The Role of Identity Capital in the Transition to Adulthood: The Individualization Thesis Examined

Theories of the life course are increasingly taking into account conditions in late-modern societies that make it necessary for people to undertake the process of individualization in the transition to, and through, adulthood. In this paper, strategic responses to this requirement of late-modernity are described in terms of the identity capital model. This social-psychological model postulates that, net of structural obstacles, those who are more agentic in investing in their adult identities are better equipped to negotiate individualized life-course passages. Although some theorists use the individualization thesis from a post-structuralist point of view, arguing that agency is more important than structural factors like social class, this paper shows that it is not necessary to take such a position when using the individualization thesis. For example, those from middle-class origins attending universities must compete with each other and adapt to late-modern circumstances if they are to improve, or even maintain, their social class origins. Thus, when only middle-class experiences are examined, the basis of differential occupational attainment and life-course fulfillment is difficult to explain from either a structuralist or post-structuralist perspective. Using longitudinal data, this paper explores the extent to which the identity capital model can account for variations in the timing of, and satisfaction with, later middle-class life-course trajectories in the transition to adulthood.