L’émergence de l’âge adulte : de l’impact des référentiels institutionnels en France et au Québec

• Main Author: Stéphane Moulin
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française 2012-01-01
• Series: Sociologies
• Subjects: adult; comparison; education; job; youth; life course
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/sociologies/3841

The theory of ‘Emerging Adulthood’ argues that the period between 18 and 25 years of age constitutes a new stage of the life-course that is unstructured by institutions. This article seeks to put this statement to the test of international comparison by a qualitative comparison of student entry to adulthood in France and Québec. A gap is observed between the two processes of emerging adulthood: Quebec students tend to identify themselves as adults at the very beginning of their postsecondary studies while French students declare themselves adults only after their postsecondary studies. We suggest that this gap is explained by national institutional referentials that shape differential conceptions of adulthood, role of parents and remunerative work.