Emerging Adulthood in Europe: A Response to Bynner

This article focuses on the author's theory of emerging adulthood, with a response to criticism of his theory. The theory of Emerging Adulthood claims that changes over the last half century have dramatically changed what happens in the lives of teenagers and young adults, requiring the application of a new term to describe the age group between 18 and 25. The author's choice for this term is emerging adulthood. The author responds to criticism that he has downplayed the role of structural factors on the development of youth. He sees structural factors as one of many influences, but not necessarily the most fundamental.