Talk:Young adult

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 13 September 2021 and 13 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Emilymweyenberg.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 05:21, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Fixes

The lead needs to be made into more of a introduction rather than just a definition of what young adult it. I would also consider changing the title of the article to early adulthood as this seems to be a better fit for what the article is really about. The article needs to have a lot more references and the references it has need to have links that give people access to that reference. Peterhniceler (talk) 02:56, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Changed 'deficits' to 'overdrafts'

Changed 'deficits' to 'overdrafts' as I feel this is a more appropriate word for what was trying to be got across, and deficit just linked to a page of government defecits. JiMternet 13:44, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Disambiguation needed?

It looks like, without discussion, citation, etc., this has been turned from a stub article about people "in the transition from a teenager to an adult… informally considered to encompass the period from age 16 to age 25" to medium-sized (but unsourced) article about people "between the ages of 20 and 40". These are two different topics. My guess is that most incoming links are now wrong in terms of the material here. I'm also pretty dubious on anyone using the term "young adult" to refer to someone as old as 40, and somewhat dubious past 30. After all, in the not-so-distant past, life expectancies weren't much more than 40. Is there a citation for extending the term this far? Certainly the 16-25 usage is easily citable from the extensive citations in Young adult literature.

If these two rather different usages are really both current, we need a disambiguation and two separate pages, probably Young adult (16-25) and Young adult (20-40), because these are two somewhat overlapping but rather different phases of life. -- Jmabel | Talk 18:48, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

You're right, this is currently very confusing. But perhaps Young adult (literature) and Young adult (psychology) is a better disambiguation, what do you say? --Woggly 22:13, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Excellent choices. -- Jmabel | Talk 05:46, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

So I've turned this page into a disambiguation page, and started going through the links and sorting them, but it's tiresome work. It looks like most references are to young adult literature, or simply to teenagers. --Woggly 07:09, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Quote: "I'm also pretty dubious on anyone using the term "young adult" to refer to someone as old as 40, and somewhat dubious past 30"

This is nothing more than your opinion, and not based on facts. Is a 31-year-old "middle aged"?!?! I didn't think so, either! {{subst:88.108.46.207|15 August 2006}}

No, it's not just my opinion. What I'm saying is that no one has brought forward a decent citation of the term being used that way. Certainly a 31-year-old is not "middle aged". That is a straw man. - Jmabel | Talk 01:33, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I know that the above talk is old, but something tells me that the person who started it is 18 years old. The Young Adult section was gathered from facts and agreed upon and cited with reliable sources. Young adult is 20-40. Yes, thirty was old at one time in life. Heck in the medeival era, many people were lucky to make it to adulthood, but we are in 2010 guys.70.178.26.108 (talk) 06:16, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

oh and 40 was the average lifespan centuries ago. The average lifespan is now 78 in the United States. 30 is very young these days.Bjoh249 (talk) 10:33, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Please don't merge or erase distinctions

There is a reason that psychology and human development are listed seperately on this page. Doctors and psychologists tend to use the term "young adult" to refer to slightly different age groups. This page is a disambiguation page, the point of this page is to clarify distinctions, not to blur them. --Woggly 09:20, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Marriage Partner

I notice that 'choice of marriage partner' has been changed to 'choice of marraige partner if married'. I don't think people who are married should go around choosing marriage partners. In addition, marriage is no longer an all-encompassing term, so I've changed it to 'choice of life partner' which I feel more accurately reflects modern society. JiMternet 12:34, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

-a middle aged person is a person between adulthood and senior citizen which should be noted on here as starting at the age of 55 because senior citizen benefits &housing are given to 55yr olds. middle age should be redifined as 33-54 as well because a 21yr old doesn't have the same mindset or objectives in life as a 39yr old.

please provide some more information besides of your personal opinion. -- tasc ^talk_deeds 15:37, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard the term middle-aged used for someone as young as 33. Even 39 is pushing it. - Jmabel | Talk 00:00, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

The life expectancy in men is 75, so technically, middle age is between 25 and 50. See chart below:

|00|01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25 Young

|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|45|46|47|48|49 Middle aged

|50|51|52|53|54|55|56|57|58|59|60|61|62|63|64|65|66|67|68|69|70|71|72|73|74|75 Old

Gm1121983 21:41, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

This is simply not how the term is used. - Jmabel | Talk 21:35, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

But Cedric has a point. According to what his dad said, 25-50 is middle aged, and 50-75 is 'old'. He said it would be a miracle if he made it past 75. Cedric's dad is going to turn 50 this year, isn't that right, Cedric? Mr. Conrad 12:57, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, he will turn 50 on November 19. Gm1121983 12:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

The average life expectancy is now 80 in the United States according to wikipedia itself. There are many more developed countries in the world that have even higher life expectancies than that. That puts 40 as a fair beginning of middle age overall. 70.178.26.108 (talk) 22:28, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Women

The "women" section is very thin and only touches the issue of bearing children. Perhaps it could be expanded?

Similarly, I think the section on "women" could be expanded to include cultural differences on topics such as marriage, childbirth, and women in the workforce.157.201.96.100 (talk) 19:39, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Young adulthood

The category for young adults in psychology is 19-40. The term can also be used for adults that aren't quite fully developed, which in this case, the age group is 18-25. The category for adolescents is 13-17. The age group 26-54 refers to adults who have the experience to figure out life, but not old enough to be a senior citizen. A person who's 55 or older is a senior citizen. —Bill Conrad 17:46, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Which to use for young adult and adolescent?

