Jeffrey J. Arnett’s Concept of Emerging Adulthood as an Extended Liminal Phase of the Rite of Passage

The article includes a comparison of the developmental stage spreading between adolescence and early adulthood recently called after Jeffrey J. Arnette (2004, 2007) the emerging adulthood, to the liminal phase of the rite of passage first enunciated by Arnold van Gennep (1909/2006) and Victor Turner (2005). According to the formulated thesis it is stated that the stage of emerging adulthood, treated in contemporary western psychology as a new developmental stage, characteristic for hi-tech societies, is a far and residual equivalent of the liminal (marginal) phase of the rite of passage, in its extended form. Both the society of participants of this ritual in its liminal phase, called by Turner communitas, and the society of young people entering adulthood, are characterised mainly by the feeling of “being in-between”. Both those social groups have left behind the previous stage, yet not reached the new one. After presenting the concept of the rite of passage consisting of three phases, together with the idea of liminality linked to it, the contemporary phenomenon of extending the psychosocial moratorium and the concept of Arnette’s emerging adulthood, there is an analysis of the similarities and differences between the liminal phase and the stage of emerging adulthood. The latter of the phenomena is closely linked to the specificity of western culture (such as degradation and disappearance of rites of passage in their traditional forms, orientation towards consumption and hedonism), and seems to have its source in the psychic qualities of young people such as i.e. the lack of readiness to take up the responsibility for others and to take care of them.

Jeffrey J. Arnett’s Concept of Emerging Adulthood as an Extended Liminal Phase of the Rite of Passage

The article includes a comparison of the developmental stage spreading between adolescence and early adulthood recently called after Jeffrey J. Arnette (2004, 2007) the emerging adulthood, to the liminal phase of the rite of passage first enunciated by Arnold van Gennep (1909/2006) and Victor Turner (2005). According to the formulated thesis it is stated that the stage of emerging adulthood, treated in contemporary western psychology as a new developmental stage, characteristic for hi-tech societies, is a far and residual equivalent of the liminal (marginal) phase of the rite of passage, in its extended form. Both the society of participants of this ritual in its liminal phase, called by Turner communitas, and the society of young people entering adulthood, are characterised mainly by the feeling of “being in-between”. Both those social groups have left behind the previous stage, yet not reached the new one. After presenting the concept of the rite of passage consisting of three phases, together with the idea of liminality linked to it, the contemporary phenomenon of extending the psychosocial moratorium and the concept of Arnette’s emerging adulthood, there is an analysis of the similarities and differences between the liminal phase and the stage of emerging adulthood. The latter of the phenomena is closely linked to the specificity of western culture (such as degradation and disappearance of rites of passage in their traditional forms, orientation towards consumption and hedonism), and seems to have its source in the psychic qualities of young people such as i.e. the lack of readiness to take up the responsibility for others and to take care of them.