Jeffrey Jensen Arnett Biography

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett is the leading authority in the world on the age period 18-29 that he has named “emerging adulthood.” Since Dr. Arnett proposed this term in an acclaimed article in the American Psychologist in 2000 it has become widely used in diverse fields, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, medicine, and education. His book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, published in 2004 by Oxford University Press, has been described as “informative, insightful, and infectious” by the Washington Post. A second edition of the book appeared in 2015. His book (with Elizabeth Fishel) for parents of emerging adults, Getting to 30: A Parents Guide to the Twentysomething Years, was published in 2014.

Dr. Arnett has also written many influential theoretical and research articles (Google scholar citations:65307, i10-index:157) on adolescence, on topics including adolescents’ uses of media and risky behavior such as substance use and crime. Recently he has turned his attention to the full span of adult development. In 2020 he served as the Editor of a special issue of American Psychologist, widely regarded as the top journal in psychology, on Rethinking Adult Development: New Ideas for New Times.

A renowned speaker, Dr. Arnett has appeared before diverse audiences all over the United States and the world. In the United States, he has given invited or keynote speeches before college and university audiences including at Harvard Medical School, Princeton Theological Seminary, Boston College, the University of Michigan, New York University, University of Notre Dame, and the University of Illinois, among many others. Internationally, he has been an invited speaker in Australia, Belgium, Chile, China, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey. He has also given many invited speeches before business leaders, religious leaders, and parents groups.

Dr. Arnett is currently a Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has also taught at the University of Missouri. During 2005 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is author of the most widely-used textbook on adolescent development, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (2016, Prentice Hall, 6^th Edition) as well as (with Lene Jensen) three other textbooks. For more information, see www.jeffreyarnett.com.