The source in the article titled as Erik Erikson's page says that a young adult is generally a person between the ages of 19 and 40, whereas an adolescent is a person between the ages of 12 and 18. Yet the sources that Tbo 157 added say that Erik Erikson actually means a young adult is generally a person between the ages of 20 and 40, whereas an adolescent is a person between the ages of 13 and 19.[1][2] I do not doubt the sources Tbo 157 has provided, but is the Erik Erikson page in this article not his page? And wouldn't his page be correct about his thoughts? If his page is not even correct about this, then why are we using it in this article? Flyer22 (talk) 22:50, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Considering Erikson is dead, I don't see how that can be "his" page. Powers ^T 23:56, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

LOL. I know what you mean. That is part of the reason I am questioning its use in this article. The other and main part is due to it apparently being wrong about what I mentioned above, and likely being an unreliable source. Flyer22 (talk) 00:00, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

The way the reference is formatted in the article, it says that it is from Martin Briner's site about learning theories, USMA Department of Mathematical Sciences, Center for Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), United States Military Academy at West Point. Flyer22 (talk) 00:11, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi all. I've had a look at a a few sources and yes they do vary. Generally psychology textbooks say that an adolescent is between 13 and 19. I think the only way to see which is actually correct is by getting hold of the original source -i.e. what was written by Erikson himself. Thanks. Tbo ¹⁵⁷(talk) 11:14, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

If you have a look at this source [3], it references "Erik H. Erikson, GROWTH AND CRISIS in, Theories of Psychopathology and Personality Edited by Theodore Millon (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1973) Pages 136-156." Tbo ¹⁵⁷(talk) 16:24, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, Tbo, for weighing in on this matter and explaining. Yes, I am aware that psychology textbooks generally list that an adolescent is between 13 and 19; I was just a little perplexed by this specific matter. Flyer22 (talk) 22:42, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

No problem. I agree, it is confusing. The boundary between adolescence and adulthood is very blurred and can vary greatly, anywhere from 16 to 21, but regarding Erikson's theory, Im pretty confident that its 13-19. However do feel free to say if you find something else in another source. Tbo ¹⁵⁷(talk) 18:56, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Why does this page constantly reference a model created in 1950?

This page constantly references Erik Erikson and his book, which was written in 1950. His stages of psychosocial development already have a wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_stages_of_psychosocial_development) and his definition is very narrow. 18-year-olds are in most places considered adults, despite the fact that they are still developing (as are 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24-year-olds in terms of brain development). The Massachusett's Institute of Technology considers young adulthood to be the between 18-22/25 (http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/youngadult/changes.html), for example. 194.144.70.200 (talk) 17:13, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

No way 40 is middle age

Middle age begins between 50 and 55 now, because everyone is living to be 100 now, so 55 is the real start of middle age, not 40!76.253.50.238 (talk) 04:20, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

We go by what the WP:Reliable sources state. And those sources give different age ranges for being middle-aged, with age 40 and higher often being an age range that is given for that, as also addressed in the Middle age article. And the Young adult (psychology) article is already clear that "young adult" can mean someone who is 40, or ages 40-45, as well. Flyer22 (talk) 04:28, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Also, it's quite obvious that not "everyone is living to be 100"; people dying in their 80s of natural causes is still very common. Flyer22 (talk) 04:32, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Midlife has nothing to do with how long people are living. It is a physical, mental, and emotional phase of development that occurs between young adulthood and old age. In other words, it means "middle of adulthood", not "middle of your life", and is probably better described as "middle adulthood" rather than "midlife" (which varies for each individual).

If we're going to go by what reliable sources say, then the majority of them define midlife as between the ages of 45-65. This would include the American Psychiatric Association, the US Census, most medical research, even the Oxford Dictionary. See the Middle age article for some sources, and I will provide more on request.

The idea that midlife starts at 40 is a fringe view at best. And while starting it at 40 is widely viewed as too early, starting it at 50 is a bit too late. The dominant view is 45-65, and this article should reflect that. So, I will support revising it up to 45, but not 50.Jonathan f1 (talk) 07:06, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

I wouldn't call 40 for the middle age time frame fringe; see WP:Fringe. Like this Encyclopædia Britannica Online source states, "Though the age period that defines middle age is somewhat arbitrary, differing greatly from person to person, it is generally defined as being between the ages of 40 and 60." But it is true that 45-65 (or 45-64), rather than 40 and upward, is the more common age range given in sources for middle age. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 05:53, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

In this day in age considering 40 middle-aged is fringe.2600:1700:EDC0:3E80:E15D:2FDF:8E13:CD0B (talk) 06:49, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

Spoken like a 40 year old middle-aged fart. 40 and upward is much more common. The only place where 45-64 holds dominant are Oxford and Merriam. While they're major dictionaries, a lot of other major dictionaries suggest 40-60 and more medical dictionaries support 40-60, therefore they are probably better for the consensus. Schwarbage (talk) 07:28, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

"starting it at 40 is widely viewed as too early"

According to.... who? Only 40-44 year olds who do not want to accept middle age. Most people die in their 80s, most definitions include 40 and upwards. 30 would be 'way too young'. Schwarbage (talk) 07:34, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

You need to stop editing age-related articles. You don't have consensus and you're a rather odd individual with emotional issues about certain ages. Jonathan f1 (talk) 05:16, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

I've provided plenty of consensus which is why the edits are kept, so I see no reason to stop. I'm not seeing your issue. Schwarbage (talk) 09:05, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

Theories of Adult Development Section are Mostly Useless/Fringe

Should be simplified. They are outdated sections of the article that don't really go well with the middle/older adulthood articles, they're remnants that have gone barely changed for years. Schwarbage (talk) 12:16, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Developmental Psychology

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 February 2023 and 12 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nufinder (article contribs). Peer reviewers: MAC2147740.

— Assignment last updated by Explorepsych (talk) 19:58, 12 April 2023 (UTC)