Introduction

The twin themes of consistency and change, continuity and discontinuity, lie at the heart of studies of human development. Both are ever-present possibilities, but some phases of the life course highlight the tensions between them with special clarity. Developmental transitions – times of greater than usual change, whether prompted by biological maturation, psychological growth, or changes in social roles and statuses – are among the most important of these. Such periods place often heavy demands on the individual for adaptation to new conditions but also hold within them the potential for new beginnings, opportunities to overcome earlier difficulties and to set out on new developmental trajectories (Emde & Harmon, 1984). Examining the processes that make for more and less successful negotiation of such transitions, that maintain vulnerabilities or protect against them at such periods, may thus constitute one fruitful approach to the study of successful aging.

Our aim in this essay is to consider risk and protective processes of this kind for one of the major transition periods in the life span: that marking the entry to adult life.