ability (Fig. 4 a) and fluid ability (Fig. 4 b) showed that these 2 predictors both evidenced a similar curvilinear pattern to everyday problem solving. Curvilinearity occurred because for lower-ability participants compared to those of higher ability, cognitive ability had a stronger relationship to everyday problem solving.

a Partial residual plot of crystallized ability. b Partial residual plot of fluid ability. For both cognitive predictors, the effect of crystallized and fluid ability follows a similar curvilinear pattern regardless of age and the other cognitive level: for people who have lower cognitive ability, the level of cognitive ability has a strong effect on everyday problem solving, while for people who have high cognitive ability, higher cognitive ability does not affect everyday problem solving as much.

Critically, we also found a significant Age × Crystallized ability interaction ( b = 0.046, SEb = 0.016, t (201) = 2.943, β = 0.152, p = 0.004, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.015, 0.076), indicating the relationship between crystallized ability and everyday problem solving differed across the lifespan. In order to better interpret the significant interaction, simple slopes (displayed in Fig. 5 ) for the relationship between crystallized ability and everyday problem solving were tested for younger age (-1 SD below the mean), middle age (mean), and older age (+1 SD above the mean). Simple slope tests showed that the relationship of crystallized ability to everyday problem solving at a younger age was not significant ( b = 0.708, SEb = 0.433, t (201) = 1.636, β = 0.125, p = 0.103, 95% CI = -0.146, 1.562). However, both the middle age model ( b = 1.576, SEb = 0.292, t (201) = 5.391, β = 0.279, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.999, 2.152) and the older age model ( b = 2.44, SEb = 0.397, t (201) = 6.141, β = 0.432, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 1.656, 3.223) revealed a significant positive association between crystallized ability and everyday problem solving. We then tested the difference between regression coefficients across models, and found that the effect of crystallized ability was stronger for both old ( z = -3.027, p = 0.001) and middle age ( z = -1.719, p = 0.043) compared to young, and that the effect was even stronger for the old age compared to middle age ( z = -1.753, p = 0.04), suggesting that crystallized ability played a continuously increasingly important role in solving everyday problems as age increased. Note that the interaction between fluid and crystallized ability was not significant ( p = 0.351), suggesting that the contribution of crystallized ability did not change across people with different fluid ability, after taking age-related effects into account.

Simple slopes of Age × Crystallized ability. Simple slope was not significantly different from 0 at age = 40 (1 SD below mean), but was significant at age = 59 (mean age) and age = 78 (1 SD above mean). Based on a comparison using z -tests, the effect of crystallized ability was stronger at older age ( z = -3.027, p = 0.001) and middle age ( z = -1.719, p = 0.043) than at a younger age, and the effect was even stronger at an older age than middle age ( z = -1.753, p = 0.04). EPT, Everyday Problems Test.

Comparing Cognitive Predictors in Three Age Groups

To further examine which cognitive predictor - fluid or crystallized ability - was more important for everyday problem solving at different stages of the lifespan, we generated bootstrapped standard errors for regression coefficients in 3 age subgroups: younger adults (24-49 years old), middle-aged adults (50-69 years old), and older adults (70-93 years old). In each multiple regression, the predictor variables were age, fluid ability, crystallized ability, fluid 2 , crystallized 2 , and the Fluid × Crystallized interaction. This model was derived from model 4 used for the whole sample with first-order age-related effects removed since this analysis was on each age group. We generated 95% CI using bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa) bootstrap (with 1,000 iterations in each group) as presented in Table 3 . We then compared the BCa CI using a conservative rule by examining the overlap of CI [ 37 ]. Put simply, the rule assesses whether the 95% CI have less than 50% proportion overlap, expressed as a proportion of average margin of error. If the result is affirmative, the 2 estimates are significantly different ( p < 0.05). As shown in Figure 6 , for the young group, the lower end of 95% CI of the crystallized ability parameter was below zero, confirming its nonsignificance and that only the fluid ability value was predictive, as we found in simple slope analysis. For the middle age, the 95% CIs of fluid and crystallized abilities overlapped more than 50%, suggesting that both were predictive but not significantly different in middle-aged adults. Finally, for the older group, the predictive utility of crystallized ability was significantly larger than fluid ability, with the proportion overlap = 42.8%, p < 0.05. Hence, in middle-aged and older adults, everyday problem solving was associated with both fluid and crystallized abilities. Importantly for older adults, crystallized ability was a significantly stronger predictor compared to fluid ability (Fig. 6 ).

Regression coefficient estimates and 95% BCa CI in 3 age groups

95% BCa CI for fluid and crystallized regression coefficients. In older adults, everyday problem solving was predicted more by crystallized ability than fluid ability, proportion overlap = 42.8%, p < 0.05.

We also note that we found no evidence for a Fluid × Crystallized interaction within any age group. The absence of the interaction suggests that fluid and crystallized ability made independent contributions to everyday problem solving, regardless of level of performance on either ability.

In a final analysis, we assessed the stability of the effects of fluid and crystallized ability for each of the 7 problem-solving domains within each age group using the same bootstrapping approach. The main finding was that for older adults, crystallized ability played an important role for all EPT domains except meal preparation , which was marginally significant. In addition, fluid ability was significant for shopping , finance , and meal preparation in older adults (Table 4 ). Table 4 also shows that for young adults, fluid ability was significant for finance , household and transportation , and for finance , medication and transportation in middle-aged adults. Crystallized ability played no significant role for young adults, and significantly predicted only shopping in middle age.

Regression coefficient estimates and 95% BCa CI for 7 EPT domains

The main goal of this study was to understand how fluid and crystallized ability differ across the lifespan in predicting everyday problem solving. We hypothesized that due to diminished fluid resources with age, crystallized knowledge would become increasingly important in predicting everyday problem solving as a function of age. Congruent with this hypothesis, crystallized ability (measured by verbal knowledge in this study) played a more important role in predicting everyday problem solving as age increased. In contrast, fluid ability (measured by speed, working memory, and inductive reasoning) consistently explained variance for all age groups. This pattern of findings suggests that older adults are relying more on crystallized knowledge to solve everyday problems, whereas young adults rely more heavily on the efficiency of basic cognitive mechanisms (e.g., processing speed, working memory, inductive reasoning) that comprise fluid ability.

Past studies have been inconclusive about the relative roles of crystallized versus fluid abilities in everyday problem solving at different ages because none that have examined this issue have included a lifespan sample. The inclusion of the entire adult lifespan was an important feature of the present study, as it allowed us to begin to clarify when in the lifespan crystallized knowledge assumes importance in everyday problem solving. We began to observe a small contribution of crystallized ability to everyday problem solving in middle age, with a large contribution at older ages. The present findings provide clear evidence for the importance of including middle-aged samples in studies.

We also note that the present findings replicate a pattern reported by Hedden et al. [ 26 ] for a very different task - a verbal cued recall task that required participants to memorize associations between paired cues and target words. Hedden et al. [ 26 ] used crystallized and fluid ability to predict performance on the verbal recall task. Just as reported in the present study, they found that crystallized ability (vocabulary scores) explained more variance for older compared to middle-aged and young adults. The similarity of the findings for these 2 very different tasks suggests that increasing reliance on crystallized ability may be a general characteristic of aging. Buttressing this conclusion was the finding that crystallized ability accounted for significant variance in older adults in 6 of the 7 EPT domains, suggesting that the breadth of the effect was reliable across domains. Moreover, the crystallized ability effect was nearly absent in the young and middle-aged adults, with only 1 significant effect for shopping in the middle-aged.

The notion that age differentially affects the type of cognitive ability drawn upon to perform everyday cognitive tasks has not received much attention in the literature. The present findings suggest that crystallized knowledge may help older adults maintain cognitive function in the face of declining fluid ability. Other studies of problem-solving support this interpretation. For example, older adults actually showed better problem-solving abilities than young and middle-aged adults when they were presented with problems associated with social conflict and interpersonal conflict. The solution to these types of problems rely more on wisdom and a broad range of social experiences rather than fluid ability [ 38 ]. Similarly, there is evidence that older adults develop adaptive, experience-based heuristics for solving everyday problems and make decisions that minimize the need to rely on fluid reasoning [ 39 ]. Conversely, there are also domains where crystallized ability makes a scant contribution, even for older adults. We suggest that these would be domains that require extensive on-line processing, such as constantly switching and updating information of different ingredients and procedures when cooking.

It is also important to recognize that everyday problem solving ability is a crucial skill that greatly affects older adults' life quality, but few studies have examined the predictive utility of respondent-based, laboratory problem solving tasks (such as the EPT) in the real world. In support of the use of such laboratory measures, there is a small body of evidence suggesting that the EPT explains substantial variance in every day functioning [ 16,34,40 ]; but much more research is needed. Moreover, the EPT consists of sets of questions that address well-defined, but relatively narrow everyday problems. Real-world problems are typically more complex, are more open-ended (ill-defined), and are comprised of many smaller interrelated problems that require different aspects of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Thus, the EPT may not adequately mirror the complexity of real world problems. Additional investigation of ability predictors of everyday problem solving tasks would help to address this concern.

A limitation of this study is that crystallized ability was measured by vocabulary tasks, which have been traditionally considered as a proxy of knowledge and experience in cognitive psychology studies and everyday problem solving research. However, we acknowledge that a broader assessment of crystallized ability would incorporate experience and other types of world knowledge. Future research with more comprehensive assessment of knowledge and experience beyond measures of vocabulary may help to understand the individual differences in people's utilization of cognition in solving everyday problems. One option might be to assess expertise and familiarity participants have in each problem solving domain in an effort to understand how life experiences asset problem solving. Similar strategies could be adapted to different problem solving paradigms.

We also recognize that it would be ideal to have longitudinal data on both cognitive and everyday problem solving so that the changing relationship between cognitive measures and everyday performance could be assessed as people grow and age. Cross-sectional designs are vulnerable to cohort differences and age × selection confounds. Finally, the compensatory role of crystallized ability may be maximized in high-functioning samples of older adults. Participants in this study were well educated (mean years of education = 16.6); individuals with lower levels of educational attainment may not show the same degree of compensatory benefit (although we found no evidence of Fluid × Crystallized interactions in predicting EPS performance). It would therefore be useful to evaluate these relationships in a more representative sample of the population that included low-education individuals.

