Journal of Research on Adolescence
Abstract Submission Deadline: Sunday, 31 January 2027
Full Manuscript Submission Deadline: Saturday, 31 July 2027
Background:
The transition from adolescence to young adulthood represents a critical developmental period marked by substantial changes in social roles and contexts, including leaving the parental home, completing college, entering the workforce, entering a committed partnership, and becoming a parent (Schulenberg et al., 2004). A substantial body of past research grounded in the life-course developmental perspective has examined how the timing, sequencing, and broader societal contexts of these transitions shape turning points in developmental and health trajectories (Graber & Brooks-Gunn, 1996). However, these processes warrant renewed scholarly attention because pathways to adulthood have become increasingly prolonged, heterogeneous, and context-dependent, with many adolescents delaying transitions into adult roles in response to changes in educational opportunities, labor-market conditions, economic uncertainty, and shifting social norms and values (Skirbekk et al., 2025). These transitions may be particularly complex in the digital and AI era, as rapidly evolving technologies reshape the educational, occupational, and relational contexts through which adolescents develop their identities, gain autonomy, form relationships, and prepare for adult roles (Sirin et al., 2024).
Adolescents enter the transition to adulthood with different combinations of resources and constraints across individual, familial, and community contexts (Lee et al., 2018; Steinhoff et al., 2020). Such differences may influence how individuals adapt to new social roles, access resources, and cope with the stress associated with the transition to adulthood. For example, family disadvantages — including low parental education, limited household income, family conflict, and unstable parental employment — may restrict access to resources and increase exposure to stress during the transition (Lee et al., 2023). Such socioeconomic disadvantage may also shape how adolescents use digital technologies and the purposes for which they use them (Harris et al., 2017). The accumulation of these adversities may further constrain adolescents’ opportunities for higher education, stable employment, and other successful transitions to adult roles (Lee et al., 2018). Over time, cumulative adversity may increase the risk of adverse health outcomes (Wickrama et al., 2017).
Importantly, transitions to adulthood unfold within diverse cultural and historical contexts and should be understood in relation to these broader influences. For example, growing up in an immigrant or minority family may shape adolescents’ subjective age and perceived psychological maturity through culturally grounded norms regarding family obligations, which may influence when they transition into adult roles (Diaz-Strong, 2022). Also, broader historical disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crises or war, may disrupt adolescents’ transition processes by altering educational experiences, employment opportunities, opportunities for social participation, exposure to adversity, everyday priorities, and access to health-related resources.
Aims of the Special Issue:
This special issue aims to advance scholarship on how cumulative adversity and diverse social contexts directly and synergistically shape developmental transitions from adolescence to young adulthood, with a focus on health outcomes. We invite papers employing diverse methodological approaches — including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods — as well as integrative literature reviews and conceptual papers that deepen understanding of adolescents’ lived experiences, developmental trajectories, and health and well-being during this transition.
We are especially interested in research that examines not only risks and challenges but also protective resources, coping strategies, resilience processes, and adaptive mechanisms that support positive development across diverse populations and cultural settings. Further, we welcome work that addresses heterogeneity in the timing, sequencing, and consequences of adult role transitions and examines the dynamic interplay between individual characteristics and changing social contexts.
Topics of interest for this call for papers include but are not restricted to:
- Examining how the timing and sequencing of adult role transitions — including leaving the parental home, college graduation, entry into stable employment, marriage, and parenthood — vary across countries, sociocultural contexts, and population groups, including those defined by race/ethnicity, gender, and immigrant status.
- Investigating how variations in the timing and sequencing of adult role transitions shape subsequent developmental, health, and well-being trajectories.
- Examining how context risks across individual, family, and community levels accumulate and interact synergistically over time to shape developmental transitions to young adulthood and their long-term health and well-being consequences.
- Examining how contemporary technological contexts, including digital technology and artificial intelligence, shape developmental transitions to young adulthood and subsequent health and well-being.
- Examining the long-term impacts of unexpected adverse life events and major historical disruptions — including natural disasters, pandemics, and war — on developmental transitions to young adulthood and subsequent health and well-being.
- Examining how resilience processes support successful transitions, positive adaptation, and healthy development in the context of adversity.
- Using advanced research designs and analytic methods — including mixed-methods, longitudinal, intensive longitudinal, person-centered, qualitative, and causal inference approaches — to examine dynamic developmental processes and heterogeneity in transitions to young adulthood.
Guest Editors:
Dr. Tae Kyoung Lee (Lead Guest Editor)
Sungkyunkwan University,
Republic of Korea
Dr. Kandauda A. S. Wickrama
University of Georgia,
United States
Dr. Annekatrin Steinhoff
University of Bern,
Switzerland
Keywords:
Transition to adulthood; health and well-being; cumulative adversity; diverse contexts; advanced quantitative and qualitative methods; developmental theory.
Important Dates:
- Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2027
- Special Issue editors invite selected teams to submit a full manuscript: February 28, 2027
- Full manuscript submission deadline: July 31, 2027
- Initial manuscript decisions (after peer review): October 31, 2027
- Revised manuscript submission deadline: January 31, 2028
- Final manuscript decisions: April 30, 2028
- Special Issue publication date: June 30, 2028
Submission Guidelines/Instructions:
All abstracts must include the following information and be submitted through this Google Form.
- Title.
- Authors’ names, email addresses, and affiliations.
- Abstract (500–1,000 words of main text, up to 1 page of references, and 1–2 tables and/or figures; the main text should include sections on Background, Sample, Methods/Analyses, Results/Preliminary Findings, and Discussion/Conclusion).
- A brief statement on the study’s current status, including whether it will be ready for full manuscript submission by the deadline.
- Provide a one-paragraph argument that explains how your study fits with the Special Issue Call.
All inquiries can be directed to ltk501@skku.edu. Please include [JRA Special Issue] in the subject line of all inquiry emails. Abstracts must be submitted through this Google Form by January 31, 2027 to be considered.