Young adult
stage of human development between adolescence and middle age (approximately 18 to 40 years old)
In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of the term. The United States Census Bureau, for instance, defines young adults as those between the ages of 18 and 34. In addition, cancer researchers consider those between the ages of 18 and 49 to be young adults. Over 65 million Americans born approximately from 1991 to 2008, would likely fall under this category. The young adult stage in human development precedes middle adulthood. It is typically followed by middle adulthood, which is often associated with stability in career and relationships.
Erikson described this stage as focused on the development of intimate relationships and personal identity. Legal developments also show evolving views on young adulthood, with some court rulings considering the developmental stages of individuals under the age of 21 in sentencing decisions. Some developmental researchers describe young adult as an "emerging adulthood" stage between adolescence and full adulthood, characterized by continued brain maturation into the early 30s.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Young adult” as stage of human development between adolescence and middle age (approximately 18 to 40 years old). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as stage of human development between adolescence and middle age (approximately 18 to 40 years old). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17156455. The Library of Congress control number is sh85149273. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1991 and 2008.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Young adult”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Young adult primary sources, Young adult archive and Young research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Young adult” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.