What is it like to become an adult in twenty-first-century America? This book takes us to four very different places-New York City, San Diego, rural Iowa, and Saint Paul, Minnesota-to explore the dramatic shifts in coming-of-age experiences across the country. Drawing from in-depth interviews with people in their twenties and early thirties, it probes experiences and decisions surrounding education, work, marriage, parenthood, and housing. The first study to systematically explore this phenomenon from a qualitative perspective, Coming of Age in America offers a clear view of how traditional patterns and expectations are changing, of the range of forces that are shaping these changes, and of how young people themselves view their lives.

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Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Mary C. Waters, Patrick J. Carr, and Maria J. Kefalas

1. Straight from the Heartland: Coming of Age in Ellis, Iowa
   Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas

2. Transitions to Adulthood in the Land of Lake Wobegon
   Teresa Toguchi Swartz, Douglas Hartmann, and Jeylan T. Mortimer

3. If You Can Make It There . . . : The Transition to Adulthood in New York City
   Jennifer Holdaway

4. Coming of Age in "America's Finest City": Transitions to Adulthood Among Children
   of Immigrants in San Diego
   Linda Borgen and Rubén G. Rumbaut

5. Becoming Adult: Meanings and Markers for Young Americans
   Richard A. Settersten Jr.

6. Conclusion
   Maria J. Kefalas and Patrick J. Carr

Appendix: Methods
References
Contributors
Index