In conclusion, the present study suggests that young adults may solve everyday problems based on cognitive resources and mechanisms that are traditionally associated with effective problem solving. However, crystallized knowledge becomes a more predominant influence on everyday problem solving in older adults.

This work was supported by National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (grant number 5R37AG006265-29 to D.C.P.).

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Early Adulthood: Challenges You Are Likely to Face

We all know that life can be difficult sometimes, and each developmental stage has its own set of hardships. However, perhaps when we reach the early periods of adulthood, we are presented with the biggest challenges.

Early adulthood is the stage where we start developing our identity, which is often a make-or-break situation. During this time, we start to realize our individuality, and we begin to make choices for ourselves and our futures. We wrote this article to prepare you for that.

Early Adulthood Challenges

There are plenty of hurdles that you will face in early adulthood, and most of them are unavoidable. The inevitability of them is a call-to-action that we must be better versions of ourselves to stand strong and develop holistically from every possible learning curve. That being said, here are some of the most common early adulthood challenges.

Physical Peak

When we reach early adulthood, our bodies are at their best possible states. While that can present itself as a benefit, it becomes a disadvantage if we’re unable to utilize our physical abilities to the best of our interests and if we fail to maintain a healthy lifestyle. We tend to use our body the most during this stage, and it can be tempting to always push it to the limit. However, this can cause chronic illnesses if we don’t give our bodies proper and adequate rest.

Wisdom Teeth

Although this next challenge seems like a minor concern, it is actually quite a pressing issue. You will soon realize it as soon as you face it. The development of wisdom teeth is rather painful, almost to a paralyzing degree that prevents us from fully functional. It’s actually quite common for people to resort to the extraction of wisdom teeth to avoid their negative impacts.

There are plenty of  chronic illnesses linked to stress , and because it is during early adulthood that we face lots of challenges at once, it is also the point where we begin to develop these diseases. In fact, around 70 to 90% of adults seek professional help for stress-related concerns. That’s why it’s essential that we also develop healthy coping mechanisms to reduce stress to a manageable degree.

Separation from Parents

As we develop our individual selves, we begin to focus more on our careers to start a life of our own. Since at this point, we have lived most of our lives sheltered by our parents. Because of this, one challenge that we’re likely to face is separation from our providers. It is a learning opportunity for us to take control of ourselves and develop our autonomy. Although this can present itself with considerable concerns, gradually detaching ourselves from our parents is essential to the development of our independence.

Intimate Relationships

Early adulthood is also the stage where we start to develop our abilities to share intimacy. This is the time when we begin to explore and experiment on finding a relationship built on love. While this is also something that can be beneficial, it can become a problem because we have to share a huge part of ourselves with someone else, and it can be distressing when it’s not reciprocated. We need to ensure that our identities, beliefs, and principles are already established at this point for us not to suffer from the consequences of failed intimate relationships.

At this point in our lives, we have already established strong friendships with people from our past, but it’s also the period where we form new ones. It can be difficult to juggle all of these relationships, especially if we’re also trying to focus on our careers and family. Be that as it may, forming friendships is vital in our growth because we need other people’s perspectives on some of our problems.

It’s difficult to find the  balance between practicality and passion . Some of our skills lead to high-paying jobs, while other skills don’t pay out. That’s why plenty of people often have to let go of their passion for advancing in their careers. It’s important that we still find outlets for what we love doing because this will save us from facing this conflict.

Early adulthood is a critical stage of our lives, and we must guarantee that we’re making the right choices to develop our individualities. We will inevitably commit mistakes along the way, but seeing these as learning opportunities is essential to our growth. That seems to be the only possible solution for us to create progress at this point in our lives.

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Problem-solving and Relationship Skills in Preschool

Woman: Places, everyone. Are the lights ready? Three, two, one.

Saameh Solaimani: Hi, everyone. I'm Saameh Solaimani. Welcome to "Teacher Time.” Thank you so much for being here with us today.

Gail Joseph: Hi, everyone. I'm Gail Joseph, and I'm so excited to be joining you on "Teacher Time" today. Now, Saameh, I always think it's better when we start with a song, so shall we?

All: [Singing] "Teacher Time.” "Teacher Time.” "Teacher Time.” "Teacher Time.” "Teacher Time.” "Teacher Time."

Gail: Here we are. I love your puppet moves. You've got some really good moves.

Saameh: Thank you. I worked hard on this.

Gail: Well, hi, everyone, and welcome to our third preschool episode of "Teacher Time" this program year. I'm Gail Joseph.

Saameh: I'm Saameh Solaimani, and we're from the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning.

Gail: We are so excited to have you here with us today. We have been focusing on positive behavior supports this season of "Teacher Time.” Hopefully, you've joined us for some of the previous episodes. So far, we've talked about the importance of relationships and how to support emotional literacy. And today, we're going to be focusing on problem-solving and relationships, and friendship skills in preschool.

I want to draw your attention to the viewer's guide. I've printed mine out here. It's beautiful. You can find it in the resource widget. If you haven't looked at our viewer's guide for a while, I strongly encourage you to. This season, our viewer's guide is a viewer's guide for birth to five, including specific age group information for infants and toddlers and preschool children. It is packed with information about development, about teaching practices. There are quick tips in here. There are reminders. There are things you can cut out and post and put up in your learning space. There are spaces for notetaking.

On the last page is just an extensive resource list that you are going to love. You can download the guide and use it throughout our time together for taking notes, for reflecting, planning how you might use some of the "Teacher Time" practices we're going to talk about in your own settings. And please share your viewer's guide with colleagues. Also, we want your ideas in the next issue of "Teacher Time.” You can see on the back that we ask you to submit some of your own strategies and tips, and then you'll be published in the "Teacher Time" viewer's guide.

Saameh: That would be awesome. We always love to hear from you. Thank you so much, Gail. During our time together, we're going to be discussing teaching practices that support positive behavior. We're going to take some time to promote your wellness with our It's All About You segment. We're going to connect effective practice to brain development in our new segment, which some of you may have seen in our last episode's Neuroscience Nook.

We're going to discuss small change, big impact, and in our focus on equity segments, individualized strategies that build a sense of belonging and promote social and emotional skills with all children, including children who have a variety of learning characteristics. And we're going to wrap up our time together, as we always do, with our BookCASE, where we connect our topic to books that you can share with children and families.

Gail: We love the BookCASE and our "Teacher Time" librarian. Like we do at the beginning of most "Teacher Times," we want to check in with how you're feeling, such an important thing to do periodically throughout the day. Look at our "Teacher Time" feeling tree, find a feeling creature. They all have little numbers on them.

And post in the Q&A which number creature you most relate to at the moment and why. We want to hear from you. We have our amazing Q&A team there, ready to see your input. I'm going to go ahead and start. Now, every time I look at — what I love about our little "Teacher Time" tree here is that I always think a little bit differently about how these creatures are feeling, which is fun. It helps children do that, too.

Saameh: Right.

Gail: I think the little guy that is swinging from the tree there. I'm just pretty excited to be here. I've been on some travel. I'm excited to be back with you and back with our "Teacher Time" viewership. How are you feeling, Saameh?

Saameh: I actually was thinking about this. And I think number 12, sitting on the leaf, surrounded by friends, by community, by all of you. Yeah, I'm feeling very part of this learning community.

Gail: I love it. And our viewers are checking in. Five, a rough week. Some weeks are like that. I hope it gets better for you, Amy. We've got a 12. Somebody is feeling like you. One, five. Our viewers are all over the tree, checking in. I feel like number five, pretty rough afternoon. My goodness. We hope that spending some time today thinking about your own professional development might feel a little bit uplifting for you. But we definitely know how it feels when you're not having a great week, too. Just hanging in there. Thank you so much for sharing.

Saameh: Yes, yes.

Gail: Thank you. Keep it going. Keep it going.

Saameh: We're very excited to be focusing on positive behavior supports this season, as you know. And social and emotional development. As you may know, is one of the domains in the Head Start ELOF, which stands for Early Learning Outcomes Framework. The practical strategies we're going to be discussing today are going to be focusing on the relationships with other children subdomain of social and emotional development. And you can see that highlighted here.

Gail: I love that. Now, like we said last month, this season of "Teacher Time" is focused on working our way through the Pyramid Model. Some of you might be really familiar with the Pyramid Model. Maybe your program is participating in a pyramid training. But if you're not familiar with it, the Pyramid Model is really a model or a framework of positive behavioral support for proactively addressing the social and emotional development. And for preventing and addressing challenging behaviors of young children. The framework offers a continuum of evidence-based teaching practices that are organized into four levels of support. And you can see those there.

At the foundation, it's all about nurturing and responsive relationships. Not only between the teacher, the educator, and the children but between children and between educators. It's all about these relationships. And we want them to be nurturing and responsive no matter what relationship they're in. That's the foundation. The next are high-quality supportive environments. How can we create both the physical and temporal structure of the environment to support positive behavior?

Then we level up and go to social and emotional teaching strategies. That's where we're at right now, is going to dig into some of those social and emotional teaching strategies. Then at the very top, when all of the bottom three pieces are in place, there might still be some children that have some behaviors that could require a little bit more intensive intervention. And we're going to talk about that in May. Be sure to come back.

But if you want to learn more about the Pyramid Model, you can check out the resource list in the back of your viewer's guide for a lot more information about it. Now, we would love to hear what strategies and practices you have in place to support young children's problem-solving and their friendship skills with children that you're working with.

Go ahead and start entering those in the Q&A. And our Q&A team, we've got, like, the star Q&A team today. They're going to start sending those out, too. We're going to be tracking them, but they're also going to be sent out so other people can see them as well when you share what strategies you're using. We always learn so much from our viewers. And there's always something that we're, like, a gem out there in how you're supporting young children's problem-solving.

Saameh: Such a wealth of resources out there.

