Jeff: Today the criteria are more individualistic and gradual, specifically these 3: accepting responsibility for yourself, making independent decisions, and becoming financially independent. I've been amazed by how the same 3 criteria have come out on top in over a dozen studies by me and others, in every American social class and ethnic group, and in countries all over the world. And it's not just emerging adults who place these 3 criteria on top, it's also adolescents and young and middle adults. Where the heck did marriage go, and finishing your education, and turning 18 or 21? My interpretation is that these old-fashioned criteria are all social criteria that can be measured and judged by others. I think in today's individualistic world, emerging adults like to make their own judgments about whether they have reached adulthood-or not.

Bella: In the first chapter of your book, Emerging Adulthood, you caution that emerging adulthood is NOT the same as late adolescence, young adulthood, transition to adulthood, or youth. Can you explain what emerging adulthood really is?

Jeff: I don't think it's just "late adolescence," because they are not going through puberty, they're not in high school, and most don't live in their parents' household. I don't think "young adulthood" fits because they haven't entered the roles that we associate with adulthood, such as stable work and (for many but not all) marriage and parenthood, and most are not financially independent. I don't think "the transition to adulthood" works because it lasts so long. Ten years seems a bit long for a "transition" to adulthood. And "youth" is the worst of all, because it has been applied to people from age 6 to 40, so it doesn't have a clear meaning. This is really a new life stage, so it needs a new name. Never in human history have we had such a long gap between the time people reach the end of puberty and the time they feel fully adult and have taken on the full range of adult responsibilities. I've found "emerging adulthood" resonates well with many of the people who are in this age period now. It describes their sense of being on the way to adulthood but not there yet.

So what is "emerging adulthood"? It's a period of making your way gradually toward constructing an adult life, in love and work. In my book I describe emerging adulthood has having 5 features that make it distinct: it's the age of identity explorations, the age of instability, the self-focused age, the age of feeling in-between, and the age of possibilities. These features don't necessarily start or end in emerging adulthood, but I think that's when they're most prominent.

Bella: This is a blog about singles, so I'm interested in how you see singles in relation to emerging adulthood. On the one hand, you say marriage is not an important criterion for adulthood, but on the other, you use marriage as one of the "adult roles" that mark the end of emerging adulthood and the beginning of young adulthood.

Jeff: I think young people today reach adulthood according to the 3 subjective, individualistic criteria I described above, then they may or may not marry and become parents. Most people-about 75% of Americans-marry and become parents by age 30, but I think the subjective criteria are more important for marking the end of emerging adulthood and the beginning of young adulthood. As you've described so well, there are still lots of prejudices against singles, especially after age 30, this sniggering sense that they never really grow up, but I don't think that's true.

Bella: One of my missions in researching and writing about singles is to separate the stereotypes and myths from the truths. One relatively new claim is that people today experience a "quarterlife crisis." Can you explain what is meant by that term and where you think it falls on the myth vs truth dimension?

Jeff: I think you've done great work combating the stereotypes about singles, in "Singled Out" and in your blog. I've tried to do the same for emerging adults. It's amazing to me how many unflattering myths there are about them-they're lazy, they're selfish, they're miserable, they're depraved. I've found them to be quite wonderful in my interviews, by and large. I love their energy and their optimism. They are far less sexist, racist, and homophobic than their parents or grandparents were, national surveys show this. They also do far more volunteer work, in organizations like the Peace Corps and Teach for America. And they are more aware of the suffering of people in the rest of the world than young people ever were before, and more determined to do something about it. So, I think we should be celebrating them instead of tearing them down.

I do think there is something to the "quarterlife crisis" claim, although it has been exaggerated. Few of them are quivering masses of anxieties, but most of them experience stress in emerging adulthood, because they are dealing with the identity issues of who they are and what kind of adult life they want to make for themselves, and because most have no money. But their sense of stress coexists with their high hopes. They struggle in emerging adulthood, most of them, but nearly all of them believe life is going to smile on them eventually. That's why I call it "the age of possibilities." I find it touching to hear them talk about their high hopes, because I know that life's smiles are granted a lot more sparingly than they realize.

Bella: Jeff, the first time I knew I just had to get your insights represented in this blog was when I saw a review of a new book called Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. I have to confess that before I read even a word of the review or the book, I had a bad feeling about it. That was because of a giant picture that was printed along with the review. It showed a gathering of shapely, attractive, bikini-clad young women, holding drinks and frolicking in a pool with their male counterparts, one of whom was pumping a fist. Talk about stereotypes! Plus, to make it even worse, the caption said that this "never-ending party" was, for some, the "new normal for guys." Now I know better than to believe everything I read, so this could have been a matter of a reporter getting it wrong. Since you've read the book, and your academic expertise on these matters is probably unparalleled, why don't you tell us what you think of it.