After the relative upheaval of the early 30's, the middle to late 30's are often characterized by settling down: 'the establishment phase', involving 'what we would call major life investments - work, family, friends, community activities, and values.' What has been termed 'the Culminating Life Structure for Early Adulthood (33-40) is the vehicle for completing this era and realizing our youthful aspirations.' People in their thirties may increase the financial and emotional investments they make in their lives, and may have been employed long enough to gain promotions and raises. They often become more focused on advancing their careers and gaining stability in their personal lives - 'with marriage and child-rearing,' starting a family, coming to the fore as priorities.
Gail Sheehy, however, signposteds the same twenties/thirties division rather differently, arguing that nowadays 'the twenties have stretched out into a long Provisional Adulthood', and that in fact 'the transition to the Turbulent Thirties marks the initiation to First Adulthood.'
Read more about this topic: Young Adult (psychology)
Famous quotes containing the word settling:
“Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)
“The wild beasts, sparrows pecking the llamas’ grain,
Pigeons settling on the bears’ bread, buzzards
Tearing the meat the flies have clouded. . . .”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)