1 Introduction

At the heart of much of our cultural behaviors are rituals that are powerful, unifying, and communicative meaning makers. Rituals are some of the most visible manifestations of values, beliefs, and identity that connect people. Yet, youth-focused rituals, specifically rites of passage, are difficult to find in America today. As such, this paper first briefly explores the theory, definition, function, value, and history of rituals and in particular youth-focused rites of passage. I then utilize an interdisciplinary approach at the crossroads of cultural anthropology’s (1) ritual theory and (2) rites of passage theory, and cultural sociology/developmental psychology’s (3) life course theory and (4) child development theory to create a theoretical matrix. This matrix is used to compare the biological, social, psychological, and legal developmental milestones that demonstrate the gradual “passage” through adolescence to the existing rites that celebrate these transitions. This comparison shows the scarcity of such youth-focused rites of passage compared to the potential.

I argue that the switch to age-focused and legal-based ritual activities for youth has led to an ineffective and unfulfilling coming-of-age experience for many young adults. Into this void has arisen self-oriented or group-oriented ritualizations to meet this need that are enacted by teens themselves. Within the last 25 years this has led in part to a lack of a solid sense of adult identity, a lack of well-being, and the emergence of a new life course stage entitled “emerging adulthood” that adds to the complexity of becoming an adult. As a partial corrective, I offer some practical principles and strategies for integrating well-formed youth-focused rites of passage into American life. Considering the existing large potential for transformative rites, I conclude we need to construct new and meaningful ways of acknowledging, instructing, and ritualizing the important transitions youth experience on the path to becoming adults, utilizing the already existing biological, social, psychological, and legal transition markers which already mark such passages in their lives.

As with many concepts related to human behavior, within the last few decades there have been numerous attempts to theorize and define what a ritual consists of by sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and religionists alike using any number of approaches.Footnote 1 As Jonathan Z. Smith [73] notes, whatever privileged examples of ritual are emphasized in the (usually ethnographic) research greatly influences the subsequent theory and definition, with some focused on repetition and others focused on sacrality, myth, otherness, or drama (see also [77]). Most who define ritual at all view it as a conscious, formal, structured, repeatable, performative, and many times a communal act that functions to communicate or connect with something special. In order to orient rituals and rites of passage effectively, I define ritual with a special focus on what it is responding to and what response it engenders. Thus, ritual is defined as the deliberate structuring of action, place, and time into an embodied performance of heightened awareness in response to particular occasions of disorder, ambiguity, anomaly, or transition to give focus, expression, and special meaning to an otherwise diffuse, unexpressed, or unmarked experience, so as to make sense of this past experience and to gain a desired response or transformation.Footnote 2 Importantly, rituals are always tangible, outward acts enacted with the body, through speech, gestures, postures, etcetera to convey some inner process(es). Rituals are not thoughts or feelings, but the expression of these inner mental, emotional, and/or spiritual states in external, embodied, and expressive acts—that many times dispose us to greater understandings. It is done consciously either communally or individually, formally or informally, verbally and/or nonverbally, repeatedly or once, that assigns special meaning at a special time and/or special place. Rituals are responses to any previous event or circumstance that is jarring, unexplainable, or incongruous that requires ordering, marking, or the resolving of a dilemma. Through enactment, rituals—when enacted effectively—provide a resultant reconciliation, renewal, protection, purification, sanctification, commemoration, correction, and/or transformation that returns order and sense to one’s perceived world. Thus, rituals are ubiquitous and essential aspects of human behavior, in part because of the psychological and social benefits they engender. They regulate negative emotions, stimulate goal-directed actions, and enhance social connections to others [37]. They assuage cognitive and physiological anxiety [43]. They signal membership and commitment to in-group values [88].

