The Transition to Adulthood in East Asia: An Overview

Hyunjoon Park, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Gary Sandefur, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Using various social surveys and previous literature, in this overview we first provide the descriptions of four aspects of the transition to adulthood in East Asia (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) with a reference to American young people. Those four markers of transition to adulthood are: 1) educational enrollment and attainment, 2) labor market outcomes including employment and unemployment, 3) family formation including first marriage and childbearing, and 4) living home. For each of these four aspects, we describe the country-specific patterns and the timings at which each transition event occurs. As far as the data are available, furthermore, we will document how the patterns and timings of the transition to adulthood have changed in each society. Then, we try to understand how institutional characteristics in the East Asian societies are associated with distinctive patterns of transition to adulthood, compared to the American experiences.