Gail: Absolutely. Now, as a reminder, positive behavioral support, or sometimes called PBS, sometimes you might hear it called PBIS. Sometimes you might even hear it called a multi-tiered system of support. But positive behavioral support is a positive and proactive approach to preventing and addressing challenging behavior. It focuses on using very intentional teaching strategies to proactively, that's such a big part of it, proactively build all social and emotional skills. And today we're specifically thinking about building problem-solving skills and relationship skills for young children. Now, positive behavioral support recognizes that all behavior communicates a message or a need. And some behaviors, as they're trying to get their needs across, we might find challenging.

Once an educator understands the meaning, what is the message that the child is trying to send with their behavior? What's the meaning? They want something. They want to get away from something. They're not sure how to play with their friends, but they're trying in the way that they can. Once you know what the meaning of that challenging behavior is, then we can figure out how to teach the child a more effective way to communicate their needs and problem-solve with support.

Saameh: So important to keep in mind. Now what we're going to do is we're going to turn our attention to you in our All About You segment. We know that we do our best caregiving and teaching when we feel well ourselves. Engaging in self-care practices can help educators build greater social and emotional capacity to work through problem-solving together. And our ability to support children with problem-solving and relationship skills starts with our ability to center ourselves by noticing and observing what's happening with as little judgment as possible.

We can help young children work through challenges with peers from a more grounded, soft, and objective place, naming what we see happening calmly without so many of the other things going on when we're feeling stressed and overwhelmed. What we're going to do is a little body scan. Before we can support the children in our care with problem-solving and relationship skills, it's important to find ways to regulate our own feelings throughout the day.

Taking a minute to do something like a body scan like we have here to notice what's happening in our own bodies is softening in the moment. We can slow down and center ourselves throughout the day. This practice supports our own well-being first, enabling us to hold a non-judgmental space, as we were saying, respond intentionally to children's cues, behaviors, and communications as we support them in building healthy relationships with each other.

Here we go. Start with a deep breath. Okay, I noticed as I was saying that I was holding my breath. Breathe. Okay, so we're going to start in a seated position or laying down, whatever is comfortable for you. And now you can bring your attention to your body, and you can close your eyes if that's comfortable for you. And you can notice your body wherever you are.

As you exhale, you have a sense of relaxing, and you can notice your feet or body on the floor. You can notice your back against the chair or maybe on the floor. Bring your attention into your stomach area. If it feels tight, let it soften. Notice your hands, arms, shoulders, and let them be soft. Let your jaw and facial muscles be soft. Notice your whole body present, and take one more deep breath. Okay.

Okay, we would love to hear how you were feeling during that or feel now or after the body scan. What do you notice? And let's see. And I noticed like I was saying, that I was holding my breath.

Gail: I feel like we should do that right before "Teacher Time.” It would be really helpful.

Saameh: That's right.

Gail: I felt so calm and centered.

Saameh: We'd love to hear from you how that experience was. Thank you so much for taking the time to take time for yourself. Calm. Self-aware. Conscious. More relaxed.

Gail: It doesn't take very long too, and I know that when I was teaching on a regular basis, just having those moments where I could just feel that tension in my body, and it just takes a moment to take a breath before I interact.

Saameh: It is amazing how much one minute of breathing can do. Yes. It’s not something that requires a lot of time, which I know we don't necessarily have as teachers sometimes.

Social competencies like self-regulation, empathy, perspective-taking, and problem-solving skills are key to foundational healthy social-emotional development. And these include positive interactions and friendships and relationships between peers, as we know. Educators can help children learn the skills necessary to develop healthy peer relationships and find ways to work through social conflicts with adult support.

And that's where we come in. And teaching and modeling problem-solving skills early on with preschool children builds a foundation of problem-solving and relationship skills that most children can access with adult support and start to use independently as they continue to develop. The more we can support young children in developing problem-solving skills in their learning environments, the less we'll see some of those challenging behaviors that oftentimes arise from not having the resources, the tools to work through the problem as they come up, which they will because that's life.

It's important to note that there might be some children in your care who don't readily learn these skills through foundational teaching strategies. This might include children with disabilities or suspected delays. It's important to be aware of the progress for all children and use more individualized practices to work on these skills with children who need a little more support. That’s what we'll be doing today, sharing some strategies to do just that.

Gail: Some key ideas and practices for supporting problem-solving and peer relationship skills with preschool children are the first little slide that you see there or picture that you see there is about promoting healthy relationships. Preschoolers are increasingly interested, as our viewers know, in developing friendships with one or two preferred peers, like we see in the photo on the left. They're able to engage in group play and independently initiate interactions with peers, which is so fun to see develop.

Preschoolers might suggest something to do, like let's play a restaurant or let's build a swimming pool for our animals together or join in an existing activity. Hey, can I play too? Educators can support preschoolers in promoting healthy friendships in quite a few ways that I'm sure our viewers are already doing. But just to name a few, one is that you can help children plan what and how they will play together.

One thing that I always like to, I'm going to go off for a moment, is that one thing that I think about a lot as a preschool teacher is thinking about materials and resources and activities that require two children to play together so that you set the stage for children to interact with each other. Things like those teeter-totters or rowboats in classrooms is just one obvious idea that takes two children.

Another thing is providing suggestions for initiating interactions with other children. And a quick tip there too is right before children go to play, if there's a child that you think could use a little bit more support, is to do a little priming and say, “hey, point to two or three things that you could play with a friend,” and you'll see that they can increase their initiations with other children.

Then, encouraging children to consider other ideas. I don't know if anybody out there is a big puppet user, but I used a lot of puppets when I was teaching at Head Start, and this was a great way to model like at a circle time, model with a puppet and other children role-play how I could consider somebody else's idea. Lots of ways to do that.

Saameh: This is a great time for us to pause and think about what value do I place on peer relationships, and how do I expect peers to act with each other? Sort of that, taking a moment to think about our own ideas because we're subjective beings, and we have our own experiences. It's really important to just take a moment. And awareness of our responses to these questions is supportive of our equitable practice. I do have to say I love what you said about puppets, and we're going to be seeing a little bit of puppet work later on in our episode today. I am also a fan of puppets.

As you see, the second photo you see is representing teaching problem-solving steps, which is so important. Preschoolers are willing to try different strategies to solve problems and show flexibility in their actions and behavior, and they can plan ways to solve a problem and evaluate solutions with our support. In a minute, we're going to hear from Dr. Angel Fettig, Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Washington, who will share strategies to support problem-solving in preschool classrooms. She's going to talk about the steps.

Gail: That's great. Of course, another way that we can support children, which you probably feel like you're doing all the time, is teaching problem-solving in the moment. One is to proactively teach, which we're going to hear about strategies for doing that. But the other thing is then supporting that problem-solving as it occurs in the moment. There are a few steps that educators can do to work through that. One is anticipating that social conflicts are going to happen, and you try and anticipate it before they happen.

You might notice a child that's coming into the classroom or into the learning setting feeling a little bit tired, maybe something upsetting happened before, maybe you have some communication with the family and understand that something troubling has just happened at home, and the child is coming into the space. Maybe they're not usually having a difficult time with problem-solving, but today they might be.

But another thing that you can do is anticipate, did you introduce a new toy into your learning space? Maybe you introduced some new props in the dramatic play area, and you know that a lot of children are going to want to use them. You're anticipating that probably in that space, there's going to be a little bit more need to support problem-solving in the moment. You want to anticipate social conflicts before they happen.

Another thing that's so important is being close and helping children manage their feelings. If I'm anticipating that there might be some problem, maybe an individual child might need some more support, or there's an area in the classroom that I think, oh, I'm probably going to want to be close there, is to get close because children will, as they get excited or upset, that fight or flight comes in. You want to be there to support them to help remember some of the problem-solving steps that you've provided.

Now, providing support and reminders of problem-solving steps would be next. I'm going to be close with them, and then I'm going to provide support, and that support could be verbal like I could remind them of the problem-solving steps. It can also be visual, and we're going to talk about some of the visual supports you can have in your classrooms.

Some people in our Q&A have already talked about ways that they've used visuals with problem-solving solution kits, et cetera. We can encourage children to generate and evaluate multiple solutions. I'm going to say that this is really where it's at for preschool children, is to encourage them to generate as many different solutions to a problem as they can. When children have a restricted number of solutions they can try, they're bound to run out of things that are working for them. We want to encourage them to keep being really creative and generating so many different solutions.

Last but not least, when children do problem-solving, find some way to celebrate that. It might be a thumbs-up. It might be a high-five. It might be with a super friend cape or with some other type of big celebration because this is hard work, and it's really hard work when you're a young child just figuring it out. We want to make sure that we're celebrating that. We're going to remember that we always want to individualize the strategies that we're going to use to provide support based on the skills of the children that you're supporting.

Some children might need some additional amount of language that needs to be modified. Some children might need visual cues or gestures paired with verbal language. Some children might need some specific feedback on the consequences to help them learn the effect of their behavior on the environment. Stay tuned for BASICS where we're going to share about some more strategies for providing feedback.

Saameh: I love that. I love what you said about anticipation. I think it goes such a long way. Also, what you were saying about problem-solving and the children coming up with the solutions, generating the solutions, and I keep thinking about how problem-solving is also play in a way.

Gail: Yeah.

Saameh: It's exploration. It's play. In a way, it's fun. It's not necessarily a negative thing. Sometimes we think problem as negative, and it doesn't have to be.

Gail: It can be like a fun challenge. I would support children, and I'd say, “are they making it tough on you?”

Saameh: Exactly.

Gail: And they'd be like, yeah. But then they'd be encouraged to keep going. Sometimes I'd say, let me look. Let me look. I think you've got more solutions in there. I'd peer into their ear, and they'd think that was really fun. You can just really be fun and encourage them to be creative and think of more solutions.

Saameh: I love that one. We’re going to hear from Dr. Angel Fettig, who we were talking about earlier, as she discusses strategies to teach problem-solving skills.

[Video begins]

Angel Fettig: I think in early childhood settings, I think the best thing is to think about simple steps to teach kids. So simple, concrete strategies they can use in the setting. My favorite is to really think about the four-step problem-solving technique. Step one is, what's my problem? Really being able to know that there's a problem here, and this is the problem. Being able to identify it.

