King saud university

College of Nursing
Gorwth & Development

:: PREPARED TO

Dr. Muneeb Mohammad Al-Zghool

:: PREPARED BY
Hatem Al-srour

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 Young Adulthood
(Age: Young Adulthood , 19 to 40 years)

Introduction:

According to Erik Erikson's stages of human

development, first enumerated in Childhood and Society
(1950) a young adult is a person between the ages of 20 and 39,
whereas an adolescent is a person between the ages of 13 and
19. The young adult stage in human development precedes
middle adulthood. A person in the middle adulthood stage is
between the ages of 40 and 65. In maturity, a person is 65
years old or older.
In fact, in modern societies, young adults in their late
teens and early 20s encounter a number of issues as they finish
school and begin to hold full-time jobs and take on other
responsibilities of adulthood. In the late teens and early 20s,
young adults become individuals and will set themselves apart.
Self becomes the main reliance. Young adults will strive to
become independent from parents, take responsibility for
themselves and make their own decisions. During the young
adult stage, mainly the majority think in a more mature
manner and take issues more seriously. They focus on the
construction of a better future.
To say, Young adults in this stage of human development
learn value in both tangible and intangible objects. Their
relationships with their parents and older adults change.
However, in many cases, young adults and adolescents have
enormous talent that can, in cases, outstrip some adults'
talents. In many cases, problems such as lack of time
(schooling and other commitments) and lack of money can
arrest the adolescent's development in terms of intellectual
and talent growth.

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Description of Young Adulthood:
According to Erikson, the young adult stage involves the
personal need for intimacy and sex. Failure to achieve this
need results in isolation, which is avoided, and as a result the
young adult strives for love and compassion. The young adult
learns that love and compassion may get him what he wants.
In this stage, the most important events are love
relationships. Intimacyrefers to one's ability to relate to
another human being on a deep, personallevel. An individual
who has not developed a sense of identity usually will feara
committed relationship and may retreat into isolation. It is
important tomention that having a sexual relationship does
not indicate intimacy. People canbe sexually intimate without
being committed and open with another. Trueintimacy
requires personal commitment. However, mutual satisfaction
willincrease the closeness of people in a true intimate
relationship.
Health of Young Adulthood:
We can say that young adults are generally in good
health, subject neither to disease nor the problems of
senescence.

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 Biological function and physical performance reach
their peak from 20-35 years of age, waning after 35. Strength
peaks around 25 years of age, plateaus through 35 or 40 years
of age, and then declines. Flexibility also decreases with age
throughout adulthood. However, there are large individual
differences and a fit 40-year-old may outcompete a sedentary
20-year-old.
For Women:
Women reach their peak fertility in their early 20s.
Assuming unprotected intercourse with a man of the same
age, women aged 19-26 have about a 50% chance of becoming
pregnant during a given menstrual cycle, compared with 40%
in the 27-34 age group and below 30% for women 35-39.
Developed Countries:
In developed countries, mortality rates for the 18-40 age
group are typically very low. Men are more likely to die at this
age than women, particularly in the 18-25 group: reasons
include car accidents and suicide. Mortality statistics among
men and women level off during the late twenties and thirties,
due in part to good health and less risk-taking behavior.

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Young Adulthood & Cnacer:
Cancer is much less common in young than in older
adults. Exceptions are testicular cancer, cervical cancer, and
Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Settling down
After the upheaval of the early 30's, the middle to late
30's (roughly ages 34-39) are often characterized by settling
down. People in their 30's may increase the financial and
emotional investments they make in their lives. Many have
been employed long enough to gain promotions and raises.
They often become more focused on advancing their careers
and gaining stability in their personal lives. They may have
started a family.

