Introduction The late adolescent-early adult period involves certain developmental tasks that derive from the emergence of biological sex maturity and the social requirements of adult life in a particular culture. These tasks may be met in many ways; different patterns of coping behavior may get the job done. The accomplishment of each task, and the way in which it is accomplished, may have consequences for the entire adult life of the individual and those close to him. What are the tasks? A list of them may be long or short, depending on the level of specificity utilized. In contemporary American society—and indeed in many industrialized, urban, technologically complex cultures—certain tasks achieve prominence because they are requirements of the transition from being a child to being an adult. Adult roles, responsibilities, and opportunities are sufficiently different from those of childhood in such cultures that a