These rituals can exist on three different levels which correspond to differing levels of differentiation, institutionalization, and formalization of social practices [10]. There are macro-rites that involve formal, public ceremonies that are able to fully realize all aspects of rituals. There are meso-rites conducted at the interpersonal level which tend to be more informal interactions in everyday life that lack some of the specialness, dilation, and particularity of macro-rites. And there are micro-rites conducted personally and privately that are often more automatically enacted, frequent, and easily changed. Thus, ritual acts can range from political, national macro-rituals like observing the pledge of allegiance with hand over heart at public functions, to the common, social greeting meso-rituals like shaking hands upon meeting another, to personal, idiosyncratic micro-rituals like drinking coffee with the newspaper every morning. Each is an instance of disjunction in everyday life that is in need of bridging, marking, or ordering. In each of these rituals a sequenced pattern is maintained that instills a sense of patriotism of those in attendance, facilitates the meeting of persons, or eases the transition from the sleepiness associated with nighttime to the wakefulness of morning [67]. Rituals are found in all societies in all time periods, making them universal in terms of function. Yet, rituals are also context dependent and localized in terms of substance, meaning, and response. Thus, rituals can differ from society to society in terms of content, style, or structure and evolve over time within the same culture to reflect societal changes [30].

2 What rites of passage entail

The concept rites of passage was coined by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep [85] to denote ceremonial rituals connected to the transitional statuses in human life. In rites of passage theory, the idea of rites that are also passages, transitions, or initiations depends on two foundational notions: (1) humans have a life course with distinct stages, and (2) rituals can acknowledge and/or effect transformative passages into a new stage and/or role. In associated life-course theory, it is posited that human lives proceed through predictable stages—though the number of stages may differ according to time and place, as some stages are socioculturally constructed rather than immutable or natural stages. The basic life course usually includes four stages: birth, puberty, marriage, and death (also known as hatching, ratcheting, matching, and dispatching).Footnote 3 In transitioning from one stage to another, a passage and thus an initiation and transformation occurs: children become adults, singles become mates, a couple becomes parents, or a living person becomes an ancestor. All people sense the need to make meaning of these transformative moments in life. As the American ritual theorist Ronald Grimes [34] concludes, “Without rites that engage our imaginations, communities, and bodies, we lose touch with the rhythms of the human life course.” Rites of passage highlight, initiate, and celebrate the passing of a person from one state, role, and/or identity into another. Rites of passage divide a person’s life into a time before and a time after “the passage.” Effective rites evoke reflection, mark transitions, and celebrate changes by ensuring that initiates attend to such passages spiritually, psychologically, socially, as well as bodily. In this sense, rites of passage do something to us, rather than just express symbolic meanings. They effect an irreversible transformation from an old state or condition to a new one [34].

Van Gennep posited that there is an unvarying tripartite structure within such rites of passage that includes rites of separation, rites of marginality, and rites of incorporation. Since then, in much of rites-of-passage theorizing, Victor Turner’s [82] reformulation and development of Van Gennep’s model has been utilized. Turner’s three-phase process acknowledges the need for a person to step outside of daily routines, normal society, and socialized frameworks (the separation), to experience the protracted liminality that accompanies the loss of former conditions while being provided teachings, ordeals, and time for reflection (the transition), in order to incorporate the person into a new condition, whether that be a life stage, role, office, etcetera (the reintegration) [7]. For example, at the beginning of boot camp, newly enlisted soldiers in the Marines are separated and isolated in a barracks on a military base, stripped of their most obvious physical markers of individual identity (their hair, clothes, and name) in order to transform them into marines, culminating in a graduation ceremony welcoming them into the ranks of this elite fighting force [19]. Van Gennep and Turner both studied small-scale African traditional societies where they observed such transitional ritualizing with a clear tripartite structure. In these societies, puberty rites initiating youth into more responsibility were timed according to the emergence of certain physical characteristics for boys and girls—more hair and a deeper voice for boys and the presence of menstruation and breasts for girls. Many of these youth-focused rites involved teachings, passing a test, isolation, physical incision and/or mutilation, and receiving gifts. The adolescent stage was largely absent in these types of societies. The transition was from childhood directly to adulthood [76]. Puberty rites centered on passing an ordeal have all but disappeared from the modern West.

