Young Adulthood

(20-40 years)
Age alone is not a good criterion for
determining when young adulthood
begins. Maturity has been identified as the
major criterion of young adulthood.
Behaviors that reflect maturity are:
1. A sense of responsibility: The person can
be relied upon to carry out a defined
role.
2. Adequate impulse control: Impulse can
be channeled into constructive behavior.
3. Tolerance of frustration: Confident of
ability to deal with stress & can sacrifice
immediate pleasure for long term gain.
4. Ability to plan: Able to look to the future
& set goal & implement plans.
5. Ability to accept differences in others:
Has respect for individuality.
6. Capacity for intimacy: Has the ability to
trust another human being & share life
with others.
7. Movement toward development of own
potential: Has confidence in self & can
reach out & take risks.
Developmental Tasks of Early
Adulthood:
1. Becoming independent from parent.
2. Family formation.
3. Choosing & beginning a career.
4. Developing a personal style in living.
5. Establishing friendship & social network.
6. Developing parenting behaviors.
7. Accepting civic responsibilities &
becoming citizen & choosing activities in
social & community organizations.
8. Implementing personal values on home,
work & community settings.
Physical Growth in Young Adult:

Young adulthood is the time when the
physical capacity of every system of the
body peaks. Most physiologic function
reach maximum levels during the middle
twenties, there after, decline is so
gradual as to be difficult to detect until
middle age.

The skeletal differences between men &
women are more pronounced during this
range of years than at any other time
during the life span.

Both muscle tone & muscle strength appear o
peak between 20-30 years, after this age there
is a gradual decrease in the power & speed of
muscular contractions.

The women's menstrual cycle is regular &
sexual organs are mature to cope with child
bearing.

The man's sexual maturity reached on
adolescence remains at a peak & sexual urge
remain high throughout this period.

Nutritional needs are for maintains & repair &
not for growth. Therefore, weight control
becomes a problem for many young adults
especially for those who continue to consume
food as they did during adolescent.
Cognitive Development:

The young adult years are time of optimal
cognitive functioning. The individual is engaged
in the establishment of new skills & knowledge.

Cognitive functioning at the level of formal
operations & the capacity for abstract thinking
continue.

There is an excellent ability to acquire & use
knowledge & engage in problem solving.

For many, education continues during the early
years of young adulthood (college) graduate,
school, on the job training & (or continue
education).
Psychosocial Development:
Young adulthood is a time when many difficult
decisions need to made. These decisions will
affect the person for the rest of his life they make
decision for themselves, which influence their
life-style in their future. They must make choices
about: Education, occupation, to marry or remain
single, starting a home, children rearing, forming
new friendships, & assuming certain community
activities. These developmental tasks are also
includes:
1. Breaking away from the family:
This doesn't mean separation, but a
changing in the relationship with the
family. These changes are:
A. External changes: Becoming financially
independent & evolving new roles & living
arrangements.
B. Internal changes: Increasing Psychological
independence.
2. Establishing a sense of intimacy:
Intimacy VS Isolation:

Intimacy is defined as the ability to experience an

open, supportive, tender relationship with another
person without fear of losing one's own identity in
the process.
Establishing intimate relationship is the capacity to
commit oneself to partnership & to develop the
ethical strength by such commitments ever though
they may call for significant sacrifices. Therefore,
the young adult who attains intimacy is manifested
through:

The ability to share personal identity with
another without losing one's own unique
identity. The desired outcome is mutual
satisfaction & support.

Heterosexual marriage relationship
require a mutuality with a loved partner
with whom one is welling & able to share
the cycle of work, family life & recreation.

Inability to resolve conflicts in intimate
relationships results in the "isolation" of
the young adult, which characterized by
competitiveness, distance, egocentricity &
avoidance behaviors.
What help establishment of
intimacy?

Marriage: In general, husbands are more likely than wives to be
satisfied with the amount of empathy and companionship in
their marriages.

Work setting: is another common context for the

establishment of intimacy, affiliation and close friendship
are likely to develop among coworkers. Co-workers may
express devotion to an older leader or teacher. Through
conversations, conferences, or informal interaction co-
workers can achieve an affectionate, playful, and enriching
relationship.

