Ritualized into adulthood: the scarcity of youth-focused rites of passage in America

Abstract

This paper compares the physical, social, psychological, and legal developmental milestones experienced by youth that demonstrate their gradual ‘passage’ into young adulthood to the existing communal rites that celebrate these milestone transitions. This comparison shows the scarcity of such vital rite celebrations in contemporary America. Instead, there has been a switch to age-focused ritualization activities for youth becoming adults. This has led to an ineffective and unfulfilling coming-of-age experience for many. Self-oriented or group-oriented rites have emerged to meet the current felt need that are enacted by youth themselves. This has created a lack of a solid sense of adult identity and contributes to the formation of a new life-stage known as “emerging adulthood.” Considering the potential for transformative rites, I argue we need to construct new ways of acknowledging and ritualizing the important transitions youth experience, utilizing the already existing developmental milestones they experience as our basis.