Race, Nativity and Gender Differences in "Emerging Adulthood" during the 20th Century

Elizabeth Fussell, Tulane University

This paper explores changes in the timing of transitions into adult statuses in the United States over the course of the 20th century for native-born black and white and foreign-born men and women. The process of transition to adulthood has reached an unprecedented duration that some social scientists studying the life course have called, emerging adulthood (Arnett 2000; Furstenberg 2000). During emerging adulthood, individuals refrain from entering into family roles and instead invest in human capital and personal development. To examine evidence of the emergence of this new life-stage among race, nativity and gender groups, we built a database of synthetic cohorts from the twentieth century U.S. censuses, extracted from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), and the 2000 CPS. In doing so we examine differences between cohorts and groups in early life course experiences, particularly focusing on patterns of and delays in family formation.