Heterogeneity in the Transition to Adulthood: The Cases of Australia, Canada, and the United States

The prolongation and diversification of the transition to adulthood is known to have occurred in all advanced industrialized countries, although to different extents and following different patterns. A number of comparative studies have explored single-events such as leaving the parental home or making the transition to a first birth, but few have examined the transitions to adulthood more holistically by examining multiple events. We do so in this article for Australia, Canada, and the United States. We find that youth in the United States experience a more uniform and shorter transition to adulthood than their peers in Australia or Canada, even though this transition is increasingly prolonged in all three countries. The earlier transition in the United States is mostly due to the concentration of education in traditional school ages, an earlier entry into employment, and to a lesser extent, an earlier and more coordinated transition into marriage and household headship. We argue that the transition to adulthood differs quantitatively and qualitatively since entry into marriage reflects the more traditional values of the United States.