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 Major Factors that Affect the Transition into Early
Adulthood
Often, our
relationships with
our parents change.
We feel too old to Trying to find our
live with our Acknowledging our own strengths and
parents, but we are needs and impulses. weaknesses. We have
not quite ready to We know what we to try to enhance the
form a family of want to do and what strengths and to
our own. We want needs to get done. overcome our
to try to form an weaknesses.
identity as an
individual, apart
from our family.
Learning to live Learning to live in
While trying to comfortably in our our new
form our identity, own bodies. We are surroundings (if we
we need to keep the individuals, no two leave home) and the
ties with our alike. At this point in loss of the financial
families. If we don't our lives we need to security we had with
we are losing a learn to accept who our parents. We are
great support we are. Self esteem now in charge of our
network. can make a world of own space and life-
difference. style.

Needs of Youth in this Lifestage

Freedom to
Explore all Independent
take steps into
possibilities. choices.
the world.
Intimacy with Others in Young Adukthood:

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 Young people should learn more about intimacy with
others. In other words, a relationship should not rely solely on
sexual intimacy. Rather, it should gear toward emotional
intimacy. Young relationships, along with any relationships
must have commitment to be successful. In any relationship,
we must be friends with the other individual in order to totally
respect them as a person. This puts you both on the same level,
and tends to make couples more compatible. This is because
we understand one another. You most likely have the same
interests, same thoughts, similar accomplishments. You are
alike and that's good. Proximity is a critical factor in
beginning a relationship. Clearly, we will never fall in love
with someone we do not know. Physical attraction is also a
major determinant in choosing a mate.
Elements For A Positive Outcome:
The young adult must develop intimate relationships
with others. Notresolving this conflict leaves the young adult
feeling isolated. The young adultmust be willing to be open
and committed to another individual.

Elements for a negative outcome:

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An individual may retreat into isolation if a sense of identity is
notdeveloped and will fear a committed relationship.
Changes In Young Adulthood: -
Dramatic Change:
A large and relatively new body of research is revealing
that young adulthood is a time of dramatic change in basic
thinking structures, as well as in the brain. Consensus is
emerging that an 18-year-old is not the same person she or he
will be at 25, just as an 11-year-old is not the same as he or she
will be at 18. They don't look the same, feel the same, think the
same, or act the same.
Three Categories:
Across theories and research frameworks, a sequence of
developmental shifts emerges, which can be organized into
three overall categories:
• Adolescence (generally defined as puberty
through age 18)
• Young adulthood (generally defined as 18 to 22
or 18 to 25)
• Later adulthood (generally defined as mid-20s
and older)

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 Many researchers and theorists divide these three broad
areas into several smaller shifts, depending on the aspect of
development they are measuring, such as reflective judgment,
moral development, or cognitive structural development.
There remains much division within and between disciplines,
but, at the broader level, they share significant common
ground.
The Mental Visor:
Fundamentally, what changes in these developmental
shifts is not just what people think, but also what they think
about. Everyone, including young adults, has a kind of mental
"visor" that screens out some kinds of phenomena while
letting in others for consideration. As development unfolds,
one can "see" and think about more and more complex
phenomena such as abstractions, relationships, and moral
problems, offering more and more powerful thinking tools.
Why does development happen? Most researchers see a
role both for nature and nurture. In healthy people, some
changes evolve on a biological timetable, as long as the
environment is "good enough," and some changes are
prompted by demands in the environment, as long as the
biological underpinnings are "good enough."

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 When teens enter young adulthood, their thinking
capacities, relationship skills, and ability to regulate emotions
are unlikely to be at a developmental level where they can
cope easily with the demands of a diverse, global,
technological, rapidly-changing world. If all goes well, biology
and environment bring a surge of growth paralleling those of
childhood and adolescence.
An Emerging Field:
Acknowledging these findings, researchers have begun
to define young adulthood as its own developmental period,
referring to it as "emerging adulthood," "the frontier of
adulthood," or, earlier, "the novice phase." Here at the start of
the 21st century, researchers are creating a new field around
young adulthood, just as, at the turn of the 20th century,
researchers defined a new field around adolescence.
Much of the impetus and focus for the research has
come from the lengthening period in the U.S. between the
onset of puberty and the fulfilling of cultural expectations
around adult roles like financial independence and family
formation. Significant differences can be expected across
culture and circumstance.

