Early Adulthoood

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Early Adulthood

Early Adulthood is the time between the ages of 20–40. Ages 20–4 0, according to Erikson, is the stage of intimacy versus isolation. This stage is marked by the struggle for a person to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for immediate love or they feel socially isolated. This is the time that many young adults choose to get married, cohabit, or choose to stay single. Just as friends were important to the adolescent, friends are equally important to the young adult, especially those who have not found a suitable partner—either by choice or by chance.

Physical:

Women are complete with growing around the age of 16, yet men can still grow up until the age of 22.
Muscle mass for both men and women continues into their 20s.

Social:

Young adults in college may start abusing alcohol or drugs which often turns into a downward spiral.
Many times eating disorders are carried over from adolescence as the young adult is out on her or his own without parents to watch over their every meal.

Marriage:

Nationally, the average woman gets married at age 23 and the average man gets married at 25 years of age.
Some cultures still have arranged marriages. Others rely on Internet sites to match them to a person most suited to them.
For some people, the social clock tells them it’s time to get married rather than a true feeling to get married.

Children:

Many people who are married or in a committed relationship make the decision to have children. This can be a biological child or adopted. Some women and men have infertility issues and medical assistance is required to achieve pregnancy.

Divorce:

The United States has the highest divorce rate with one out of every two, or 50% of marriages, ending in divorce. Many stressors influence divorce, such as money, conflict with other family members, and sometimes to adultery.
Some believe the shift of roles in modern days has caused the upward number of divorces. Since women no longer have the “traditional role” of cooking, cleaning, and raising children and more women are in the work place, those “traditional chores” are sometimes still expected of women. Many women are not happy having two full-time jobs. Thereby women and men begin to argue and this leads to unhappiness which can result in divorce.
Today there is more equality in a marriage. Marriage is more of a partnership. However, since men and women are busy with their own careers, they do not always spend time working on the relationship; without work, the relationship will suffer and can end in divorce.