2.1 Historical rites of passage for youth in America

During the early years of studying adolescence, researchers and scholars concluded that the adolescent life stage did not exist before the modernization and industrialization of societies. It was assumed before this change that children passed directly into adulthood. Today, many argue that adolescence as a distinct and stable life stage has existed in the West at least since the High Middle Ages [69]. This phase has always been characterized as a semi-autonomous period in which a youth is neither a dependent child nor an independent adult. Historically, in the West the most popular form of initiation rites for these youth were provided by the religious traditions of a culture, with the focus being on the initiate’s experience of a spiritual awakening and the assumption of more religious understanding and responsibility. Judaism has bar or bat mitzvah, and Catholicism has catechesis and confirmation for youth, both around the age of 13 [14]. Likewise, in Amish culture at age 16 youth are permitted during free time to venture outside the bounds of their faith and community during rumspringa or the “running-around” years to decide if they want to remain Amish and enter the church through baptism [47]. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has mission service, a two-year commitment for 19 year old males, which is optional for females who are at least aged 21 [49]. Protestantism has no similar official coming-of-age religious rite of passage into an adult faith commitment. A believer’s conversion or baptism may occur at an early age and thus be considered a coming-of-age rite, but the new believer will usually be grouped with all the adults also being baptized [27].

Outside of a spiritual transition, in the premodern West, one of the first markers of children becoming adolescents was the sending of them to other households as servants or apprentices (often between the ages of seven and ten). This occurred before the onset of puberty, which occurred later than is observed today, making physical changes less prominent transition markers than participating in the labor market outside of one’s parents’ home. In colonial America, this “binding out” usually coincided with the adoption of adult dress and codes of behavior. Boys would start to wear breeches instead of a gown or frock, usually marking the beginning of a working life or school attendance. Girls would start to wear dresses, updo hairstyles, and caps, instead of a frock and plaited hair. Many families celebrated this binding out and breeching for boys with a party as a rite of passage [42, 69].

In the eighteenth century, debutante balls for girls aged 16–18 were introduced in America, based on the English custom of debuting young women at a society ball during their first social season in London. The American debutante ball was a means of debuting young women of marriageable age and adult status into society, marked by updo hairstyles, ballgowns, and high heels. Today’s quinceaneras and “sweet sixteen” parties for girls follow in this rite’s tradition [14]. It is a public celebration of her entering womanhood replete with dress, heels, and a father-daughter dance. By the 1920s, schooling became nearly universal, with many more youths attending some high school which concentrated them in one place. Other changes taking place include the enactment of child labor laws, increased urbanization, and the rise of mass consumerism and the media [74]. Dating became more popular rather than adult supervised courtship, and new commercial amusements such as dance halls, amusement parks, and movies became available. This all led to more independent youth behavior, the creation of a unique teen culture and peer groups, and the beginning of studies of the now-acknowledged adolescent life stage [15].

2.2 Contemporary rites of passage for adolescents in America

Contemporary marriage and funeral rites (and to a lesser extent birth rites) are usually public, communal, and often religious rites in America. A marriage-related passage often includes an engagement party, bridal shower/stag party, and wedding day ceremony. While the form these rites of passage takes has been highly responsive to cultural, economic, and political forces, they are still practiced. The same cannot be said of youth-related rites, which have become within the last hundred years to a large extent “ritualization activities” that tacitly and implicitly draw on features and qualities of rites rather than being explicit rites [34]. These ritualization activities, if observed, are privatized, individualized, and psychologized, with the focus predominantly on age. Which is why the transition is often called a “coming of age” rite. As a result, “rites” for youth initiating them into adulthood have become more shallow, incomplete, and ineffective.