Whether intimate relations are established in the context of
marriage, friendship, or work, the atmosphere of romantic
illusions such as, ''Together we can conquer the world''
often characterizes intimate relationships.
Isolation:
The negative pole of the crisis of early
adulthood is isolation.
As social beings, people have a deep need
for a sense of connection and belonging.
Isolation and the accompanying feeling of
being unable to experience
intersubjectivity or shared meaning, is a
major source of psychological distress.
 The Obstacles to Attainment of an
Intimate Relationship are:
o Some arise from childhood experiences of, shame,
guilt, inferiority, or alienation, which undermine the
achievement of personal identity.
o Others result from incompatibility between partners.
o These obstacles may be embedded in the socialization
process as children learn distinct gender roles that
introduce antagonism between males and females and
foster interpersonal styles that stand in the way of
forming open, caring interpersonal relationships.
o There are some themes that illustrate experiences of
isolation:
Loneliness:
Feeling of loneliness can be separated into
three categories: transient, situational
and chronic.
A. Transient loneliness: lasts a short time
and passes, as when you hear a song or
an expression that reminds you of
someone you love who is far away.
B. Situational loneliness: accompanies a
sudden loss or a move to a new city.
 Chronic loneliness:
C. lasts a long time and cannot be linked to a
specific stressor.
 Chronically lonely people may have an average
number of social contacts, but they do not achieve
the desired level of intimacy in these interactions.
 Many chronically lonely people are highly anxious
about all types of social activities.
 People, who have higher levels of social skills,
including friendliness, communication skills,
appropriate nonverbal behavior, and appropriate
responses to others, have more adequate social
support systems and lower levels of loneliness.
Depression:
o Isolation may be a cause as well as a
consequence of depression.
o For some women, clinical depression
appears to be linked to an orientation
toward intimacy in which the self is
systematically inhibited and devalued.
3. Making commitment to a career
& job satisfaction
One's occupation is the major determinant
of one's level of prestige & amount of
income. Work provides a sense of
personal worth, a level of recognition by
others, a feeling of individuality, growth &
security, it depends upon:

Personality factors abilities &interest
influence vocational choice.

Parenteral encouragement is an important
factor in the choice of career especially if
the parent experiences job satisfaction &
talks about job responsibilities.

The socio-economic status of the family
also tends to influence the young adult
choice of a career i.e. the family's ability to
pay for schooling, the individual desire to
maintain the same socio-economic level as
his parent.

Job satisfaction has been recognized to be
a result of friendly co-workers, interesting
work, a chance to use one's mind, work
results that one's can see, a chance to
develop skills & abilities, career promotion
& good pay.

Satisfaction with job leads to a feeling of
fulfillment, while frustration with work
leads to depression.
4. . Establishing a set of values:

The young adult analyze & evaluate the set of
values that has been internalized through
childhood & adolescence under the direction
of adults.

Most young adult are confused about values.
They are idealistic but they find so many
contradictory values in society. (e.g. they
have been taught to respect law & be honest,
yet they see cheating & stealing).

Many young adult are not in agreement with
the policies & values of the society, they want
to change them & reject the lifestyle imposed
upon them by their elders.
5. . Family Formation:

Marriage & family formation will take time
from the couple to learn to adjust to each
other.

The couple's success in adjustment requires
an openness of communication & a
willingness to learn.

Each spouse must be able to let the other
know what is satisfying & not satisfying. This
process involves mutual respects for the
other's likes & dislikes as well as a
willingness to accommodate to the other's
needs.

Conflicts in marriage are inevitable.
Resoling conflicts depends on the
communication pattern & problem solving
abilities developed by the couples to deal
with the differences between them.

Parenting: the arrival of a child is usually
a happy event in the life of a couple, but it
requires a major re-adjustment to the
family life & couples' role.

The role of the parents is very demanding
& requires changes in relationships in time
commitments within & outside the home.
6. Establishing a social network:

Friends are important as they are sources of
emotional support, stabilizers of self- image &
facilitators of integration with society.

During young adulthood many individuals begin
to establish connections with various organization
in the community e.g. volunteer work, exercise
clubs, social work,

.. According to their
interests & belief system.

These group memberships are providing an
outlet for self-expression. Maintaining a healthy
balance within various group membership & time
for self- orientation is important for young adults.
Moral Development:
Young adult who have mastered the previous
stages of moral development now enter the
postconventional level. The person is able to
separate self form the expectations and
rules of others and to define morality in
terms of personal principles. When an
individual perceives a conflict with society's
rules or laws, he judges according to his
own principles. This type of reasoning is
called principled reasoning. For example, an
individual may intentionally break the law
and join a protest group to stop hunters
from killing wild animals, believing that the
principle of conservation of wildlife justifies
the protest action.
Health Promotion of Young Adult

Health needs of young adult are varies

according to the role played by each
one, in general, the following:
1. Family life education:
A. To build an attitude in young adults as
regard their sexual responsibilities & show
clearly the ethical, moral & religious basis
of sexuality.
B. To enable families to understand the
relation that exists between man & wife &
that between patents & their children.
C. To enable families & young adults to
recognize the health needs (physical,
mental, social & emotional) of human
being at different phases of development.
2. Premarital examination &
genetic counseling:

Premarital examination provides a good

chance for health education, case finding
& provides useful health data about young
adults.
3. Maternity care & parenthood
education:

This care should include antenatal care to

young mothers, natal & postnatal care.
Expectant fathers should join classes for
parenthood education. Health education
classes should also includes topics about
nutritional need during pregnancy,
lactation & antenatal care.
4. Child care education:

This should cover children all through their

development "infancy, preschool, school &
adolescent.
5. Occupational health services:

Occupational health services are required

for young adult entering work force
through health insurance to promote their
health & prevent the occurrence of
diseases.