Chapter 4: The Long Transition to Adulthood: An Italian View

Over the years, much theorizing and research has been devoted to the major transitions occurring from childhood through adolescence and to the personal and social determinants governing successful development. Adolescence has traditionally been described as a period of “storm and stress” associated with high risk, although adolescent disruptions are not inevitable features of development, and most adolescents can navigate safely through a prolonged time of change and challenges (Bandura, 1997).

The current view that adolescence is a period of prolonged uncertainty seems particularly appropriate to capture both its variations across cultural contexts and socioeconomic conditions as well as across individual life courses (Caprara & Fonzi, 2000). Prolonged adolescence has become a typical feature of modern industrial and post-industrial societies, and traditional social role transitions associated with becoming financially independent, leaving home, and forming a family tend to be delayed due to the pursuit of higher education and delayed employment outside the family. The challenge is to understand the interaction of social, interpersonal, and personal factors that in modern societies set the conditions that sustain and promote personally and socially valued life courses.