Angel: And then step two is helping them brainstorm. What are some things I can do to solve this problem? Guiding them in understanding, How do you brainstorm for solutions?

Gail: Okay.

Angel: And then the next step, step three, is to think about evaluating the solutions you came up with. Do I think using this step is going to be fair for my friends? Is it a safe solution?

Gail: Right.

Angel: Am I going to feel good? Is my friend going to feel good?

Angel: And then step four is guiding them to try it out.

Angel: You try it, see if it works.

Angel: If it doesn't work, then encourage them to try a different strategy, try a different skill. Those are the four steps. And it's really important that we teach those steps systematically and with visuals, just like how we will typically teach any content in early childhood classrooms.

Angel: I think as early childhood educators, we need to plan these into our curriculum in teaching problem-solving skills.

Gail: Great.

[Video ends]

Saameh: So wonderful. As we saw, Dr. Fettig outlines four important steps to go through with preschool children to help teach problem-solving skills. First of all, helping children identify what the problem is in the first place. Next, inviting children to generate and evaluate multiple solutions through brainstorming, as you were sharing, Gail, and then evaluate the solutions. How are these solutions working out? Lastly, we can help children select a solution and try it out and see how it works. We'd love to hear from you in the chat. What are some ways that you support problem-solving with children in your care? Please share in the chat.

As you're doing that, I wanted to share something I remember being surprised to learn early on in my career as an early childhood educator. It was just, like, what a big part of our job supporting children and problem-solving is. It's a huge part. I mean, it was most of the day. It was really doing that, and I was in for a surprise. But, getting down on the children's level, taking the time to be present and understand what's happening, how we can support children to work through the problem in that moment, which I'm sure you all experience many times a day. And the solution kit. We will be talking about that.

Gail: That's right. Owl's Pals, that's a great social and emotional curriculum. I see that one coming up. Tucker the Turtle, we know about that. That's a great one. Trying to hang in there. Sarah, yes, that is so important. It's just that trying to hang in there, taking those deep breaths, getting centered, and getting back into it and knowing that this is part of the job.

Saameh: It truly is.

Gail: What a great job it is to help build this, like, social and emotional foundation for young children so that when they're entering into even larger group settings, they're going to be really successful. Yes, trying to hang in there but knowing you've got a great purpose.

Saameh: Absolutely. What we're going to do now is we're going to take another moment to pause and reflect, a reflective moment, on questions that will support equitable teaching practices. We're going to invite you to reflect on the following questions. How do I expect peers to act with each other? How do I feel about conflict? Do I listen openly to all children when there is a problem? To just take a moment and think about those things. We're going to revisit these questions in our Focus on Equity segment. We thought it would be nice this time to weave throughout.

Gail: I love it. Those are such good questions. I'm just thinking about it myself, like, what was I expecting?

Saameh: Right. Now for our Neuroscience Nook segment. Research tells us that the early years are foundational for brain development. And adults play an important role in supporting healthy brain development connections and architecture.

In this segment, our Neuroscience Nook, we are excited to connect this research to everyday teaching practices. I'm going to just take a moment for this side note. As questions are coming up for you, we want to hear them. Please put them in the Q&A or post them in the "Teacher Time" Community in MyPeers. Just wanted to say that.

What we're going to do is we're going to shift our focus. We're going to talk a little bit about executive functioning, which is a very important brain function. The prefrontal cortex begins to develop very early in life. This area of the brain is responsible for what are called executive functioning skills, which some of you may have heard of. They're essential for development of strong and healthy relationships.

This is a really great graphic here, as you can see. It includes what are some of the main functions of executive functioning and executive functioning skills. What are they? Attention, that would be being able to stay focused on a task. Working memory, which is being able to remember rules and procedures. Self-regulation and the ability to control impulses.

Right there, you can see how important that would be for developing strong and healthy relationships. Organization, things like switching between tasks, that would be called flexible thinking. Problem-solving, planning, behavior, decision-making, and motivation. As you can see, hopefully, you're convinced that executive functioning skills are very important indeed. You can see how all these skills are important.

Gail: Absolutely.

Saameh: Also are interrelated in a lot of ways. What we can do is help young children start to develop these critical relationship building and problem-solving skills. I know what all of you are doing every day, through responsive caregiving and effective teaching practices that are responsive to an individual child's needs. In our most recent episodes of "Teacher Time," those were building relationships and emotional literacy in preschool, we've talked about ways that you can support executive functioning through things like serve and return, and the flipping your lid, the hand model.

Gail: Yes, I remember.

Saameh: Yes. From Dr. Dan Siegel. I practiced that a lot before, by the way.

Gail: Yeah, it was good.

Saameh: We also encourage you to look back at the last two viewers guides, that would be building relationships with children, birth through five, and emotional literacy with children, birth through five, to see more about the importance of nurturing and responsive relationships on the developing brain. What we're going to do is we're going to hear — now we're going to hear from Dr. Juliet Taylor, as she describes the development of executive function.

Juliet Taylor: I'm going to show you a graphic of how executive function develops over time. Here's sort of a graphic representation. And one thing to point out is that we are not born with executive function skills in place. We're born with the potential to develop them, or not, depending on our experiences, our neurophysiology, and the interactions between those things.

This graph shows that on the horizontal axis you can see this is ages birth to 80, and notice that there's not an even distribution between the ages. And that is because there are particular peaks in executive function development. You can see skill proficiency on the vertical axis. And I'm going to highlight a couple of areas where you see tremendous growth in executive function skills, and that is really in the preschool ages, between three to five, and then in early adolescence to early adulthood, there's another spike in development.

The foundations of executive function are laid down in the earliest months and years of life, and that really happens through basic sort of serve and return, it's sometimes called, or those basic interactions between child and adult that happen over and over and over again. And that spike really does happen in the preschool years after children have verbal language.

Saameh: As you can see, that graphic, it's just so helpful to see the development pattern. And we see that we aren't born with executive function. We are, however, born with the potential to develop them, and why our support as educators is so important. We know that the foundation of executive function skills are laid down in the first months and years of life. And what we heard and saw, the yellow highlight, is a spike in executive function development between three and five years old after many children have developed verbal language.

Gail: I love that, and I saw the other spike was like that, like, early or later teen years.

Saameh: I noticed that.

Gail: I've got two of those at home. I feel like I see that on a regular basis. Yeah, very true.

Saameh: It resonates.

Gail: It really resonates, both as a preschool teacher and as a mom of adolescents. That's so great. And, like, looked like some declines as we get older. It's not fun.

Saameh: A little less fun.

Gail: We're going to get to the "Teacher Time" BASICS, and we're going to talk about how we can use BASICS to support problem-solving and relationship skills. If you haven't joined us before, let's just go through really quickly what BASICS is. It's an acronym that helps us remember some really powerful teacher-child or adult-child interaction moves that we can make that can support children's growth and development in any area.

The "Teacher Time" BASICS are B is for behavioral expectations in advance. It is always helpful to tell a young child what you're expecting from them before you start a new activity. A is for attending to and encouraging positive behavior, which is so relevant to the topics that we're talking about now. S is for scaffolding with cues and prompts.

Those can be verbal cues, visual cues. You're going to see some of that today. Increasing engagement is the I. C is for creating and adding challenge. Young children grow when we add some challenge to, whether it's intellectual challenge or social and emotional challenge, that creates some growth for young children. And S is for that specific feedback.

If you've joined us for other webinars, you know that we only take two of these letters to focus on. It's too much to do all of them in one episode. We've focused on different letters at different episodes. You'll see that if you want to go back and look at some prior episodes. You'll see some of the other letters.

But today we're going to focus on the C and the S, create or add challenge, and the second S, which is about providing specific feedback to support problem-solving and relationship skills. We're going to jump to it. We're going to start with creating or adding challenge. This is one of my favorite things.

One fun way that we can create or add challenge to problem-solving and relationship skills is to create a friendship kit and invite children to use it when they notice that another child is upset. You can see on the screen that the friendship kit can have lots of little things in it. Really it could be like a shoebox. It could be a file folder. It could be any way that you can contain it. It could be a lovely basket.

But the idea is that in this friendship kit, there are things like maybe a pack of tissue if somebody is crying. Maybe there's a soft toy for someone to cuddle with if they're feeling like they're missing somebody. Maybe there's a pack of bandages to not only help with a small cut, but maybe if your feelings are hurt. We've had children also apply bandage. Very sweet. A sheet of stickers. Maybe a sticker would help someone.

There can be visual support cards of simple problem-solving solutions and things that you can do when a friend is in duress. Things like giving a gentle hug. Maybe saying, I'm sorry. That is certainly a challenge that we offer to young children is to provide a genuine apology, which is a great repair strategy for them to learn. That's one thing. I'd be curious to see if people are using friendship kits. You can enter that into the Q&A.

I've had lots of lovely experiences in my classroom with these friendship kits where children go to them when another child is upset. I had one experience. Well, I'll tell that story in a little bit. But they're just such great, lovely stories about how young children will use it. It's just like a physical reminder of what it takes to develop those special friendships. Now, there's another way that we can create or add challenges. Thank you for advancing that. That was a nice thing to do from our friendship kit.

Gail: Thanks for advancing the slide.

Saameh: Of course.

Gail: Is to actually create a problem-solving solution kit or problem-solving basket. We have already had viewers tell us that they're using these out and about. You'll see lots of resources for supporting those in your viewer's guide. But this is to add a bunch of visuals about supporting problem-solving. Remember we said that one of the more difficult things for young children to do is to generate multiple solutions that are different from each other.

I do always remember when I started doing a lot of social and emotional development, problem-solving in a classroom, in my preschool classroom, I had a student in there, a child in my classroom named Freddy. I loved that. It was the only Freddy I've ever had. Freddy ran up to me on the playground and he said, "Teacher Gail, I've got a problem.” I was like, "Perfect, so excited about this problem.” I said, "What is it?” "Jordan took the ball and won't give it back.”

Now, that is a real problem that happens on a regular basis in preschool classrooms. I said, "Well, what solutions did you try?” Because we were working on solutions. He said, "I tried five.” I was so excited because that's a lot. I said, "What were they?” He said, "I said, 'Please, please, please.'"

