Amateur Adult, House Husband, or Very Late Teenager? Lay Theories of Emerging Adulthood Among Rural- and Urban-Reared Thai Youth

Abstract

This study investigates the existence and experience of emerging adulthood among two groups of Millennial Thai youth: those who grew up in an urban Thai city and those who grew up in a nearby rural village. Thirty-two participants (Mage = 27.4 years), evenly divided by early socialization context (i.e., rural/urban), took part in semi-structured interviews in which they discussed their current life stage and shared their views of key markers of adulthood. Inductive thematic analysis of interview data reveals both the influence of indigenous Thai values and of early socialization context in shaping perspectives of emerging adulthood. Whereas rural-reared youth relied primarily on indigenous perspectives, urban-reared youth integrated Western narratives of adulthood, which at times contradicted indigenous views of the life course. This study speaks to the cultural shaping of conceptions of adulthood, and to the influence of modern globalization in (re)shaping young people’s views of the life course.