Introduction

Despite demographic studies indicating that a significant number of stressful role transitions occur during the early adult period (Hogan & Astone 1986), few studies have sought to investigate their impact on early adult adjustment (cf. Roberts & Bengston 1993). Moreover, taking a life-course perspective, early adulthood is an important transitional period during which development may continue on the trajectory established in adolescence or be altered in significant ways. Thus, mental health studies of young adults are important not only for describing functioning at this time of life, but also for advancing new lines of investigation that explore the patterning of psychological functioning over the life course.

In this chapter we report on a sample of young adults whom we have been studying since they were in high school. Using data obtained during the highschool years and from a post-high-school interview in 1992, we examine mental health and social functioning during this period and consider whether there are particular subgroups for whom post-high-school roles and experiences constitute a significant change or “turning point” in psychosocial functioning. We take graduation from high school as a focal transition event because it signals cultural expectations to find or explore a direction or set of goals involving economic independence and socioemotional attachments beyond the family of origin. Specifically, the roles and structure of daily life change considerably for most graduates and, as Jessor (1993) has underscored, there is a developmental reorganization of the principal ecological contexts: family, peers, work, and education.