A young adult is any person who has left adolescence behind and has not yet entered middle or middle adulthood. The ages at which a person is considered to be in this stage vary from one author to another; however, they are usually between the ages of 19 and 40.
This stage is one of the longest in people's lives, and also one of the ones that includes the most changes; therefore, its study is essential to understand the difficulties characteristic of young adults. However, until very recent times, developmental psychology had neglected this sector of the population.
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Fortunately, in recent decades there has been an increasing emphasis on understanding the characteristics of people between the ages of 19 and 40. There is also a greater interest in understanding what changes occur at this stage; thus, the hope is that we can better help people in this sector of the population.
In this article we will study the most important characteristics of young adults, as well as various aspects related to the challenges they face due to their specific age range.
Physical and psychological characteristics
As people enter young adulthood, they have already left the primary developmental process behind. Therefore, her physical and cognitive abilities are fully developed.
Body
In the physical sphere, the young people of this stage are at the peak of their physical capacities. Muscle strength and endurance is the highest in our entire life, and other factors, such as sensory abilities, reaction time, or heart health are also at their highest.
On the other hand, it is at this time when people show they have a greater energy; therefore, most professional athletes are within this age range.
Also, this higher level of energy (caused in part by higher testosterone levels) leads young people to explore and engage in more risky behaviors.
Towards the end of this stage, the body begins to slowly age. At first the changes are hardly noticeable, but the closer the person approaches middle adulthood, the more evident they are.
For example, vision may lose some sensitivity, hair may begin to fall out, and the immune system may be less able to cope with certain diseases.
Mind
During young adulthood, mental capacities begin to stabilize; some experts believe that they peak around 35 years of age. At this time, relative thinking usually appears, a characteristic that is not generally present in childhood.
Because of this, young adults realize that things are not always black or white. Therefore, they begin to look at each problem from different perspectives, and to understand that there is not always a single clear answer. Thus, critical reflection is especially important in this age.
On the other hand, at this stage the development of pragmatism is necessary. During childhood and adolescence, the person hardly had to face serious problems in the real world.
However, the need for increasing independence causes young adults to need to find ways to meet their goals, even when they don't know everything or don't have a good plan of action.
Finally, during young adulthood, people can reach the level of expert in their area of expertise. This encourages other characteristics like creativity, problem solving, and even self-esteem.
Physiological changes
The body of young adults is at its peak of development. In the evolutionary realm, humans are not prepared to survive much beyond this stage; therefore, all of our systems are at full capacity between the ages of 19 and 40 to ensure that we make the most of our time on the planet.
So, for example, both men and women have higher levels of testosterone at this stage. In this way, their physical strength is greater, they have more energy and they carry out all kinds of activities that later in life are considered too risky.
Also, since fertility is also higher at this time, young adults tend to feel higher levels of sexual desire before the age of 40.
During this stage, instead of seeking the stability of a family, it is common for people to want to have as many partners as possible; however, this trend begins to decline around 30-35 years.
From the middle of this cycle, physical capacities begin to diminish imperceptibly. You begin to lose bone density and muscle mass, and it is becoming easier to accumulate fat in the body. On the other hand, elements such as the immune system or the senses begin to function less effectively.
Sexuality
Sexuality is one of the most important areas in people's lives, and this becomes especially true during young adulthood.
At this time, due to increased fertility and consequent increase in sex hormones, most individuals have a much higher sex drive than their older counterparts.
This has several implications. On the one hand, the search for a greater number of sexual partners and frequency in relationships is favored. On the other hand, the desire to have children begins to appear around the age of 30-35, so it is necessary to combine both impulses in the best possible way.
The way in which sexuality is expressed in this age varies enormously from culture to culture. Thus, in more conservative settings, people early in their young adulthood tend to form stable partners and start a family, while those living in liberal settings tend to postpone these events until later.
Finally, for non-heterosexual people, young adulthood is often the time when they really begin to truly enjoy their sexuality.
This can be due to many factors, some of the most important being the obtaining of independence on the part of the family, and the acceptance of the homosexual or bisexual condition.
References
- "Early adulthood development psychology" in: All Psychology Careers. Retrieved on: July 05, 2018 from All Psychology Careers: allpsychologycareers.com.
- "Early and Middle Adulthood" in: Lumen Learning. Retrieved on: July 05, 2018 from Lumen Learning: courses.lumenlearning.com.
- "Young Adult Issues" in: Good Therapy. Retrieved on: July 05, 2018 from Good Therapy: goodtherapy.org.
- "Young adulthood" in: Science Direct. Retrieved on: July 05, 2018 from Science Direct: sciencedirect.com.
- "Young adult (psychology)" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: July 05, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.