In a highly gendered society where both relational expectations and career aspirations are socialized goals, emerging adult women are uniquely positioned when considering their futures. Choices regarding education, career, and romantic relationships are linked to social pressures, leading young women to be conflicted about what goals to prioritize. This study analyzes interviews exploring how women in committed relationships currently in college, or recently graduated, are balancing these life domains at the intersection of gender in the United States. Findings indicate that emerging adult women struggle with their own desires for romantic commitment in the face of societal presumptions, logistical battles, and feelings of instability anxiety. Yet, commitment, communication, and faith in serendipity emerged as protective relationship factors. Although continuing a romantic relationship is not impossible during such instability, relationships for young women today may not exist without notable individual compromise and hold more significance concerning young women’s perceived autonomy.
ArnettJ. J. (1998). Learning to stand alone: the contemporary American transition to adult-hood in cultural and historical context. Human Development, 41(5-6), 285-315.
2.
ArnettJ. J. (2006a). Emerging adulthood: understanding the new way of coming of age. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. doi: 10.1037/11381-001.
3.
ArnettJ. J. (2006b). Suffering, selfish, slackers? Myths and reality about emerging adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(1), 23-29. doi: 10.1007/s10964-006-9157-z.
4.
ArnettJ. J. (2015). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
BarrosoA.ParkerK.FryR. (2019). Majority of Americans say parents are doing too much for their young adult children. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
7.
BasuilD. A.CasperW. J. (2012). Work–family planning attitudes among emerging adults. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(3), 629-637. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.017.
8.
BlusteinDavidSchultheissDonnaFlumHanoch (2004). Toward a relational perspective of the psychology of careers and working: A social constructionist analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64, 423-440. DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2003.12.008.
9.
BraunV.ClarkeV. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
10.
BraunV.ClarkeV. (2019). Ten fundamentals of qualitative research. In Successful qualitative research a practical guide for beginners (pp. 19-40). MTM essay.
11.
BrownM. L.KrysikJ.LaMendolaW.SinhaD.ReedL. (2020). Relationship fluidity: the changing nature of intimacy for emerging adult women. In WrightM. (Ed.), Recent advances in digital media impacts on identity, sexuality, and relationships (pp. 39-61). IGI Globalhttp://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-1063-6.ch003.
12.
CarrollJ. S.WilloughbyB.BadgerS.NelsonL. J.McNamara BarryC.MadsenS. D. (2007). So close, yet so far away: the impact of varying marital horizons on emerging adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Research, 22(3), 219-247.
13.
CohenP.KasenS.ChenH.HartmarkC.GordonK. (2003). Variations in patterns of developmental transitions in the emerging adulthood period. Developmental Psychology, 39(4), 657-669. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.39.4.657.
14.
CoontzS. (2005). Marriage, a history: From obedience to intimacy or how love conquered marriage. New York: Viking.
15.
DomeneJ. F.NeeJ. J.CavanaughA. K.McLellandS.StewartB. L.StephensonM.KauffmanB.TseC. K.YoungR. A. (2012). Young adult couples transitioning to work: the intersection of career and relationship. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 81(1), 17-25.
16.
DoncasterE.HiskeyS.McPhersonS.AndrewsL. (2018). I’m still fighting for the two of us”: how partners of UK veterans construct their experience of living with combat-related trauma. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 45(3), 464-479. doi: 10.1111/jmft.12340.
17.
DulmenM. H. M. V.ClaxtonS. E.CollinsW. A.SimpsonJ. A. (2014). Work and love among emerging adults. Emerging Adulthood, 2(1), 59-62. doi: 10.1177/2167696813516092.
18.
FredmanL. A.BuhrmesterM. D.GomezA.FraserW. T.TalaifarS.BrannonS. M.SwannW. B. (2015). Identity fusion, extreme pro-group behavior, and the path to defusion. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(9), 468-480. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12193.
19.
GarciaJ. R.ReiberC. (2008). Hook-up behavior: a biopsychosocial perspective. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 2(4), 192-208.
20.
GuestG.ArwenB.JohnsonL. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59-82.
21.
HortonJ.MacveR.StruyvenG. (2004). Qualitative research: experiences in using semi-structured interviews. The real life guide to accounting research. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
22.
HugginsK. (2016). Here for the Mrs. degree: Women’s college major choice and marital status. The Official Journal of the North Carolina Sociological Association, 14(1).
23.
JamisonT.GanongL. (2011). “We’re not living together:” stayover relationships among college-educated emerging adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 28(4), 536-557. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407510384897.
24.
KelleyHarold, & ThibautJohn (1978). Interpersonal relations: A theory of interdependence. New York: Wiley.
25.
LipsH. M. (2017). A new psychology of women: gender, culture, and ethnicity (Fourth ed). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.
26.
LucianoA.Carpenter-SongE. A. (2014). A qualitative study of career exploration among young adult men with psychosis and co-occurring substance use disorder. Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 10(4), 220-225. https://doi.org/10.1080/15504263.2014.962337.
27.
MacLeodH.StadnykR. L. (2015). Risk: ‘i know it when i see it’: how health and social practitioners defined and evaluated living at risk among community-dwelling older adults. Health Risk and Society, 17(1), 46-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2014.999749.
28.
MorrisM.BunjunB. (2007). Using intersectional feminist frameworks in research (pp. 1-9). Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.
29.
O’BrienB. C.HarrisI. B.BeckmanT. J.ReedD. A.CookD. A. (2014). Standards for reporting qualitative research. Academic Medicine, 89(9), 1245-1251. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000000388.
30.
RobbC. A. (2011). Financial knowledge and credit card behavior of college students. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 32(4), 690-698. doi: 10.1007/s10834- 011-9259-y.
31.
RusbultC. E.LangeP. A. V. (2011). Interdependence theory. In Van LangeP. A. M.KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (p. 251-272). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781446249222.n39.
32.
ShimS.XiaoJ. J.BarberB. L.LyonsA. C. (2009). Pathways to life success: a conceptual model of financial well-being for young adults. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(6), 708-723. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2009.02.003.
33.
ShulmanS.ConnollyJ. (2013). The challenge of romantic relationships in emerging adulthood. Emerging Adulthood, 1(1), 27-39. doi: 10.1177/2167696812467330.
TaylorP.WangW. (2010). The decline of marriage and rise of new families. Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project.
36.
TurnerJ.WilmothJ.PhillipsT. (2014). What do you want to accomplish in the next 10 years? The goals of emerging adults. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension, 2(3), 87-96.
Van LangeP. A. M.BallietD. (2015). Interdependence theory. In MikulincerM.ShaverP. R.SimpsonJ. A.DovidioJ. F. (Eds.), APA handbooks in psychology®. APA handbook of personality and social psychology. Interpersonal relations (Vol. 3, pp. 65-92). American Psychological Association.
40.
WalshC. M.NeffL. A. (2018). We’re better when we blend: the benefits of couple identity fusion. Self and Identity, 17(5), 587-603. doi: 10.1080/15298868.2018.1430062.
41.
WenholdH.HarrisonK. (2020). Interviews exploring emerging adults’ everyday life gender norm experiences, media gender norm perceptions, and future gender norm expectations. Journal of Adult Development, 28, 207-220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-020-09364-y.
42.
WilloughbyB. J.JamesS. L. (2017). The marriage paradox: Why emerging adults love marriage yet push it aside. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