In childhood development theory, the passage through adolescence (ages ten to eighteen) is seen as composed of a set of biological, social, and psychological transitionsFootnote 4 [25, 81] that are intertwined and unfold gradually and include changes to a youth’s behavior, development, and relationships [76]. Most cultures recognize that the youth-related passage is a progression that is fraught with mismatches, because the arrival of social adulthood may not coincide with biological or mental adulthood. The rhythms of the biological, psychological (and thus legal), and social life cycles have become more disparate, adding to the complexity of this stage in the contemporary post-industrial world. As a result, any ritualizing into adulthood that celebrates one of these transitions may be a necessary but insufficient condition [34]. This makes coming-of-age rites the most difficult of initiations acknowledged and enacted in American culture. Childhood development theory uses a range of developmental milestones to indicate passage out of adolescence. These milestones change over time and by place as they are context dependent. In what follows, I outline the biological, social, psychological, and legal developmental markers that typically distinguish the adolescent life stage from childhood in today’s post-industrial America. I then explore the current rites that celebrate these developmental achievements.Footnote 5

2.2.1 Biological pubescence: pubertal-specific physical markers

Noticeable bodily changes are used as transition markers into and through adolescence, especially in medical arenas. Increasingly, in industrialized countries, biological puberty is arriving earlier as a result of better nutrition, thus the exact age of puberty is not fixed by nature. For girls today, the onset of menstruation at an average age of 12 begins puberty, with pubescence ending up to six years later. For boys, the deepening of the voice, onset of ejaculation, and the appearance of facial hair at an average age of 16 begins puberty, with pubescence ending two to five years later [34, 76]. Because bodily changes are seen as private, embarrassing, and gender-differentiating, there are not many rites of passage in America today that publically celebrate pubescent physiological changes that result in the biological capability of generating children (i.e., menstruation and ejaculation) that signal the passage from childhood into adolescence. Often, bodily changes are noticed, but not acknowledged, reflected upon, discussed, or celebrated as physical markers of a person’s changing status from a child to a pubescent youth. In most ritual studies, only girls’ first menses is found to be somewhat regularly prepared for or celebrated as a pubescent rite of passage in America today [34]. According to a recent YouGov poll, 48% of women were not very or not at all prepared for their first menses, calling into question even this rite’s usage [55, 84]. A close second is the subtle rite of “The Talk,” in which parents or educators discuss sex with sexually maturing and curious youth. In a recent review of studies published between 2003 and 2015 about the process of parent–child sex communications in the United States it was found that many parentally-based discussions are still episodic or one-time events full of embarrassment for all involved, with parents assuming most sex education is being received from other sources and teens being dismissive or in avoidance of the topic [21]. According to a recent survey by OnePoll of 2,000 parents of adolescents, 21% do not plan to have this discussion at all [53]. Currently, only 28 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex education in schools [35].

2.2.2 Social adolescence: role-specific socioeconomic markers

Social adolescence is more variable and protracted than biological adolescence, often lasting into the early twenties. In social adolescence, socioeconomic role changes signal the passage from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Decreased parental oversight and increased social, familial, and economic responsibility for both genders are the norm [34]. For all teens, the giving of an allowance, house key, household chores, later bedtimes, informal or part-time jobs, completing high school, beginning college, and leaving home are important role-transitions that come with increased social responsibility and agency. Consumer marketers closely track the aged 12–17 and 18–24 demographic age-based categories because of their newly found socioeconomic roles and resultant behaviors [36]. The most common new roles assumed include stay-at-home-alone, babysitter, summer camper, girl- or boyfriend, volunteer, college student, part-time worker, soldier, and/or apprentice. There are also not many socially-focused rites of passage for youth that acknowledge or celebrate any of these role transitions. The most common “ritualization activity” associated with a youth’s growing adult roles and independent agency is the high school graduation commencement ceremony and subsequent party that marks the required end of education [34]. Another is the away camp experience with its campfire ceremonies [29]. A less common informal ritualization is the first deer kill for those that hunt. A newer technology-driven ritualization activity is the giving of a smartphone to a youth to access cyberspace. A 2019 survey of more than 1,600 teens found that by age eleven 53% of American children have their own smartphone [39].

