The New Landscape of Adult Life: Road Maps, Signposts, and Speed Lines

Abstract

This article highlights how much adult life has changed in the decades since the publication of landmark works on adult development and explores what these great shakeups mean for understanding adulthood today. It points to the need for renewed attention to what is unique and what is shared in different life periods, the changing significance of age, the growing uncertainties and certainties of modern life, the expanding demands and dwindling protections of jobs, the fragility of marriage, and the need to rearchitect social institutions and policies. The new terrain of adult life demands new responses from governments, families, and individuals—as well as from scientists who must treat it in ways that do right by its contemporary complexities and realities.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Early parts of this article were presented in conjunction with the Neugarten lecture at the 25th anniversary celebration of the doctoral program in Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University, October 2006. I extend my thanks to Fay Lomax Cook, Dan McAdams, and other faculty, alumni, and students who provided thoughtful reactions and comments, as well as to Phyllis Moen who gave the Neugarten lecture.