One of the things that this problem-solving basket or solution kit can provide for young children are different solutions. You want children to understand that it's not just trying the same solution over and over again or louder. But it is actually trying different solutions, like wait and take turns, hardest solution. I think to try, make another choice, play together. We could ask an adult if it becomes a big problem.

Gail: Just take a break. Lots of things that can be in there. And check your viewer's guide out because there's lots of visuals that you could cut out and use in your own classrooms and learning settings. We're on to the next. We are going to watch one of our favorite teachers ever. Teacher Heather is going to introduce the problem-solving solution basket to preschoolers in her care. And just pay attention. What do you notice? Share those in chat as you take a look.

Heather: We've been working really hard with the problem-solving basket. I think I'm ready. I'm still mad, but I'm ready. I'm going to use that problem-solving basket you guys told me about. Is that a good idea?

Child: Yeah.

Heather: No, no, no. We got it right here. Remember, guys, we planned it this time. Oh, Eddie, hey, I just happen to have it right here. OK, wait. Here's my mad card because I need to breathe some more. I feel better now. I'm going to get one of those books you guys told me about. Teacher, will you help me? I will. It's hard for Eddie to hold the book, huh? I'm going to find an idea because that's what you guys told me last time. Find an idea in my book. And I don't have to read it, right? We have to look at it, right, Marilyn, because there's pictures, right? Pictures for Eddie. Oh, yeah, I remember. We've been practicing a long time, ever since we started school. Okay, here we go. Sharon, can I trade a block with you? Say no.

Heather: Uh-oh, she said no. I'm so disappointed. I don't know how to fix this. What should we help Eddie say? Hey, Eddie, you know what? Our class does something funny when we feel disappointed. You guys want to help him again? Ready? We say, oh, pickle. And then we try another idea. I'm going to try another idea from a different book because that book didn't have the idea I wanted. Let me see. I'm going to share. Jocelyn, can I have one of your blocks? Great, great, great. Sharon, say yes this time. Can I give you this block and you give me back my three blocks?

Saameh: Love it.

Gail: So great. Oh, pickles.

Saameh: I told you about the puppets.

Gail: Yes, exactly.

Saameh: The puppets showed up.

Gail: Exactly. Puppets are so great for supporting and role-playing social and emotional problems because you can control their —

Saameh: Totally.

Gail: I mean, in a helpful way. You can control what they're saying and experiencing, and the children can help the puppet out. It's really great.

Saameh: I love that.

Gail: She does a great job of that, and our viewers agree. They are commenting that they're loving that, and hopefully we'll share that video with others.

Saameh: I just love that. It's sort of just a way of children stepping outside of the scene and being able to see what's happening.

Gail: It’s like a little fishbowl in a way.

Saameh: When you're in it, you're feeling so many feelings, so many things happening, it's hard to use those executive functioning skills around it. You're actually developing those executive functioning skills when you're like, okay, I wonder how I can support these puppets and planning and working it out and da-da-da. It's really wonderful. It's a great way. Very powerful.

Gail: Yes. Huge puppet family.

Saameh: Yes, we can do so much.

Gail: We're going to have to have a whole episode on puppets.

Saameh: Puppet Time. Yeah, both you and I. Great. We have our S now from our BASICS, and that is specific feedback. Providing specific feedback is another way educators can support problem-solving and relationship skills, and that's naming and acknowledging when we see a child engaging and building relationships. It's really important to be specific about what you see, and we have some examples here.

Like, you're helping me put Natalie's coat on, or I saw you get a tissue for Kai, which was so kind. And I can see that you were both feeling frustrated, and let's get the solution kit and get some ideas of how we might solve the problem. Noticing and acknowledging goes a long way. It's I see you, I hear you, and right there you have buy-in. It's like, OK, let's work together. I think all of us, children, and adults alike.

Educators can provide specific feedback to a child when they see them taking turns, sharing, trying to solve problems, or helping a friend. I can see you being a helpful friend and working with Isaiah to get his mat set up for nap time. That's probably a typical one. Nap time is a big one. Setting up for nap time is a big one. That itself is a whole thing. A lot of ripe opportunities for problem-solving.

Saameh: Providing specific feedback is also a helpful teaching tool. And we might provide feedback on how to be a friend or how to solve a problem, like another one that resonates with me. I hear that you would all like a turn on the tire swing.

Gail: Oh, yes.

Saameh: Many opportunities for problem-solving with a tire swing. Very popular tire swing. Let's try using the sand timer to make sure everyone gets a turn. Or I can see that you're both feeling frustrated. Okay, we talked about this one. Let's get the solution kit. Get some ideas how we might solve the problem. Offer specific ideas of what the child might do next. Remember that how feedback is given, including what you say, how you say it, it should really be individualized to meet the learning characteristics and temperament of each child. It's not just like one size fits all model.

Gail: Absolutely. I think like the key word is the specific here in specific feedback. Because I noticed all the examples that you gave, it wasn't like, a good job. It was really specific and it didn't even have to have a praise statement. It really could just be like saying what you noticed. You got a tissue for Kai. That was so kind.

It's just labeling the behavior that they're doing can be enough to provide them specific feedback that like, wow, that was important enough for my teacher to say or my educational support person to say. Then that specific feedback about like, let's try something new. Let's try something a little bit different. Also, very helpful. It's so great.

Saameh: Yeah.

Gail: I just think it's like the S in there is really important, that specific part. I really love that. Specific. It's almost more important than the praise is the specific sort of I see you.

Saameh: Because empty praise is not necessarily the most helpful.

Gail: Yeah. That's another whole thing that we're going to talk about.

Saameh: At some point.

Gail: But we are so excited that we're going to check back into Teacher Heather's classroom and see how she provides specific feedback while helping two children solve problems. See if maybe a few know this, some of that specific feedback that she's providing.

Heather: Uh-oh. Amy and Jami, what's the problem? You're getting it to make the fort. And it looks like Amy's holding it, too. Thanks, Elina, for moving so I could get up. What are we going to do about it? You both want the same block? What are we going to do about it? How are we going to fix the problem? I'm going to hold the block for a minute while you guys help figure it out. What's your idea? You want to play with it over there. Should we find out what Jami's idea was? What was your idea, Jami? Oh, and she thinks she needs it for that building. You both need this block for two different buildings.

Do you want to look for an idea in the basket? Grab the book. See what you can come up with. There's another one over there, right? I think Amy's got the book. What are we going to do? She's looking. Let's play together. That would be building the same building together. Take a break. You just take a break from building. Wait until she's done. One more minute. She would have it for a minute and then you would have it for a minute.

You build with something else. Maybe next time. Talk to me. Elina dropped it in there. Playing together. You would build it together. Do you want to build together, Jami? Look, Amy's talking to you. Sorry, I just said it and Amy was saying it. Sorry about that, Amy. Here. Amy, you're going to help Jami build her tower. Excellent. You guys are expert problem solvers.

Gail: So great.

Saameh: Live in action.

Gail: And people are providing some feedback on that as well. I mean, she does such a great job of providing that specific feedback along the way.

Saameh: Absolutely.

Gail: Along the way, absolutely.

Saameh: We are ready to move on to our Small Change, Big Impact segment. Small Change, Big Impact, where we share how small adjustments to the way we set up our learning environment, modify our curriculum, or engage with children can make a big difference for a child's learning.

We know that children vary in their learning characteristics and how they engage with the people and materials in their learning environments. These small changes, also known as curriculum modifications, are made based on the individual needs of the child to help promote their engagement and participation. We know that when children are more engaged, they have more opportunities to learn.

Some children might need more highly individualized teaching to help them learn problem-solving, such as embedded teaching or intensive individualized teaching, making curriculum modifications based on a child's individual learning needs. This can be a great place to start to support engagement.

Gail: Absolutely. And today we are focusing on using social stories. I would be so excited to hear how our viewers are using social stories. I imagine that some people are already using these. But for those of you who might not be familiar with social stories, they are a great little curriculum modification, or not little, because they actually take a little bit of time to put in place. But they are there to support a child who might have some more specific or individualized needs to navigate a social situation or just providing them with a little bit more information as to how to navigate a social situation or a change.

These are written from a child's perspective. And this is very individualized. They have the child's picture in them often. The child's name is used in them. The social story highlights and clearly describes to a child what the most important aspects of the social situation are, like what the appropriate behavior expectations are in that situation, how people, including the child, might be feeling or what they might be thinking about in that social situation.

Social stories, hard to say, sometimes social stories can help increase a child's understanding of a social situation. It can help prepare them to use that new focus skill or focus behavior that's going to help them navigate the situation as successfully as possible. They are very effective in introducing many types of new skills and behaviors to children that might need that, again, more focused and turning the volume up, as I like to think about it, on some of the social atmosphere that might be going on for a child to help them learn.

There is a great video, if you haven't seen it yet, because we've actually shown it before. But if you haven't seen it yet, there's a great video on "Teacher Time" Community in MyPeers about how to make and how to use social stories for teaching purposes. We are going to show a video of one preschool educator using a social story to support a child in the learning environment. As we watch, share what you notice about what the teacher is using, how they're using the social story, or anything else that you notice in the Q&A.

Teacher: Andy. Andy, not a big deal, okay?

[Children shouting indistinctly]

All right, Andy, check it out. You need to keep your hands and legs to yourself.

Andy: [Inaudible]

Teacher: And a calm voice.

Andy: It's too hard.

Teacher: Can you show me a calm voice like this? Hmm? Let's do one more.

Andy: I need some help.

Teacher: Look, Andy.

Teacher: If my friends do something I don't like, I can say, "Please.”

Andy: Please.

Teacher: "Stop.”

Andy: Stop.

Teacher: And get a teacher to help me.

Teacher: Well, what do you need help with, Andy?

Andy: That.

Teacher: You can use a calm voice and say, "Please stop.”

Andy: Please stop!

Teacher: This is what we're good at, right, David?

Gail: Well, I love that. That is a real situation. There's a busy, bustling classroom going on, and that teacher still has enough organizational support going on in that classroom to be able to go over and individualize the support for that young child. They are going through a social story, which the child is referencing with the teacher support, but eventually I think the child's able to use it independently on their own.

