Adulthood

In the past, it was enough to have some status marker and reach a certain age to become an adult. Specifically, individuals had to be at least 18 years old and have some intimate relations, financial independence, and adequate self-esteem. In contrast, the definition of adulthood is not so clear nowadays: individuals can live with their parents even after achieving certain age; they can be a student or have a job; they can have a spouse or have no romantic relationships; they can be a parent or have no children. Concerning adulthood as a stage of personal development, the adults are commonly regarded as the individuals who have shaped their identity and have developed such personal qualities as independence, responsibility, and self-discipline. Although some experts disagree with these characteristics believing that it is necessary to spend most of life on their development, the majority of people agree that adulthood means responsibility, independence, and development of self, both physical and psychological.

Responsibility

The adult has responsibility for self and other people as well as a wide range of social and financial duties. Firstly, personal responsibility replaces parental one and means that a person is in charge of own decisions and future. This includes that not parents or other people but a person oneself controls everything he/she does. Secondly, financial responsibility means that an adult is able to earn money to pay the bills, the rent, and other needs. Even if the individual lives with parents and has their support, he/she still makes a career to have a financial security. Thirdly, adulthood also involves considering others and taking responsibility for them. In particular, adults feel accountability for children, partners, and other people. In some cases, responsibility for others reduces freedom and requires changing own habits and goals. Finally, social responsibility means that adults strive to do right things for themselves, the community, the environment, and future generations. For example, adults resolve social issues as soon as they notice them. Therefore, responsibility in adulthood is a complex concept, which involves accountability for own life as well as other people and the environment. If an individual lives for parents’ money and wants parents to make all decisions, he/she has not reached adulthood psychologically.

Independence

The concept of adulthood involves not only various responsibilities but also independence and the ability to make decisions. Unlike adolescence, adulthood means that individuals do not have to ask parents’ permission to do what they want. For instance, they may live alone and meet people they like. At the same time, independence has the negative side – people lose stability. In childhood and adolescence, individuals only need to go to school and study; parents take overall responsibility for children’s life, and even if something bad happens, it is the fault of parents but not their child. On the contrary, in adulthood, individuals become fully responsible for their mistakes. This creates some pressure, so adults cannot relax and do nothing – they constantly look for the ways of earning money to survive because parents normally stop providing them with financial support. Therefore, independence is not only doing what you want but also taking full responsibility for own faults.

Development of Self

Although the definitions of adulthood differ widely, most of the experts agree that becoming an adult requires achieving self-sufficiency. To exemplify, in the United States, young individuals are considered adults only when they make own decisions, take responsibility for their actions and gain financial independence from their parents. However, this process is gradual and requires some patience. In time, a person learns own limitations and becomes wise. He/she also finds the own place in the world and tries to gain a sense of happiness. His/her main goals become maturity, growth, learning, and shaping of self. Importantly, all the mentioned processes are slower nowadays than in the past. One of the reasons is that the modern individuals need more education and training to make a career. Therefore, they marry, become parents and begin to work later than in the past. This fact might have the negative effect on the development of modern people’s self because they stay with parents longer and cannot begin the transition to adulthood accordingly to their physical age. In addition, parents sometimes forget that their children are adults and do not allow them to learn the qualities required for this stage of human development. For example, parents occasionally do not permit children to search for their place in the world through setting various limitations and providing too much care and support, which quickly relaxes young adults and discourage them from developing themselves.

Social Markers

Apart from independence, responsibility, and self-sufficiency, adulthood involves a range of social markers. Traditionally, the transition to adulthood means that a person leaves home, makes a career, has some intimate relationships and becomes a parent. Nowadays, people gain the mentioned markers later than in the past. In addition, modern youth experiences great difficulties in finding a job. Therefore, the concept of adulthood has been changing in time – the independence, responsibility, and self-sufficiency become the main focus. Although it is much more difficult to develop these qualities living with parents, individuals have to do this in order to compete in the labor market. Besides, a single person without children has more time and energy for self-development; he/she is free to search for the place in the world and learn own needs, which is extremely important for reaching self-sufficiency. In future, such person will have high chances to create a happy family and find a job that corresponds with his/her needs. Therefore, acquiring social markers in the late age could have both positive and negative consequences. Eventually, everything depends on the person: if the individual uses the absence of family for self-realization, he/she will gain positive results in future; in contrast, if the individual just relaxes and avoids any responsibility, he/she will experience a stop in the development and will not transit the stage of adulthood.

Physical Development

Another important aspect of adulthood is physical development. Normally, people reach the peak of physical functioning in their young adulthood: humans achieve maximum height in their early 20s and continue acquiring muscle mass and physical strength until their late 20s. The cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, immune and other systems also demonstrate the highest efficiency in the young adulthood. The same happens with the senses of vision, hearing, smell, touch, and balance. The performance of the athletes is a clear example of the effect of age on the human’s physical functioning. In particular, the sportsmen demonstrate the highest results in their 20s and 30s and then their performance starts declining.

Although young adulthood is a peak of physical functioning, some signs of senescence (or normal aging) start to appear during this period. For example, people experience losing elasticity of their lung tissues. Homeostasis also becomes slower and, therefore, the body requires more time to make adjustments to keep physiological equilibrium. To illustrate, young adults need slightly more time to deal with temperature changes in the room.

Like physical functioning, physical health also reaches its peak in the adulthood. Consider the statistics, in the United States, 95% of young adults state that their physical health is good and only 5% of youth admit that they have some health issues influencing their daily activities. However, people at this age have high chances to develop health issues due to low physical activity, health-risky behaviors, obesity, and limited access to healthcare services. The positive side of the situation is that young adults gradually lose their interest to health-damaging behaviors. Therefore, young adulthood is a perfect time for setting health-promoting behaviors, which will decrease the risks of the development of chronic diseases.

Alternative Views

Many people do not have such social markers of adulthood as responsibility, independence, self-sufficiency, and excellent physical health but still feel adults – they live how they like and do what they want. Such attitude to life closely resembles childhood or adolescence, so one can conclude that people supporting these ideas do not achieve adulthood, stop to develop and live under the influence of illusions. On the contrary, adults should have all or at least some of the above-mentioned characteristics of adulthood. For instance, individuals could have poor physical health but they should achieve social and psychological maturity. Overall, despite the changes in the modern labor market and family relations, adulthood remains highly specific stage of human development with a wide range of objectives.

In conclusion, the concept of adulthood includes three major aspects such as physical health, social markers, and social maturity. The perceptions of adulthood depend heavily on the society. Thus, Americans value self-sufficiency, which means that a person becomes an adult when he/she starts making own decisions, takes responsibility for own actions and has enough money to be financially independent of parents. In contrast, other societies pay more attention to social markers of adulthood such as children, marital status, and career. Furthermore, good or excellent body functioning and physical health are other important characteristics of adulthood. One may also conclude that modern youth frequently reaches physical adulthood but not psychological one. Consequently, young people stay with their parents for a long time, reducing the opportunities for developing responsibility, independence, and consolidation of self. Lastly, young people have plenty of time and energy to become independent and self-sufficient, which is highly important for creating lasting romantic relationships.

About author

Monica is the author and she is working on cover letter writing now. She always dreamed of working in this position, working with texts and new information. After all, her credo in life is to develop daily in different fields and be an interesting person. She is fluent in three languages and holds a Masters Degree in Philology and Translator, and is also trying to master new fields in order to be knowledgeable in everything.