Age and Sequencing Norms in the Transition to Adulthood

The timing and sequencing of events marking the transition to adulthood have become the focus of a growing body of research. Recently, the concept of social norm has been used to provide an explanation for observed regularity in the process of transition to adulthood, and the degree of conformity to social norms governing the transition has been hypothesized to have consequences for individuals in adulthood. In this paper it is argued that the concept of social norm has limited usefulness as an explanation of behavior marking the transition to adulthood or as an explanation of its consequences. It is argued further that previous use of the concept in empirical research has been misleading because the research has not measured social norms. Over the past few years, sociologists have paid increasing attention to the study of age differentiation and the social organization of the life course. Much theorizing in this area assumes a normative model of the life course, whereby norms, or shared expectations, regarding an appropriate timetable for major life events frame the life course. These norms are assumed to be supported by informal sanctions, resulting when major deviations from the prescriptive timetable occur-for example, when a role transition occurs too early or too late (Elder, a, b; Neugarten and Datan; Neugarten et al; Riley et al.). This normative model of development over the life course has been in evidence in recent research on the transition to adulthood. Since the transition to adulthood is marked by a series of interrelated events representing movement from economic dependence and participation in the