What Does It Mean to be an Adult? Five Psychological Domains of Being Grown-up

Life-stage theories based on sociodemographic norms fail to comprehensively conceptualize the psychology of adulthood today. We propose a new taxonomy of young adulthood comprising five psychological domains – eudaimonia, sociality, good judgement, self-regulation, and sense of ageing – which become salient during young adulthood and are independent from sociodemographic circumstances.