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Obesity & Young Adulthood:
Childhood obesity increases the risk of obesity in
adulthood, but how parental obesity affects the chances of a
child's becoming an obese adult is unknown. We investigated
the risk of obesity in young adulthood associated with both
obesity in childhood and obesity in one or both parents.
Height and weight measurements were abstracted from
the records of 854 subjects born at a health maintenance
organization in Washington State between 1965 and 1971.
In fact, obese children under three years of age without
obese parents are at low risk for obesity in adulthood, but
among older children, obesity is an increasingly important
predictor of adult obesity, regardless of whether the parents
are obese. Parental obesity more than doubles the risk of adult
obesity among both obese and nonobese children under 10
years of age.
Some types of changes in Young Adulthood:
Relatively neglected in the literature on young
adulthood is a thorough consideration of changes in
geography and changes in the neighborhood environment
occurring during this period. In the current analysis I focus
attention on a specific element of the transition to adulthood:

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the move out of the parental home. Based on a sample of
young adults living in Chicago in the late 1990s, I find that
white and nonwhite young adults in Chicago approach the
“frontier of adulthood” from severely unequal environments.
Whereas the typical white young adult lives in an
economically diverse neighborhood as she prepares to forge
her own path, the typical African-American lives in a
segregated neighborhood consisting mostly of neighbors at the
bottom of the income distribution and few at the top.
Some Psychosocial Matters ( Intimacy vs. Isolation):
This stage covers the period of early adulthood when
people are exploring personal relationships.
Erikson believed it was vital that people develop close,
committed relationships with other people. Those who are
successful at this step will develop relationships that are
committed and secure.
Remember that each step builds on skills learned in
previous steps. Erikson believed that a strong sense of
personal identity was important to developing intimate
relationships. Studies have demonstrated that those with a
poor sense of self tend to have less committed relationships

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and are more likely to suffer emotional isolation, loneliness,
and depression.
To add, we can say that human development is a lifelong
process of physical, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional
growth and change. In the early stages of life—from babyhood
to childhood, childhood to adolescence, and adolescence to
adulthood—enormous changes take place. Throughout the
process, each person develops attitudes and values that guide
choices, relationships, and understanding.
Physical Development:
Most young adults aged 18 and over will Complete the
process of physical maturation, usually attaining full adult
height [Secondary sexual characteristics, such as size of penis
and breasts, are completed.]
Cognitive Development:
Most young adults aged 18 and over will Move into
adult roles and responsibilities and may learn a trade, work,
and/or pursue higher education. They fully understand
abstract concepts and be aware of consequences and personal
limitations. They identify career goals and prepare to achieve
them. They secure their autonomy and build and test their

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decision making skills . they develop new skills, hobbies, and
adult interests .
Emotional Development:
Most young adults aged 18 and over will Move into
adult relationships with their parents. They see the peer group
as less important as a determinant of behavior. They feel
empathetic. They have greater intimacy skills. They complete
their values framework. They carry some feelings of
invincibility. They establish their body image.
Sexual Development:
Most young adults aged 18 and over will enter into
intimate sexual and emotional relationships. They understand
their own sexual orientation, although they may still
experiment. They understand sexuality as connected to
commitment and planning for the future. They shift their
emphasis from self to others. They experience more intense
sexuality
To illustrate: ,we can say that sexuality is also a lifelong
process. Infants, children, teens, and adults are sexual beings.
Just as it is important to enhance a young adult's physical,
emotional, and cognitive growth, so it is important to lay
foundations for his/her sexual growth. Adults have a

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responsibility to help young people understand and accept
their evolving sexuality.
Conclusion:
To conclude, we can say that each stage of young
adulthood with its development encompasses specific markers.
There should be developmental guidelines apply to most youth
in this age group. However, each young person is an individual
and may reach these stages of development earlier or later
than others the same age. When concerns arise about a
specific young adult's development, parents or other
caregivers should consult a doctor or other developmental
professional.

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 References
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Carl T. Hall, San Francisco Chronicle April 30, 2002
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12.Http://Www.Medscape.Com/Viewarticle/584528

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