2.2.3 Psychological adolescence: identity-specific personal markers

It is within the adolescent stage that many youth begin to explore and form their own values and beliefs and a more conscious identity. As the self is fundamentally relational, this newly forming adult identity is created in concert with others. Connectedness to parents and family heritage facilitates ongoing youth identity development [89]. Yet, other sources of external identity construction are dissolving, including religious authorities, traditional gender roles, and normative family arrangements, as more youth hold to a greater degree of self-determination in many identity spheres that were once seen as nonnegotiable and determinative [31]. Their place has been taken with an internal, reflexive process of self-constructed identity anchored in personal growth and self-actualization [72]. Unlike pubertal and social changes, psychological changes are less overtly seen, possibly adding to the lack of many existing identity-focused rites for youth. The aforementioned religious-based rites of bar/bat mitzvah, confirmation, or baptism continue to acknowledge, instruct, and celebrate the newly forming religious and moral adult identity. Yet, according to a 2019 Pew Poll, 32% of American teens are religiously unaffiliated [58]. However, many youths are affirming other identity-related aspects of their person. Youths disclose sexual orientation to family at an average age of 13.5 and gender identity at an average age of 13.9 [38]. The most common ritualization activities that reflect the developing psychological self are the many varied new self-expressions manifested by youth on their person, in their possessions, through their actions and social media branding which all speak to their developing awareness, beliefs, values, and preferences related to fashion, sports, music, fandoms, religion, and politics. Many teens publicize their interests by stickering laptops, water bottles, shoes, and clothes with their favorite characters, teams, or sayings. Others document their lives, interact with peers, and create content via digital platforms using the afore-mentioned gifted smartphone to project their forming identity in cyberspace.

2.2.4 Legal adolescence: age-specific legal markers

The typical American life course of transitions has also been codified and expanded upon by the state and glossed by consumerism and marketing [36]. Legal adolescence is the newest type of milestone marker introduced by the state in which adolescents obtain additional legal rights and responsibilities determined at certain pre-defined, fixed ages, acknowledging that during this stage one progressively gains more psychological and social maturity. Within these legal milestones, age is the main focus, especially as numerical age itself has become an important way of assigning status, starting with the age-grading in the school system [30]. Bodily changes are personal, but age is seen as impersonal, objective, and public. The first major chronological legal transition marker relates to driving, which is important in an automobile culture, especially outside of urban transportation centers. Since the early 1900s many states have implemented driving laws that include age restrictions that vary from state to state [14]. In my home state of California, the minimum age for a provisional license with restrictions is 16. This marker of unsupervised mobility has become a pseudo rite of passage for many youths. Though, only about 60% of teens are licensed before age 18 [1]. The attainment of the necessary instructional education, practice hours, and test passing to gain the license is celebrated. In wealthy families the giving of a car to the teen is part of the rite as well with an average of 41% of parents making this purchase for their teen in 2012 [8]. The next year, at 17, most youth can legally purchase a ticket for an R-rated movie without an adult aged 21 or older present. However, in the age of streaming, more underaged teens are watching and gaming R-rated and/or M-rated content in private spaces. A recent study in the U.K. found that two-thirds of male teens and almost half of female teens regularly play violent games rated for age 17 and above [63].

While the driving-related and film-going privileges signaling more mobility and independence vary in age to some extent according to state laws, the second major legal transition marker does not. At age 18 a person reaches the age of majority and is legally viewed as an adult in the U.S., meaning she is held legally responsible for her actions. The legal scale tips from favoring rights of protection to approving rights of participation. This emancipation comes with additional participatory privileges and responsibilities, such as voting, serving on a jury, joining the military, running for office, being sentenced to life in prison, entering into contracts, marrying, having consensual sex, smoking, and making one’s own medical decisions [80]. Age-related legal rights are not earned, but rather doled out to all who reach a certain birthday, making them relatively arbitrary since they are not related to any competencies or maturity of youth [11]. Yet, these chronological transitions signifying more adulthood are often the most celebrated with birthday-related rites that are supposed to mark this passage (like gift-giving of a car), possibly because these legal rights are so easily gained and identified. More personal bodily, social, and psychological changes require a supportive and attentive community to notice, guide, and acknowledge specific changes as they appear in youth with associated and appropriate rites. Yet, I argue these other non-legal transitions into adulthood should be the more important focus of rites of passage for the earned bio-socio-psychological transformations they reflect.

