Related Research/Resources

Organizations

Panel on Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries, National Research Council

Center for Culture and Health Research Programs - Transitions to Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Society for Research on Adolescence

Emerging Adulthood Special Interest Group

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, emerging adulthood homepage

Publications Related to the Transition by Non-Network Members

For a good resource of articles, by topic, go here

Building a Better Bridge
Youth Development Institute ydinstitute.org

YDI’s recent paper about the college experience of youth who had formerly become disconnected from school. These young people entered and many have continued on to matriculate from a CUNY four-year college. A partnership between the New York City College of Technology and a community organization—Cypress Hills Local Development Center—supported by the Youth Development Institute (YDI), helped these young people to advance

Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners: Early Impacts from a Random Assignment Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Prisoner Reentry Program
Dan Bloom et al.

Most recent MDRC on early results from study of a transitional jobs program for ex-prisoners (many of whom are young adults). Short-term results are encouraging

Financing Entrepreneurship Programs for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care (June 2007)
The Finance Project, Foster Care Working Group  

This strategy brief aims to help policymakers, child welfare administrators, program developers, and community leaders understand the landscape of players, funding sources, and financing strategies that can support entrepreneurship opportunities for youth currently or transitioning from foster care.  The brief highlights seven strategies that program developers and community leaders can employ to support entrepreneurship opportunities for youth in care.

Financing Asset-Building and Financial Education Programs for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care (June 2007)
The Finance Project, Foster Care Working Group

Asset-building and financial education programs are essential to help young people develop savings habits and accumulate assets that will put them on a pathway to financial stability and well-being.  This brief describes five financing strategies that policymakers, program developers, and community leaders can pursue to support asset-building and financial education programs for youth in foster care.  For each strategy, the brief includes funding sources, players, examples of how asset-building and financial education programs have used these resources, and considerations for implementation.

Financing Workforce Development Programs for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care (June 2007)
The Finance Project, Foster Care Working Group

To support program developers and community leaders helping youth in foster care make successful transitions to adulthood, this brief explores six financing strategies that can support workforce development programs and services for youth currently or transitioning from foster care.  The brief describes strategies for maximizing workforce development and child welfare resources; accessing community development resources; connecting with education resources; building partnerships with employers; and improving coordination across systems.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Access to Care among Older Adolescents (March 2007)
Harriet Fox et al., Incenter Strategies.

This brief from the Incenter Strategies group looks at racial disparities in health insurance and health care access and use among 18-21-year-olds in the United States. Using data from the National Health Interview Survey, the authors find that Hispanic youth are significantly less likely to have visited a health care provider in the last year and they are also less likely to have a usual source of care. Almost one-half of all Hispanics age 18-21 report no usual source of care compared with approximately one-fourth of African Americans and whites. Likewise, 37% reporte no health care visits in the last year compared to 22% of African Americans and 17% of whites in this age group. The lack of health insurance is a major reason for this disparity.

The Transition to Adulthood: Characteristics of Young Adults Ages 18 to 24 in America
Susan Jekielek and Brett Brown, published in Child Trends

What Money Can Buy: The Relationship between Marriage and Home Ownership in the United States,
Mary Elizabeth Hughes

This paper assesses the relation between the cost of housing and delayed marriage. Results suggest that homeownership, and by extension material aspirations, are a key part of the family formation process. Material aspirations shape people’s ideas about what is necessary for a particular life transition, for example marriage. In turn, they scale people’s assessments of their own readiness for the transition. In the case of marriage, individuals may assess their economic readiness for marriage in terms of their ability to afford a home.

Youth During the Transition to Adulthood Face Increasing Health Risk and Less Access to Health Care
Kathleen Mullan Harris et al.

Report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine reports. (Report from AddHealth)

Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens through the Twenties (2004, Oxford University Press)
Jeffrey Arnett

Emerging Adults in America: Coming of Age in the 21st Century
edited by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Jennifer Lynn Tanner
(2005, American Psychological Association Press)

Encyclopedia of Emerging Adulthood
Jeffrey Arnett (in preparation, Greenwood Press)

Serving Country and Community: A Longitudinal Study of Service in Americorps
Corporation for National and Community Service

Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries
Cynthia B. Lloyd, Editor, Panel on Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries, National Research Council
[Executive Summary (pdf)]

Kids count data book 2004
Surdna Foundation National Student Partnerships National League of Cities; Institute for Youth

Set of indicators on young adults succes (or lack of) in life.

Career Academies
James J. Kemple, MDRC

Established more than 30 years ago, Career Academies have become a widely used high school reform initiative that aims to keep students engaged in school and prepare them for successful transitions to post-secondary education and employment.

The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality
Jerry Jacbob & Kathleen Gerson (Harvard University Press, 2004)

In contrast to the conventional wisdom that all Americans are overworked, they show that time itself has become a form of social inequality that is dividing Americans in new ways--between the overworked and the underemployed, women and men, parents and non-parents. They piece together a compelling story of the increasing mismatch between our economic system and the needs of American families

Poor Kids in a Rich Society,
Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding, Russell Sage Foundation

In Poor Kids in a Rich Country, Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding ask what it means to be poor in a prosperous nation - especially for any country's most vulnerable citizens, its children

Generation Broke: The Growth of Debt Among Young Americans
Tamara Draut and Javier Silva

The authors examine debt among the twenty-somethings

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