Emerging Adulthood Theory and Social Class
Emerging adulthood theory (EAT) has gained wide support in the social sciences over the past 15 years despite critical comments also being voiced. This contribution positions EAT within the main European traditions of theories about change in the lives of young people. It shows that EAT has antecedents in many of these theories, but without taking social class as thoroughly into account as it should. This is demonstrated by reanalyzing a US survey and by, albeit indirectly, referring to a European project that established a typology on educational disadvantage based on a multilayered methodology. The chapter encourages increasing cooperation between scholars in the field of youth studies in order to both overcome disciplinary rigidity and discourage a naïve reliance on interdisciplinarity as remedy for all problems.