Critique of the Attached Reading

Name

Institution

CRITIQUE OF THE ATTACHED READING

The reading, “Young Adulthood” discusses the transition into young adulthood and the various factors that come into play either aiding or challenging positive development. The author, Holly C. Matto, explores how factors such as foster care, socio-economic status, community attitudes and family expectations, gender and culture among others influence the transition into adulthood among young adults. They affect how they view adulthood attachment to the family, and the changes are believed to mark the entrance into adulthood. Among the main changes viewed to signify adulthood includes the ability to make independent decisions, leaving home, financial independence, parenthood, gaining education and vocational skills and relationship commitment (Hutchison, 2011). These factors may be different depending on the family expectations and culture. However, across all cultures, the ability to make independent decisions is an important mark of transitioning to adulthood. The article also explores the timing of the transition, with some becoming independent earlier than others depending on their circumstances.

Circumstances such as economic status have an effect on the development process. Low socioeconomic status will encourage a young person to become independent, and transition earlier as they have to look for work in order to fend for themselves and their families. Young people from non poor families are more likely to have a disrupted transition as they can return home whenever they want. Family expectations may force a young person to stay home for a longer period than they would like to. This is especially true in cultures where they are expected to continue living with their parents until or even after they have their own families. Cognitive and identity development determine how they transition into adulthood and how they adjust to the changes associated with adulthood. The level of education and employment status are also crucial in determining when they have children and become independent from their parents. Relationships with parents and caregivers are also seen to determine how they transition into adulthood with those with poor relationships experiencing challenges of low self esteem, and their relationships with others. These are some of the groups at risk in the transition from late adolescence to early adulthood (Hutchison, 2011). Groups at risk may suffer from challenges such as drug and alcohol abuse that affect their development. According to the article, there are six categories of vulnerable youth making the transition to adulthood: out of school youth, youth with incarcerated parents, young welfare recipients, youth transitioning out of incarceration, homeless youth and youth leaving foster care.

Identifying the groups at risk is important for social workers so as to provide assistance to them and smooth their transition into adulthood. The reading adds to the knowledge of human behavior in the social environment by proving insights into the challenges that young people encounter as they transition into adulthood. It enables one to understand why young adults from different backgrounds transition faster or slower than others into adulthood. It is interesting to learn of the effect of a person’s relationship with caregivers and parents on their transition to adulthood. One is able to relate to the hesitance to commit in relationship, romantic or otherwise, and lack of confidence to their experiences during childhood, and hence be able to assist them become more positive. It shows the importance of positive upbringing in ensuring the youth are able to transition into adulthood when the time comes. Childhood experiences are significance to this development. Exploration of cultural values, family expectations, attitudes towards gender roles and availability of environmental resources will also enable them determine their influences on their life structure decisions and opportunities when working with young people (Hutchison, 2011). The roles taken by each gender in a relationship during the transition to adulthood also contribute to the success or failure of the relationship. These are affected by the attitudes held by the youth towards gender roles and depend largely on their culture and community expectations (Hutchison, 2011).

The reading is enlightening providing information that is critical to social work practitioners who work with individuals in this age group. It is beneficial in providing information that enables them deal with youth that have had different experiences in their childhood and cultures. It also enables them anticipate the certain behavior from those with certain backgrounds. Specific help given to the youth is more effective in making positive change in the transition process. They can also provide mentorship programs for the youth enabling them overcome the negative experiences they have gone through and have meaningful relationships. These are some of the strengths of the information given in the reading. The major disadvantage is that it encourages stereotyping of youth from different backgrounds making the social work practitioners have a predetermined view, and attitude towards the individual once they get the background information on youth. This may hinder them from making progress with the person especially when they do not conform to the stereotype. Social work practitioners should have an open mind when dealing with such cases in order to help individuals according to their problems. In addition, they may be able to open up more to the social workers if they feel that they do not already have a preconceived notion of their problems and solutions to them. Therefore, while the reading provides insights into specific situations and factors that may affect the transition of young people into adulthood, the social work practitioners have to maintain an open mind and deal with each case individually depending on their circumstances.

References

Hutchison, E.D. (2011). Dimensions of Human Behavior: The Changing Life Course. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications Inc.