Again, if you want to know how to create social stories, or if you want some links to social stories, check out your viewer's guide. We've got lots of links to some social stories that you can use, such as using one for Tucker Turtle. There's also that video in MyPeers about how to get those set up.

Saameh: I see somebody in the chat who speaks so much to the relationship that the child has with the teacher, which, yes, as we can see how important that is to starting out, really building that relationship so the child is trusting the teacher to support.

Gail: Absolutely. And Roxanne's comment about being very calm and listening to the child, right, it just takes me back to what you had us do at the beginning. It takes a moment.

Gail: You have to be mindful as an educator to be like, OK, there's a lot going on in the classroom. This child is really needing my support. Taking a deep breath and then walking them through it.

Gail: It's great so that you can stay calm and support them. I love it

Saameh: Very important. Throughout this webinar, as you've noticed, we have been discussing ways to foster social emotional skills for all children. Today in our Focus on Equity segment, we're going to be using our equity lens to take a closer look at implicit bias and how it impacts how we interact with children and support them in building problem-solving and relationship skills.

The value that we place on peer relationships and the way we go about building and maintaining them are influenced by our families, our culture, our community, and our experiences. And sometimes subtle biases can interfere with our ability to support and partner with children and their families with an open mind. Uncovering these biases takes time and reflection.

What you may have noticed is that we paused and we took those reflective moments throughout this webinar today for reflective practice and starting to think about the following questions. These are ones that we've gone through today here at the webinar. What value do I place on peer relationships? How do I expect peers to act with each other? How do I feel about conflict? Do I listen openly to all children when there is a problem? Is there a child that I am more likely to make negative assumptions about when a problem involves that child?

It's really to take a moment to reflect on these things throughout our day or week or in certain situations. It can be really helpful to ask a friend, colleague, or coach to video record you during a time of day where there tends to be more conflict between children and then to watch that video and notice how you respond and interact with each child involved in a conflict. This is interesting because it reminds me of a puppet thing again. It's like taking a step outside and looking at yourself from the outside.

Saameh: It's kind of hard to see your own back is what somebody told me before.

Saameh: This is a way of doing that.

Saameh: And does every child receive the support and instruction they need?

Gail: That's right.

Saameh: We're going to wrap up with our BookCASE. This month, Dr. Gail Joseph had the chance to meet with our "Teacher Time" Librarian, Emily Small.

Saameh: I'm so excited to hear about the books this month.

Gail: I got to go to the library. It's pretty fun.

Saameh: Oh, nice. Let's watch them make the CASE.

Gail: Hi, everyone. It's time for one of our favorite segments, The BookCASE. And how lucky are we to have our very own "Teacher Time" Librarian, Emily Small.

Emily Small: Thanks for having me back.

Gail: We're so excited. This is just such a treat. Emily has brought a collection of fabulous books for us to talk about. And she’s going to make the CASE for one of them. If you're new to "Teacher Time," let me just remind you what the CASE is.

The CASE really stands for an acronym for four strategies that are really helpful to help you maximize the learning you can get from children's books. C is for connect. We want to think about how we can connect the content or the characters or the story of the book to one of the ELOF outcomes. And the A is for advanced vocabulary.

We know that children love big words and finding big words in books is a great strategy to help support their growing vocabulary. S is to support their active engagement with the book reading. And E is to extend the learning beyond the book. Finding ways that you can keep that magic of the book alive. With that, tell us about the books you have.

Emily: The first one we have is "Luli and the Language of Tea.” This book just came out in 2022. It is probably one of my favorites. It features some children that don't know each other because their families are going to an English language learning class. I also feel like we don't see that very often in picture books.

Gail: I've never seen it.

Emily: Luli is trying to connect with the other children in the space. And she discovers that tea is all a part of their culture. They have a tea party. It's just a great way for kids to learn that you are connected to others. And you just have to find that connection piece.

Gail: Love that. And the illustrations look amazing.

Emily: Yes.

Gail: So engaging.

Emily: We have "Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome.” This is the third one in the "Amy Wu" series. Highly recommend them all. There's a new child in Amy's class who doesn't speak English. And Amy really wants him to feel welcome. You see the steps she takes to help the child feel welcome in class. It's a really great story.

Gail: Again, illustrations are beautiful. I don't even know this book and I want to read it.

Emily: Yes, I love how bright the colors are. Just like, yes, it draws you in immediately. We have "I Forgive Alex: A Simple Story About Understanding.” This is a wordless picture book. Wordless books are fantastic to use for all families, but especially ones where English may not be their home language because anyone can tell a story in any language with a wordless book.

Gail: That is such a great strategy to bring in.

Emily: Yeah. I'll show you some of the photos. But basically it's a story of a child that accidentally ruins another child's artwork. It's just an accident and then the steps that are taken to rekindle that friendship.

Gail: It's such a beautiful story and I love it. Without words, but you can still tell the story.

Emily: And for the CASE, we have "The Little Book of Friendship.” This book is tiny but has so much great stuff in it.

Emily: For the connection, it has really good concrete examples of how to be a good friend, how to make a friend, and then it even addresses when you're not getting along with your friends and those challenges that come up.

Gail: Which happens. A lot.

Emily: Yes, yes.

Gail: Great. Emily, for our A, our advanced vocabulary, we see words like bloom, grumpy, amazing, complimenting. We've got a lot of good emotion words.

Emily: For our supporting engagement, this book asks a lot of questions. It would be great for people to pause while they're reading, maybe write them down so kids can reference them later.

Gail: Great strategy.

Emily: Then for our extend the learning, at the beginning it talks about making a friendship garden. And you could make a friendship garden in your classroom where they all work together to build a garden. Also taking photos of your own children in the classroom so that kids can reference back to them, maybe in a photo album or posting when they're having a hard time with friends.

Gail: Such a great way to make the CASE for this book, "The Little Book of Friendship.” We hope you will find all these books at your local library.

Gail: And bring them into your classroom.

Emily: Yeah.

Gail: Thanks for being with us.

Emily: Thanks for having me.

Saameh: Awesome. That was wonderful.

Gail: It was so fun to be in our "Teacher Time" Library.

Saameh: Thank you. That's about all we have time for today.

Gail: That's it.

Saameh: And thank you so much for joining us. Join us again next month for Responding to Challenging Behavior with Infants and Toddlers. And again in May for with Preschoolers. And bye for now. Thank you so much for being here with us.

Gail: See you on MyPeers. Take care.

Children are born ready to solve problems, and they rely on supportive relationships to learn how to recognize problems and find solutions. Problem-solving involves patience, persistence, and creativity from both the child and the adults in their lives. As preschool children explore their world and engage in play with peers, challenges and conflicts provide opportunities to learn and grow. Discuss practical strategies to foster problem-solving and relationship-building skills in preschoolers.

Note: The evaluation, certificate, and engagement tools mentioned in the video were for the participants of the live webinar and are no longer available. For information about webinars that will be broadcast live soon, visit the Upcoming Events section.

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Resource Type: Video

National Centers: Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning

Age Group: Preschoolers

Audience: Teachers and Caregivers

Series: Teacher Time

Last Updated: September 26, 2023

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Everyday problem solving in adulthood and old age

Affiliation.

• 1 Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
• PMID: 3268204
• DOI: 10.1037//0882-7974.2.2.144

We examined everyday problem solving in adulthood and compared it with traditional measures of cognitive abilities. In the first phase of the research, we describe the construction of an inventory to assess problem solving in situations that adults might encounter in everyday life and examine raters' judgments of effective responses to the problems. In the second phase, adults (N = 126) between the ages of 20 and 78 were administered the inventory and tests of verbal and abstract problem-solving abilities. Results indicated modest but significant positive correlations between performance on the inventory and traditional ability tests. The examination of age differences revealed that performance on the Everyday Problem-Solving Inventory and verbal ability test increased with age, whereas performance on a traditional problem-solving test declined after middle age. In addition, education was unrelated to everyday problem solving, highly related to verbal ability, and moderately related to traditional problem solving. Results are discussed in relation to pluralistic conceptions of intelligence and theories of adult intellectual development.

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Aging / psychology*
• Concept Formation
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Intelligence
• Middle Aged
• Problem Solving*

Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood

Diana Lang; Nick Cone; Sonja Ann Miller; Martha Lally; and Suzanne Valentine-French

There are numerous stereotypes regarding older adults as being forgetful and confused, but what does the research on memory and cognition in late adulthood actually reveal? In this section, we wil l focus upon t he impact of aging on memory, how a ge impacts cognitive functioning, and a bnormal memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease, deliriu m, and dementia. [1]

How does aging affect memory?

The Sensory Register

Aging may create small decrements in the sensitivity of the senses.  And, to the extent that a person has a more difficult time hearing or seeing,   that information will not be stored in memory. This is an important point, because many older people assume that if they cannot remember something, it is because their memory is poor. In fact, it may be that the information was never seen or heard.

The Working Memory

Older people have more difficulty using memory strategies to recall details. [2] Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity responsible for temporarily holding information available for processing . As we age, the working memory loses some of its capacity. This makes it more difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time or to remember details of an event.  However, people often compensate for this by writing down information and avoiding situations where there is too much going on at once to focus on a particular cognitive task.

When an elderly person demonstrates difficulty with multi-step verbal information presented quickly, the person is exhibiting problems with working memory. Working memory is among the cognitive functions most sensitive to decline in old age. Several explanations have been offered for this decline in memory functioning; one is the processing speed theory of cognitive aging by Tim Salthouse. Drawing on the findings of general slowing of cognitive processes as people grow older, Salthouse argues that slower processing causes working-memory contents to decay, thus reducing effective capacity. [3] For example, if an elderly person is watching a complicated action movie, they may not process the events quickly enough before the scene changes, or they may processing the events of the second scene, which causes them to forget the first scene. The decline of working-memory capacity cannot be entirely attributed to cognitive slowing, however, because capacity declines more in old age than speed.

Another proposal is the inhibition hypothesis advanced by Lynn Hasher and Rose Zacks [4] . This theory assumes a general deficit in old age in the ability to inhibit irrelevant, or no-longer relevant, information. Therefore, working memory tends to be cluttered with irrelevant contents which reduce the effective capacity for relevant content. The assumption of an inhibition deficit in old age has received much empirical support but, so far, it is not clear whether the decline in inhibitory ability fully explains the decline of working-memory capacity.

