Unit 3.2 Family, Friendship & Love in Adulthood – Comprehensive Study Notes

Emerging Adulthood (Arnett)
- Spans approximately $18$ – $25$ years; bridges adolescence and full adulthood.
- Hallmarks: experimentation, exploration, and rapid change.
- Five key features (empirically grounded; connect to Erikson’s "Identity vs. Role Confusion"):
- Identity exploration in love & work ⇒ solidifies vocational self-concept and partner preferences.
- Instability across residence, romance, career, education ⇒ normative, not pathological.
- Self-focus (few obligatory roles) ⇒ developmental window for autonomy-building.
- Feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood ⇒ reflected in fluctuating self-categorization in surveys.
- Age of possibilities: high optimism; chance to “rewrite” life narrative.
Common U.S. markers of adulthood
- Holding a full-time job.
- Achieving economic independence (often nonlinear; boomerang patterns).
- Taking personal responsibility & emotional self-regulation.
- Marriage and/or parenting (less universal today).
Ethical/Practical implication: Policy interventions (e.g., extended health coverage to $26$ ) acknowledge this liminal phase.

Continuity hypothesis: Early caregiver bonds forecast adult relational patterns.
Secure attachment (≈ $60$ – $80\%$ self-reported)
- Comfortable with closeness; view partner as safe haven.
- High trust, commitment, relationship longevity.
Avoidant attachment
- Hesitant intimacy; emotional distance; prefer self-reliance.
- Lower desire for companionship when alone.
Anxious (preoccupied) attachment
- High need for closeness; jealousy, possessiveness, heightened social anxiety.
Insecure patterns correlate with depression, anxiety, risky sexual behavior ⇒ therapeutic focus on internal working models.

Familiarity (Mere Exposure Effect): Repeated exposure ↑ liking (robust across objects & persons).
Similarity (Homophily): Shared attitudes, values, personalities → attraction in friends & partners; key for long-term stability.
Assortative Mating: People pair with similar physical attractiveness → maintains perceived equity.
Sex-specific mating strategies (evolutionary lens)
- Men allocate more effort to short-term mating; mean desired lifetime partners $\approx 18$ vs. women $\approx 4$ – $5$ .
- Male preference: fertility cues; Female preference: resource provisioning (ties to parental investment theory).

Three core components:
- Passion: physical/sexual arousal.
- Intimacy: emotional closeness & mutual knowledge.
- Commitment: cognitive decision to remain.
Combinatorial love types:
- Consummate Love = Passion + Intimacy + Commitment (ideal; most stable).
- Romantic Love = Passion + Intimacy (common in dating YA; commitment pending).
- Fatuous Love = Passion + Commitment ("whirlwind weddings").
- Affectionate/Companionate Love = Intimacy + Commitment (friend-spouse).
- Empty Love, Infatuation, Liking complete matrix.
Developmental trajectory
- YA unions often start as romantic love with high infatuation & jealousy.
- Over time, passion may wane; couples transition to affectionate/companionate love or disengage.

Shift toward companionate/affectionate love—security, loyalty, mutual interests.
Many marriages report ↑ satisfaction vs. early adulthood (EA) due to financial stability & shared activities.
Gray divorce phenomenon: divorce rate ↑ among MA; $\approx 60\%$ initiated by women.
- Risk factors: financial strain, shorter marital duration, low intimacy.

Constitute $31\%$ of U.S. adults (2020); $41\%$ of singles aged $18$ – $29$ .
$\approx 40\%$ of dating singles meet partners online.
Millennials: $48\%$ more likely to have sex before first date; simultaneously prioritize commitment.
Challenges: intimacy formation, societal bias, single-income finances.
Assets: autonomy, decision latitude, privacy, exploration.

Rates: $9\%$ ( $18$ – $24$ ); $15\%$ ( $25$ – $34$ ) in $2018$ .
Motives: time together, cost-sharing, trial marriage.
Outcomes: lower later marital satisfaction, higher divorce odds, financial hardship; easier entry, harder exit.

Half of U.S. adults married (2017); median first-marriage age $30$ (men), $28$ (women).
Average U.S. marriage length > $9$ years.
Benefits of high-quality marriage: longevity, better physical & mental health; divorce linked to suicide risk & cardiac issues.

U.S. rate ≈ $15$ / $1000$ marriages (2019).
Predictors: young age, low education/income, premarital birth, parental divorce.
Remarriage: men nearly $2\times$ more likely; occurs sooner for initiator; more unstable, but can relieve loneliness & improve finances despite ↑ depression & parenting stress.

Growing emotional salience; friendships shift from convenience to emotional support.
Personality stabilizes (ages $20$ – $30$ ) → deeper, enduring bonds.
Shared stressors (college, careers, parenting) strengthen ties.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: limited time horizon → prioritize emotionally rewarding relationships.
Older adults prune networks, maintain close friends; report fewer conflicts, higher satisfaction, better health & longevity.

Communication: women favor rapport talk (connection); men favor report talk (information).
Relational values: women nurture broad emotional ties; men’s friendships activity-based, less self-disclosure.
Cross-gender friendships ↑ since childhood; give men outlets for self-expression.

Rising maternal age: first birth average $27$ (CDC $2017$ ); $2016$ marked more births to $30s$ than $20s$ women.
- Consequences: fewer children, extended career time, ↑ paternal involvement, reliance on childcare.
- Early parenthood: more energy, fewer health risks; later parenthood: career/financial maturity.

Empty Nest Syndrome: potential drop in marital satisfaction when children leave; majority experience rebound via quality couple time.
Boomerang Children: nest refills; negotiate privacy & roles to reduce conflict.
Intergenerational Sandwich: middle-agers support both offspring & aging parents; ambivalent ties—love and stress coexist.

$80\%$ of elders have living children; daughters more involved than sons.
Adult children coordinate services and monitor well-being.
Grandparenting: fosters generativity; women more involved.
- $10\%$ of U.S. children (2014) raised by grandparents; drivers include parental divorce, teen pregnancy, substance abuse.
- Custodial grandparenting linked to health, financial, and emotional strain.