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196 PILLAR 2 Development and LearningEarly Adulthood Transitions and the Social Clock12-1 What is the concept known as the social clock, and how does it relate to the transition from adolescence to adulthood?As you continue your journey from adolescence to adulthood, you%u2019ll face many other important questions: When will you take your stuff and move out of your parents%u2019 house? Where will you live? Will you marry? If so, when? And if you decide to raise children, how many? The social clock, the culturally preferred timing of agerelated social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement, may influence your answers to these questions. For example, if you got your driver%u2019s license shortly after you turned 16 or 18 (depending on your state), you were %u201con time.%u201d However, if you were 34 and still didn%u2019t have your driver%u2019s license, you would be %u201coff time%u201d and people would be likely to wonder why you don%u2019t drive. These social events or transitions can cause anxiety for those people who feel they%u2019re not keeping up with their peers.Social clocks have different settings in different cultures. For instance, in Mozambique, the average age at first marriage for brides is around 19.1 In Japan, firsttime brides are usually around 29 years old.2 The settings of a social clock can change within a culture, too. In the United States, for example, the typical timeline for many life events, including marriage, has changed. The median age of first marriage in the United States has risen from 22 to 29 in the last 50 years. That%u2019s a big difference!3The transitions of early adulthood can be stressful, often because we make so many of them at once. Where you are 2 or 3 years from now will be very different from where you were as a ninth-grader. Yet your transition to adulthood will probably be less abrupt than it would have been a generation ago. Developmental psychologists have noticed that adolescents are easing more slowly into the self-sufficiency of true adulthood. Researchers today sometimes refer to the developmental stage between age 18 and the mid-twenties (and longer) as emerging adulthood.4,5 Christopher Munsey6 has summarized the five features of emerging adulthood:%u2022 Age of identity exploration%u2014the process of deciding who you are and what you would like to get out of school, love, and work.%u2022 Age of instability%u2014marked by moving from place to place; the frequent moves usually end once a career or a family is in place.social clock The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.emerging adulthood A period from the late teens to the mid-twenties (and sometimes later), bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood. Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision/Getty Images David Cherepuschak/Alamy Stock PhotoCulture Affects the Social ClockIn developed countries, even grandmothers go for their diplomas, while teenagers are discouraged from marriage and parenting. However, in lower- and middle-income nations such as Laos and Malawi, grandmothers rarely go to college and teenagers often marry and have children.%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.