Young Adult Development At The School To Work Transition

The school-to-work transition is a critical part of the human life-span for young adults, their families, and society. The timing of the transition varies greatly and its co-occurrence with a number of other life transitions make it challenging to summarize or generalize. Individual differences and normative developmental factors, as well as external contextual factors such as global pandemics, changing economic circumstances, workplace demands, and cultural shifts, intersect to create a range of challenges and opportunities for those navigating this transition. Written by internationally renowned scholars in developmental psychology, applied psychology, counseling, and sociology, the chapters in this book highlight the trends, issues, and actions that researchers, academics, practitioners, and policy makers need to consider in order to effectively support young adults' transition to work pathways. This volume provides an explicitly international perspective on this area, broad coverage of psychological topics on the school-to-work transition, and an inclusive focus on sub-groups and minority groups, making it a must-read for those who support young adults as they move from school to work.

In recent decades, the lives of people in their late teens and twenties have changed so dramatically that a new stage of life has developed. In an original paper published in 2000, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett identified this period, coining it "emerging adulthood," and he distinguished it from both the adolescence that precedes it and the young adulthood that comes in its wake. His new paradigm received a surge of scholarly attention after his first book on the topic launched the field, and both a flourishing society and journal developed to further expand this area of research. Studies and publications on emerging adulthood now abound, and the leading research has yet to be organized into a single handbook that covers the field. The Oxford Handbook of Emerging Adulthood is the first and only comprehensive compilation spanning the field of emerging adulthood. Expertly edited by Arnett, this Handbook is comprised of cutting-edge chapters written by leading scholars in developmental psychology. Topics include theoretical perspectives and structural influences in the field; cognitive development during emerging adulthood; family, friendship, and romantic relationships; sexual identity and orientation; education and work; leisure and media use; mental health; religious and political beliefs; positive development; and substance abuse and crime, to name a few. Sure to be the definitive resource for researchers, scholars, and students studying emerging adulthood, this Handbook will pave the way for new scholarship in this expanding area of inquiry and serve as an excellent resource for the wider field of developmental psychology.

"A practical, proven guide to creating individualized, person-centered work experiences for youth with disabilities"--

The transition to adulthood involves, for most individuals, moving from school to work, establishment of long-term relationships, possibly parenting, and a number of other psychosocial transformations. Now more than ever, there is a concern within popular and research literature about children growing up too soon or too late or failing to realize changes associated with being adult. With this in mind, the book intends to answer a series of timely questions in regard to transition to adulthood and propose a wholly new approach to counseling that enables youth to engage fully in their lives and achieve their best. Active Transition to Adulthood: A New Approach for Counseling will discuss the authors’ work on the transition to adulthood (including early and late adolescence) from an entirely innovative perspective – action theory. Over a period of 10-15 years the authors have collected substantial data on adolescents and youth in transition, and will present an approach to counseling based on these data and cases. The action theory perspective in which the authors have grounded their work addresses the intentional, goal-directed behavior of persons and groups that is expressed through particular actions, longer-term projects, and life-encompassing careers. In this book, both transition to adulthood and counseling will be covered in the language of goal-directed action. In this way both transition and counseling reflect and capture the action, projects, and careers in which families, youth, and clients are engaged and use to construct on-going identity and other narratives.