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Written by: Jenny Chesters

Understanding the complexities associated with transitions into adulthood has never been more important. Changes in the political and social environment related to the adoption of neoliberal economic policies in the latter part of the twentieth century created increasingly precarious employment conditions exacerbating the uncertainties related to transitioning from education into employment and thus, from adolescence into adulthood. This blog is based on the Research Handbook on Transitions into Adulthood (Chesters 2024).

This Research Handbook includes contributions from authors located in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Spain, and the United Kingdom allowing for a truly international picture of the complexities of achieving adulthood to emerge. Across the developed world, young people are prolonging their educational careers as youth labour markets shrink and become characterised by precarious employment. In less economically developed countries, informal employment continues to dominate local labour markets. It now appears that employment opportunities for young people across the world are converging as advanced economies embrace gig work and other forms of precarious employment. Being able to secure full-time employment with a stable income that is sufficient to ensure economic independence was one of the markers of adulthood that is now out of reach for many young people even in countries with highly developed economies.

Without opportunities to gain their financial independence through secure employment, young people have to imagine and forge new ways to achieve adulthood. Due to the reconfiguration of labour markets and the design-your-own pathways between education and secure employment, new adulthood is characterised by uncertainty, unpredictability and instability (Wyn 2020). Achieving financial independence underpins other achievements associated with adulthood including living with a life partner, home ownership and parenthood. In a sense, young people become ‘stuck in transition’ unable to fulfil their aspirations for a family life in a comfortable home that they ‘own’ (Bessant et al. 2017).

Another dimension that complicates transitions into adulthood is an increasing reliance on migration to achieve employment. Although migration from rural to urban areas for education and employment opportunities has a long history, the acceleration of globalisation in recent decades has exacerbated migration from countries in the Global South to countries in the Global North. Migration for employment does not always facilitate citizenship in the host country and thus, migrant workers are not necessarily provided with any certainty, exacerbating the complexities of transitioning into adulthood away from their families and support networks.

The Research Handbook on Transitions into Adulthood (Chesters 2024) provides a comprehensive overview of how young people across the world experience their journey to financial and emotional independence during an increasingly precarious time.

• Bessant, R. Farthing and R. Watts (2017), The Precarious Generation: A Political Economy of Young People. London: Routledge.
• Wyn, J., Cahill, H., Woodman, D., Cuervo, H., Leccardi, C. and Chesters, J. (eds.) Youth and the New Adulthood: Generations of Change. Springer

Research Handbook on Transitions into Adulthood
Edited by Jenny Chesters is available now. A sample chapter is available on Elgaronline.