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Although a large number of young people and studies advocate a redefinition of adulthood and additional attributes for being adult, the patterns of transition established after the Second World War still dominate the wider socio-cultural perception of adulthood. The prevailing discourse implies that young people are defying the norms. They are suspected of prolonging their youth before attaining the ‘natural’ patterns of adulthood. In reality, they are striving for integration into a demanding economic apparatus that compels them to follow alternative routes. Nonetheless, these tactics collide with the political and socio-cultural ex- pectations that require young people to rapidly integrate the socio-economic context.

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In light of the disruptions to the patterns of transition, the informants were invited to reflect on their own entry into adulthood. Some clearly stated that they did not feel adult yet, essentially because they were still financially dependent on their parents (in particular in France), or simply, they did not feel mature enough. Most felt partly adult, considered themselves as young adults, or showed awareness of being in between two phases and approaching the adult side.

R: Do you feel adult then?

I: Mm … yeah! From time to time, yeah. (...) R: But not all the time?

I: Not all the time, but I think it’s only because when you are a child, (...) you think that adults don’t worry or don’t have any suspicions about anything, but the truth is that it’s not easy to be an adult. And you can’t (...) know answers to every question, even though you are an adult. So, yes, I feel myself as an adult. (laughs)

Elina (26, Finland)

The informants were conscious of taking on new responsibilities and hence of becoming adult. In fact, they were negotiating their own positions within the statuses of youth and adulthood during the interview process. They were deliberating and justifying their own social role and level of adulthood. Young people face ambiguities with regards their social position; they struggle to fit in the traditional framework of transi- tion, while simultaneously contesting it. They are clearly caught in sets of contradictions, between socio- economic fluctuations, cultural expectations, available individual possibilities and personal desires.

Not at all! (laughs) Ah not at all! (...) I don’t feel adult at all, I don’t necessarily even feel ready to be a

teacher to be frank. (…) We take a lot of time to become adult; in fact, we are in-between, we are … big kids

actually. Audrey (26, France)

I’d say 60% of me is adult and 40% is still … Well, (...) I get money from my mum, which basically makes me a child still, but I do think that I’m an adult in the sense that (...) I’m quite responsible. (...) I’ve gradual-

ly moved into adulthood when I’ve noticed that I like doing things that don’t have anything to do with going out and partying … You know, just calming down a little bit …Piia (24, Finland)

One of the roots of such negotiations lies in the conventional perception of adulthood. Adult status is still measured with the attainment of social criteria. Those not able to fulfil these attributes are not validated as full adults, such as disabled people, the elderly, or in this case, young people. The dilemma rises from the taken-for-granted definition of adulthood, which is associated to being a normative social category. Indi- viduals’ adult status depends on the extent to which it matches socio-cultural norms and expectations of what constitutes the appropriate adult behaviour (Baltterer 2007a: 8–9). This undeniably impacts young people’s perception of and doubts about their own status. They struggle to fit in a social category that be- longs to another socio-historical period. They are nonetheless aware of their inability to conform to it, and simultaneously reject the normative constraints of the inherited standard. This generates conflicts both at

129 the individual and social levels (Blatterer 2007a: 10). Some research participants were clearly contesting and challenging the present notion of adulthood.

I don’t like the word ‘adult’. (...) I don't like the word ‘adolescent’ either, actually, so maybe I simply don’t like categorisations. (...) I don't consider myself to be a teenager, so … why not an adult actually? Maybe it’s the word itself that is too serious actually! I know I attach negative connotations to the word. Florence (22, France)

Tiia (26, Finland) emphasised that ‘for different people adulthood means different things,’ Anna (28, Finland) that ‘the “adult” is more in your head,’ and Johanna (26, Finland) that ‘it’s a “feeling” that you are an adult,’ which leads to a change within ‘the whole mental world’. Päivi’s (25, Finland) definition of adulthood encompassed ‘being independent, taking care of oneself, (...) being self-sufficient.’ However, she was aware of not fitting into the traditional concept of adulthood.

I: I guess there’s this connotation to the word adult, that (...) also means (...) [that a] person (...) already knows what he or she is going to do two years from now … You know, (...) [a] very fixed lifestyle. (...) I don’t think I’m adult in that way. (...) I think at some point [in the past] it might have been, but I’m not sure if [being adult] is that any more. (...) I think the concept is changing a little bit as well.

R: So, you view yourself as an adult, but within a kind of different idea what an adult/ I: Yeah, within my idea!

R: You have your own definition?

I: Yeah, yeah!

Päivi (25, Finland)

A growing number of young people noticeably feel they do not fit in the conventional representation of the model of adulthood, and contest the framework for patterns of transition. Andrew et al. (2007: 234) point out that their respondents too disclosed the ambiguity of their own status, and the growing conceptu- al gap that takes shape between the current categorisation of adulthood and their own feelings and percep- tion of what being an adult consists in. Mainly, they rejected the static aspects of adulthood. Many young people accept and even embrace prolonged transition, following a flexible lifestyle, and the variety of routes leading to adulthood (Hartmann and Swartz 2007: 265–266; Mary 2012). Arnett (2004) and Galland (1990) claim that young adulthood is a time for life experimentation and identity exploration. However, one may question whether such attitude is generated by young people only, or if it indicates a signal for a broader and deeper reconceptualisation of adulthood. Several research informants affirmed that they did not wish to undergo a fixed and predictable lifestyle anymore, but rather desired to follow the multiplying options and possibilities opening up to them.

Hartmann and Swartz (2007: 277–278) stress that the path to adulthood is changing from being a static status that one achieves to being a journey that one pursues. The authors’ respondents generated a new vi- sion of adulthood that is a multidimensional on-going process of development at both the individual and

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social levels. Nonetheless, Blatterer (2007a: 9) explains that redefining contemporary adulthood meets con- siderable tension because adulthood as a social category has meant the opposite of what it is becoming. Adulthood embodied the stationary status that one was reaching on a permanent basis, while many con- temporary young adults have adapted to and even welcome uncertainty and the opportunities it brings to them. There is therefore a growing gap between the long-established model of adulthood and the current perspectives many young people hold, which compels them to constantly justify their social position.