3 Youth rites reappear in other forms and ways

If ritualizing is inherent to human nature the world over, then rites of passage will inevitably reappear to meet this need. If knowledgeable communities, institutions, families, elders, and mentors do not initiate the young with rites in intentional and meaningful ways, ritualization activities will arise that will be enacted in often unconscious, uncertain, and unintended ways. As a human need, rituals will occur, in one way or another. As Ronald Grimes [34] states, “In the absence of specific initiation rites, diffuse ritualization, peer initiation, and unconscious self-initiation occur.” The latter two are especially informal substitutes that are detached from family and community and can lead to a distortion of adult identity, negated responsibilities, and mental health issues for many youth [34]. Rituals are becoming much more small-group or individual-oriented [40], as well as shallow and less deliberate in nature. Just as there are often subtle ritualization talks, parties, and gifts given by adults in youths’ lives, there are self-enacted and peer-driven ritualizations enacted by youth themselves.

3.1 Self-enacted, self-oriented ritualizations

There is widespread “initiation hunger” in contemporary America [45], especially by our youth. This results in the manifestation of many self-enacted, self-oriented substitutive ritualizations, fashioned mainly on what youth imbibe from popular culture in an unhealthy feedback loop. If socially constructed rites reflect the culture and reaffirm values, then the dispersal of coming-of-age rites into many diffuse, personal, and solitary ritualization activities upholds the perceived cultural value of individualism in America [19]. Youth decide themselves and do it to themselves. These types of freestyle ritualizations at the micro-rites level often deal with perceived unacknowledged or underappreciated milestones achieved in their lives. In particular, being sexually active, using drugs, and committing petty crimes have become popularized youth ritualization activities—in the form of hook ups, walks of shame, black outs, happy pilling, and the five-finger discount. One of the most well-known self-enacted rites is the loss of virginity. Between 2015 and 2017, 42% of female teens and 38% of male teens aged 15–19 had ever engaged in sexual intercourse [46]. Almost 47% of teens have tried illicit drugs by the twelfth grade [48]. Obtaining piercings and tattoos can also signal the assumption of a greater degree of personhood [34, 78]. At age 18 youth can legally choose to undergo this painful ordeal and be ritually scarred. The piercing or tattoo’s chosen type and placement are markers of the adulthood gained, the forging of a new, individualistic, and authentic identity [16]. According to a recent Pew Poll, 41% of those aged 18–29 have at least one tattoo [57]. One could surmise that many of these effected bodily ritualizations celebrate substantial bodily changes, replacing the now defunct publicly enacted puberty rites, which many times also entailed body modifications. Whereas the compulsory puberty modifications were signs of collective belonging, youth modifications today are voluntary signs of individual identity and singularity [20]. All of these low intensity ritualizations are focused on personal leisure activities.

The message many teenagers receive on a daily basis from TV, film, advertisements, peers, elders, etcetera amounts to this: To be fully human or adult, one must curse, drink, smoke, and screw, because these behaviors symbolize forbidden public activities and status that are open only to adults [25]. These cultural scripts tell youth how they should think, desire, feel, and behave. Youth strive to exhibit the appearance of adultness by playing perceived adult roles and participating in supposed adult behavior [11, 81] as a way to initiate themselves. Youth who have not experimented with in any of these “firsts” are regarded as stilted, rather than passing into adulthood. It is the great imitation game that results in many single mothers, drug overdoses, and suicides. This trend of youth assuming prematurely adult sexual, familial, social, and consumptive behavior has dangerously blurred the line between the adolescent and young adult stages of life [15].

