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The End of Adolescence

The End of Adolescence

The Lost Art of Delaying Adulthood

Nancy E. Hill, Alexis Redding

ISBN 9780674916500

Publication date: 03/23/2021

Is Gen Z resistant to growing up? A leading developmental psychologist and an expert in the college student experience debunk this stereotype and explain how we can better support young adults as they make the transition from adolescence to the rest of their lives.

Experts and the general public are convinced that young people today are trapped in an extended adolescence—coddled, unaccountable, and more reluctant to take on adult responsibilities than previous generations. Nancy Hill and Alexis Redding argue that what is perceived as stalled development is in fact typical. Those reprimanding today’s youth have forgotten that they once balked at the transition to adulthood themselves.

From an abandoned archive of recordings of college students from half a century ago, Hill and Redding discovered that there is nothing new about feeling insecure, questioning identities, and struggling to find purpose. Like many of today’s young adults, those of two generations ago also felt isolated and anxious that the path to success felt fearfully narrow. This earlier cohort, too, worried about whether they could make it on their own.

Yet, among today’s young adults, these developmentally appropriate struggles are seen as evidence of immaturity. If society adopts this jaundiced perspective, it will fail in its mission to prepare young adults for citizenship, family life, and work. Instead, Hill and Redding offer an alternative view of delaying adulthood and identify the benefits of taking additional time to construct a meaningful future. When adults set aside judgment, there is a lot they can do to ensure that young adults get the same developmental chances they had.

Praise

  • Professors Hill and Redding convincingly dismiss the widely held view that contemporary young people are fundamentally different from their counterparts who came of age a half-century ago. The End of Adolescence reminds us that the essential psychological challenges inherent in becoming an adult in today’s society—and the supports that adolescents need to make this transition successfully—are not all that dissimilar from what they were in past generations. Scholars and students of adolescence should read this thoughtful book.

    —Laurence Steinberg, author of Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence

Authors

  • Nancy E. Hill is the Charles Bigelow Professor of Education at Harvard University, an expert in adolescent development, and the President-elect of the Society for Research in Child Development. She is the 2019 recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Ernest R. Hilgard Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology.
  • Alexis Redding is the Faculty Co-Chair of Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is an expert in the college experience and teaches graduate courses in college student development and student affairs. In addition to her higher education research, she has counseled students in both the United States and Europe for more than two decades.

Book Details

  • 232 pages
  • 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
  • Harvard University Press

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