Transitions to Adulthood: What We Can Learn from the West

This article explores the lessons of family change in the West for emerging patterns of change in East and Southeast Asia, especially for the transition to adulthood. This passage has become more protracted and less predictable in Western nations. There is also a great deal of variation in the patterning of the adult transition in different nations in Europe and the Anglo-speaking nations. I identify some of the reasons for this variation—economic, cultural, and institutional—that account for the varied regimes of early adulthood and speculate how they may impact different Asian countries, owing to historical, cultural, and institutional patterns.