Events

Why Does Substance Abuse Peak at Ages 18-25? A Developmental Explanation.

Five features that distinguish emerging adulthood from adolescence and young adulthood and how each feature may promote substance use and abuse.

It is well established that substance use and abuse peaks between ages 18 and 25, but why? Jeffrey Jensen Arnett's explanation focuses on the distinctive developmental characteristics of the 18-25 age period, which he has termed "emerging adulthood." Specifically, Arnett will present five features that make emerging adulthood distinct from either the adolescence that proceeds it or the young adulthood that follows it: identity explorations, instability, self-focus, feeling in between, and possibilities. Then he will explain how each of these features may promote substance use and abuse.

Arnett is a research professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. He is an expert in and coined the term "emerging adulthood," a phase of the life span between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood. He is the author of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties, along with numerous scholarly articles in this area. He is also the author of the textbook Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach. In 2005, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2002 he has been the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research.

This event is part of the TPRC Science to Service: Substance Abuse Prevention Seminar series.

Parking for this event is available for a fee in the Bryan Center parking deck or the Science Drive visitor's lot. Directions and parking information.