An explanation on the neural level of the decline of working memory and other cognitive functions in old age was been proposed by Robert West. He argued that working memory depends to a large degree on the pre-frontal cortex, which deteriorates more than other brain regions as we grow old. [5] Age related decline in working memory can be briefly reversed using low intensity transcranial stimulation, synchronizing rhythms in bilateral frontal and left temporal lobe areas.

The Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory involves the storage of information for long periods of time. Retrieving such information depends on how well it was learned in the first place rather than how long it has been stored. If information is stored effectively, an older person may remember facts, events, names and other types of information stored in long-term memory throughout life. The memory of adults of all ages seems to be similar when they are asked to recall names of teachers or classmates. And older adults remember more about their early adulthood and adolescence than about middle adulthood. [6] Older adults retain semantic memory or the ability to remember vocabulary.

Younger adults rely more on mental rehearsal strategies to store and retrieve information. Older adults focus rely more on external cues such as familiarity and context to recall information. [7] And they are more likely to report the main idea of a story rather than all of the details. [8]

A positive attitude about being able to learn and remember plays an important role in memory. When people are under stress (perhaps feeling stressed about memory loss), they have a more difficult time taking in information because they are preoccupied with anxieties. Many of the laboratory memory tests require comparing the performance of older and younger adults on timed memory tests in which older adults do not perform as well. However, few real life situations require speedy responses to memory tasks. Older adults rely on more meaningful cues to remember facts and events without any impairment to everyday living.

New Research on Aging and Cognition

Can the brain be trained in order to build cognitive reserve to reduce the effects of normal aging? ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly), a study conducted between 1999 and 2001 in which 2,802 individuals age 65 to 94, suggests that the answer is “yes.” These participants received 10 group training sessions and 4 follow up sessions to work on tasks of memory, reasoning, and speed of processing. These mental workouts improved cognitive functioning even 5 years later. Many of the participants believed that this improvement could be seen in everyday tasks as well. [9] Learning new things, engaging in activities that are considered challenging, and being physically active at any age may build a reserve to minimize the effects of primary aging of the brain.

Watch this video from SciShow Psych to learn about ways to keep the mind young and active.

You can view the transcript for “The Best Ways to Keep Your Mind Young” here (opens in new window) .

Changes in Attention in Late Adulthood

Divided attention has usually been associated with significant age-related declines in performing complex tasks. For example, older adults show significant impairments on attentional tasks such as looking at a visual cue at the same time as listening to an auditory cue because it requires dividing or switching of attention among multiple inputs. Deficits found in many tasks, such as the Stroop task which measures selective attention, can be largely attributed to a general slowing of information processing in older adults rather than to selective attention deficits per se. They also are able to maintain concentration for an extended period of time. In general, older adults are not impaired on tasks that test sustained attention, such as watching a screen for an infrequent beep or symbol.

The tasks on which older adults show impairments tend to be those that require flexible control of attention, a cognitive function associated with the frontal lobes. Importantly, these types of tasks appear to improve with training and can be strengthened. [10]

An important conclusion from research on changes in cognitive function as we age is that attentional deficits can have a significant impact on an older person’s ability to function adequately and independently in everyday life. One important aspect of daily functioning impacted by attentional problems is driving. This is an activity that, for many older people, is essential to independence. Driving requires a constant switching of attention in response to environmental contingencies. Attention must be divided between driving, monitoring the environment, and sorting out relevant from irrelevant stimuli in a cluttered visual array. Research has shown that divided attention impairments are significantly associated with increased automobile accidents in older adults [11]   Therefore, practice and extended training on driving simulators under divided attention conditions may be an important remedial activity for older people. [12]

Problem Solving

Problem solving tasks that require processing non-meaningful information quickly (a kind of task which might be part of a laboratory experiment on mental processes) declines with age. However, real life challenges facing older adults do not rely on speed of processing or making choices on one’s own. Older adults are able to resolve everyday problems by relying on input from others such as family and friends. They are also less likely than younger adults to delay making decisions on important matters such as medical care. [13] [14]

Brain Functioning

Research has demonstrated that the brain loses 5% to 10% of its weight between 20 and 90 years of age. [15] This decrease in brain volume appears to be due to the shrinkage of neurons, lower number of synapses, and shorter length of axons. According to Garrett, [16] the normal decline in cognitive ability throughout the lifespan has been associated with brain changes, including reduced activity of genes involved in memory storage, synaptic pruning, plasticity, and glutamate and GABA (neurotransmitters) receptors. There is also a loss in white matter connections between brain areas. Without myelin, neurons demonstrate slower conduction and impede each other’s actions. A loss of synapses occurs in specific brain areas, including the hippocampus (involved in memory) and the basal forebrain region. Older individuals also activate larger regions of their attentional and executive networks, located in the parietal and prefrontal cortex, when they perform complex tasks. This increased activation correlates with a reduced performance on both executive tasks and tests of working memory when compared to those younger. [17]

Despite these changes the brain exhibits considerable plasticity, and through practice and training, the brain can be modified to compensate for age-related changes. [18] Park and Reuter-Lorenz [19] proposed the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition which states that the brain adapts to neural atrophy (dying of brain cells) by building alternative connections, referred to as scaffolding. This scaffolding allows older brains to retain high levels of performance. Brain compensation is especially noted in the additional neural effort demonstrated by those individuals who are aging well. For example, older adults who performed just as well as younger adults on a memory task used both prefrontal areas, while only the right prefrontal cortex was used in younger participants. [20] Consequently, this decrease in brain lateralization appears to assist older adults with their cognitive skills.

Can we improve brain functioning? Many training programs have been created to improve brain functioning. ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly), a study conducted between 1999 and 2001 in which 2,802 individuals age 65 to 94, suggests that the answer is “yes”. These racially diverse participants received 10 group training sessions and 4 follow up sessions to work on tasks of memory, reasoning, and speed of processing. These mental workouts improved cognitive functioning even 5 years later. Many of the participants believed that this improvement could be seen in everyday tasks as well. [21] However, programs for the elderly on memory, reading, and processing speed training demonstrate that there is improvement on the specific tasks trained, but there is no generalization to other abilities. [22] Further, these programs have not been shown to delay or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Although these programs are not harmful, “physical exercise, learning new skills, and socializing remain the most effective ways to train your brain” (p. 207). These activities appear to build a reserve to minimize the effects of primary aging of the brain.

Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by motor tremors, loss of balance, poor coordination, rigidity, and difficulty moving . [23] Parkinson’s affects approximately 1% of those over the age of 60, and it appears more frequently in family members in a little less than 10% of cases. Twenty-eight chromosomal areas have been implicated in Parkinson’s disease, but environmental factors have also been identified and include brain injury. Being knocked unconscious once increases the risk by 32%, and being knocked out several times increases the risk by 174%. [24] Other environmental influences include toxins, industrial chemicals, carbon monoxide, herbicides and pesticides. [25] The symptoms are due to the deterioration of the substantia nigra, an area in the midbrain whose neurons send dopamine-releasing axons to the basal ganglia which affects motor activity. Treatment typically includes the medication levodopa (L-dopa), which crosses the blood-brain barrier and is converted into dopamine in the brain. Deep brain stimulation, which involves inserting an electrode into the brain that provides electrical stimulation, has resulted in improved motor functioning. [26]

Similar to other adults, older adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, but they tend to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier than those younger. This pattern is called advanced sleep phase syndrome and is based on changes in circadian rhythms. [27] There are sleep problems in older adults, and insomnia is the most common problem in those 60 and older. [28] People with insomnia have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep . There are many reasons why older people may have insomnia, including certain medications, being in pain, having a medical or psychiatric condition, and even worrying before bedtime about not being able to sleep. Using over the counter sleep aids or medication may only work when used for a short time. Consequently, sleep problems should be discussed with a health care professional.

Also, common in older adults are sleep disorders, including sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. [29] Sleep apnea refers to repeated short pauses in breathing, while an individual sleeps, that can lead to reduced oxygen in the blood . Snoring is a common symptom of sleep apnea and it often worsens with age. Untreated sleep apnea can lead to impaired daytime functioning, high blood pressure, headaches, stroke, and memory loss. Restless legs syndrome feels like there is tingling, crawling, or pins and needles in one or both legs, and this feeling is worse at night.  Periodic limb movement disorder causes people to jerk and kick their legs every 20 to 40 seconds during sleep. Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder occurs when one’s muscles can move during REM sleep and sleep is disrupted. 

According to the National Sleep Foundation, [30] there are many medical conditions that affect sleep and include gastroesophageal reflux disease, diabetes mellitus, renal failure, respiratory diseases such as asthma, and immune disorders. Diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis also commonly cause problems sleeping. Lastly, Alzheimer’s disease can interfere with sleeping patterns. Individuals may wake up many times during the night, wander when up, and yell which can alter the amount of time they sleep. Both minor and significant sleep problems in older adults can lead to increased risk of accidents, falls, chronic fatigue, decreased quality of life, cognitive decline, reduced immune function, and depression. [31]

Because of sleep problems experienced by those in late adulthood, research has looked into whether exercise can improve their quality of sleep. Results show that 150 minutes per week of exercise can improve sleep quality. [32] This amount of exercise is also recommended to improve other health areas including lowering the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. Aerobic activity, weight training, and balance programs are all recommended. For those who live in assisted living facilities even light exercise, such as stretching and short walks, can improve sleep. High intensity activity is not necessary to see improvements. Overall, the effects of exercise on sleep may actually be even larger for older adults since their sleep quality may not be ideal to start.

Intelligence and Wisdom

When looking at scores on traditional intelligence tests, tasks measuring verbal skills show minimal or no age-related declines, while scores on performance tests, which measure solving problems quickly decline with age. [33] This profile mirrors crystalized and fluid intelligence. As you recall from last chapter, crystallized intelligence encompasses abilities that draw upon experience and knowledge. Measures of crystallized intelligence include vocabulary tests, solving number problems, and understanding texts. Fluid intelligence refers to information processing abilities, such as logical reasoning, remembering lists, spatial ability, and reaction time. Baltes [34] introduced two additional types of intelligence to reflect cognitive changes in aging. Pragmatics of intelligence are cultural exposure to facts and procedures that are maintained as one ages and are similar to crystalized intelligence . Mechanics of intelligence are dependent on brain functioning and decline with age, similar to fluid intelligence. Baltes indicated that pragmatics of intelligence show little decline and typically increase with age. Additionally, pragmatics of intelligence may compensate for the declines that occur with mechanics of intelligence. In summary, global cognitive declines are not typical as one ages, and individuals compensate for some cognitive declines, especially processing speed.

Wisdom is the ability to use the accumulated knowledge about practical matters that allows for sound judgment and decision making . A wise person is insightful and has knowledge that can be used to overcome obstacles in living. Does aging bring wisdom? While living longer brings experience, it does not always bring wisdom. Paul Baltes and his colleagues [35] [36]   suggest that wisdom is rare. In addition, the emergence of wisdom can be seen in late adolescence and young adulthood, with there being few gains in wisdom over the course of adulthood. [37] This would suggest that factors other than age are stronger determinants of wisdom. Occupations and experiences that emphasize others rather than self, along with personality characteristics, such as openness to experience and generativity, are more likely to provide the building blocks of wisdom. [38] Age combined with a certain types of experience and/or personality brings wisdom.

Attention and Problem Solving

Changes in sensory functioning and speed of processing information in late adulthood often translates into changes in attention. [39] Research has shown that older adults are less able to selectively focus on information while ignoring distractors, [40] [41] although Jefferies and her colleagues found that when given double time, older adults could perform at young adult levels. Other studies have also found that older adults have greater difficulty shifting their attention between objects or locations. [42] Consider the implication of these attentional changes for older adults.

How do changes or maintenance of cognitive ability affect older adults’ everyday lives? Researchers have studied cognition in the context of several different everyday activities. One example is driving. Although older adults often have more years of driving experience, cognitive declines related to reaction time or attentional processes may pose limitations under certain circumstances. [43] In contrast, research on interpersonal problem solving suggested that older adults use more effective strategies than younger adults to navigate through social and emotional problems. [44] In the context of work, researchers rarely find that older individuals perform poorer on the job. [45] Similar to everyday problem solving, older workers may develop more efficient strategies and rely on expertise to compensate for cognitive decline.

Problem solving tasks that require processing non-meaningful information quickly (a kind of task that might be part of a laboratory experiment on mental processes) declines with age. However, many real-life challenges facing older adults do not rely on speed of processing or making choices on one’s own. Older adults resolve everyday problems by relying on input from others, such as family and friends. They are also less likely than younger adults to delay making decisions on important matters, such as medical care. [46] [47]

Deficit theories

The processing speed theory , proposed by Salthouse, [48] [49] suggests that as the nervous system slows with advanced age our ability to process information declines . This slowing of processing speed may explain age differences on many different cognitive tasks. For instance, as we age, working memory becomes less efficient. [50] Older adults also need longer time to complete mental tasks or make decisions. Yet, when given sufficient time older adults perform as competently as do young adults. [51] Thus, when speed is not imperative to the task healthy older adults do not show cognitive declines.

In contrast, inhibition theory argues that older adults have difficulty with inhibitory functioning, or the ability to focus on certain information while suppressing attention to less pertinent information tasks . [52] Evidence comes from directed forgetting research. In directed forgetting people are asked to forget or ignore some information, but not other information. For example, you might be asked to memorize a list of words, but are then told that the researcher made a mistake and gave you the wrong list, and asks you to “forget” this list. You are then given a second list to memorize. While most people do well at forgetting the first list, older adults are more likely to recall more words from the “forget-to-recall” list than are younger adults. [53]

Cognitive losses exaggerated

While there are information processing losses in late adulthood, overall loss has been exaggerated. [54] One explanation is that the type of tasks that people are tested on tend to be meaningless. For example, older individuals are not motivated to remember a random list of words in a study, but they are motivated for more meaningful material related to their life, and consequently perform better on those tests. Another reason is that the research is often cross-sectional. When age comparisons occur longitudinally, however, the amount of loss diminishes. [55] A third reason is that the loss may be due to a lack of opportunity in using various skills. When older adults practiced skills, they performed as well as they had previously. Although diminished performance speed is especially noteworthy in the elderly, Schaie [56] found that statistically removing the effects of speed diminished the individual’s performance declines significantly. In fact, Salthouse and Babcock [57] demonstrated that processing speed accounted for all but 1% of age-related differences in working memory when testing individuals from 18 to 82. Finally, it is well established that our hearing and vision decline as we age. Longitudinal research has proposed that deficits in sensory functioning explain age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities. [58]

Abnormal Loss of Cognitive Functioning During Late Adulthood

Historically, the term dementia was used to refer to an individual experiencing difficulties with memory, language, abstract thinking, reasoning, decision making, and problem-solving. [59] While the term dementia is still in common use, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5) [60] the term dementia has been replaced by neurocognitive disorder. A Major Neurocognitive Disorder is diagnosed as a significant cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one or more cognitive domains and interferes with independent functioning, while a Minor Neurocognitive Disorder is diagnosed as a modest cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one of more cognitive domains and does not interfere with independent functioning. There are several different neurocognitive disorders that are typically demonstrated in late adulthood, and determining the exact type can be difficult because the symptoms may overlap with each other. Diagnosis often includes a medical history, physical exam, laboratory tests, and changes noted in behavior.

Common symptoms of dementia include emotional problems, difficulties with language, and a decrease in motivation. A person’s consciousness is usually not affected. Globally, dementia affected about 46 million people in 2015. About 10% of people develop the disorder at some point in their lives, and it becomes more common with age. About 3% of people between the ages of 65–74 have dementia, 19% between 75 and 84, and nearly half of those over 85 years of age. In 2015, dementia resulted in about 1.9 million deaths, up from 0.8 million in 1990. As more people are living longer, dementia is becoming more common in the population as a whole.

Dementia generally refers to severely impaired judgment, memory or problem-solving ability. It can occur before old age and is not an inevitable development even among the very old. Dementia can be caused by numerous diseases and circumstances, all of which result in similar general symptoms of impaired judgment, etc. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and is incurable, but there are also nonorganic causes of dementia which can be prevented. Malnutrition, alcoholism, depression, and mixing medications can also result in symptoms of dementia. If these causes are properly identified, they can be treated. Cerebral vascular disease can also reduce cognitive functioning.

Delirium , also known as acute confusional state, is an organically caused decline from a previous baseline level of mental function that develops over a short period of time, typically hours to days. It is more common in older adults, but can easily be confused with a number of psychiatric disorders or chronic organic brain syndromes because of many overlapping signs and symptoms in common with dementia, depression, psychosis, etc. Delirium may manifest from a baseline of existing mental illness, baseline intellectual disability, or dementia, without being due to any of these problems.

Delirium is a syndrome encompassing disturbances in attention, consciousness, and cognition. It may also involve other neurological deficits, such as psychomotor disturbances (e.g. hyperactive, hypoactive, or mixed), impaired sleep-wake cycle, emotional disturbances, and perceptual disturbances (e.g. hallucinations and delusions), although these features are not required for diagnosis. Among older adults, delirium occurs in 15-53% of post-surgical patients, 70-87% of those in the ICU, and up to 60% of those in nursing homes or post-acute care settings. Among those requiring critical care, delirium is a risk for death within the next year.

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) , also referred to simply as Alzheimer’s, is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 60-70% of its cases. Alzheimer’s   is a progressive disease causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. [61]

Alzheimer’s disease is probably the most well-known and most common neurocognitive disorder for older individuals. In 2016, an estimated 5.4 million Americans were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, [62] which was approximately one in nine aged 65 and over. By 2050, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is projected to be 13.8 million if there are no medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure the disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States, but the 5th leading cause for those 65 and older. Among the top 10 causes of death in America, Alzheimer’s disease is the only one that cannot be prevented, cured, or even slowed. Current estimates indicate that Alzheimer disease affects approximately 50% of those identified with a neurocognitive disorder. [63]

Alzheimer’s disease has a gradual onset with subtle personality changes and memory loss that differs from normal age-related memory problems occurring first. Confusion, difficulty with change, and deterioration in language, problem-solving skills, and personality become evident next. In the later stages, the individual loses physical coordination and is unable to complete everyday tasks, including self-care and personal hygiene. [64] Lastly, individuals lose the ability to respond to their environment, to carry on a conversation, and eventually to control movement (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). The disease course often depends on the individual’s age and whether they have other health conditions.

Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. On average, a person with Alzheimer’s lives four to eight years after diagnosis, but can live as long as 20 years, depending on other factors. Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging. The greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer’s are 65 and older. But Alzheimer’s is not just a disease of old age. Approximately 200,000 Americans under the age of 65 have younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease (also known as early-onset Alzheimer’s). [65]

The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is poorly understood. About 70% of the risk is believed to be inherited from a person’s parents with many genes usually involved. Other risk factors include a history of head injuries, depression, and hypertension. The disease process is associated with plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. A probable diagnosis is based on the history of the illness and cognitive testing with medical imaging and blood tests to rule out other possible causes. Initial symptoms are often mistaken for normal aging, but examination of brain tissue, specifically of structures called plaques and tangles, is needed for a definite diagnosis. Though qualified physicians can be up to 90% certain of a correct diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, currently, the only way to make a 100% definitive diagnosis is by performing an autopsy of the person and examining the brain tissue. In 2015, there were approximately 29.8 million people worldwide with AD. In developed countries, AD is one of the most financially costly diseases.

This Ted-Ed video explains some of the history and biological diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

You can view the transcript for “What is Alzheimer’s disease? – Ivan Seah Yu Jun” here .

Samuel Cohen researches Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Listen to Cohen’s TED Talk on Alzheimer’s disease to learn more.

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Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood Copyright © 2022 by Diana Lang; Nick Cone; Sonja Ann Miller; Martha Lally; and Suzanne Valentine-French is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.