3.2 Peer-driven, group-oriented ritualizations

There are also many peer-driven, group-oriented substitutive ritualization activities in which the main goal is to earn the respect of one’s peers on risk-taking adventures. Youth have far less ability for restraint, reasoning, decision-making, emotion modulation, and discipline than mature adults. They are highly vulnerable to reward-influence and peer-pressure that leads to risky and antisocial behavior. In one study, the mere presence of two same-age friends caused teenagers to take more risks and crash more often in a racing video game; an effect not observed in the adults [28]. The top three killers of teenagers are accidents, homicides, and suicides [22]. Some peer-driven, group-oriented substitutive ritualizations at the meso-rite level that have become popular involve illegal street racing, spring break wildness, and fraternity hazing. In the last three years, six fraternity pledges have died [52]. These group-oriented high intensity ritualizations initiate youth into a grouphood rather than adulthood, fulfilling the need to belong and feeding on the proneness for risk. Gang initiation rites also often fulfill the vacuum of youth initiation rites. These constructed rites usually take the form of initiate “beatings in” by other gang peers or “missions” of shoplifting, vandalism, or acts of violence in order to prove the initiate’s mettle, rather than being transformative rites [61, 64]. Other, newer youth behaviors that have the potential to become informal peer-based ritualization activities surround technology and include trolling, sexting, and cyberbullying. In 2022, 46% of teens ages 13–17 experienced cyberbullying [59].

In sum, many youth-related ritualization activities are to a large extent ageist, diffused, privatized, individualized, and psychologized. Yet, there are many existing and opportune milestone markers related to the many biological, social, psychological, and legal transitions taking place in youth’s lives during the adolescent life stage. But without thoughtful, meaningful, communal rites to usher in and validate these changes, youth seek less effective personal and peer-based forms of ritualizing their experiences, which still leaves them feeling as if they are in Turner’s betwixt and between liminal stage—not really youth, but not really adults either. This “pseudomaturity” results in a rapid transition into, through, and out of pubertal and social adolescence than previously observed, but without necessarily the underlying psychological maturity or legal responsibility [33, 69]. This liminal pseudomaturity is what some would call young adulthood, while many others are now calling it something else.

4 Emerging adulthood as a new life stage

For the last hundred years, adolescence has usually ended by age 25 with the watershed emergence of the socioeconomic role changes related to young adulthood—culturally defined often by successive steps that include the end of schooling, a stable career, and new family formation. Within the last several decades a newer trend has developed as a result of demographic shifts that parallel larger cultural shifts in American society. More and more youth in their twenties today are unmarried, childless, living at home, and still completing education, reflecting broader changes in societal norms, values, and behaviors related to what it means to be an adult. In addition, lack of work opportunities combined with increasing costs of higher education and independent living have made the transition into adulthood more prolonged, chaotic, complex, and varied than at any other time in history [6, 74, 87, 89]. I argue that a lack of effective rites of passage for youth transitioning them into adulthood contributes to this cultural and demographic shift. How can youth believe they have achieved adulthood, when many developmental markers and associated rites are diffused, delayed, disordered, unobtainable, or unwanted?

These very unique cultural trends have led some sociologists and developmental psychologists to argue that a new life stage has been created in the human life course, coined “emerging adulthood” by developmental research psychologist Jeffrey Arnett [5].Footnote 6 This period cannot be considered an “extended adolescence” because of the greater degree of freedom from parental controls. Nor can it be considered “young adulthood” because that implies an early stage of adulthood has been reached. Emerging adulthood as a separate life stage helps to explain the trends occurring among youth today who between the ages of 18–30 are not yet adults but not adolescents either. They are “adulting,” which is slang for adult-like behavior by not-yet-adults that is seen as mature and responsible, such as paying bills and going to the dentist. Many popular TV shows act as a socialization agent [86] and reflect through Hollywood’s lens those adulting and experiencing emerging adulthood in their twenties in contemporary America.

Since this new stage’s trajectory through such a confusing and fluid passage can take many “winding turns,” it is less directed by clear cultural and institutional scripts and boundaries and thus transition markers and associated rites. Without these external developmental markers, how does a young person know when she is an adult? The criteria to measure the attainment and transition into adulthood is, in many ways, self-defined and self-evaluated by these emerging adults. Though I would argue it reflects the larger culture’s priorities, especially the dominant theme of individualism—what has been modeled and taught to today’s youth. Most emerging adults surveyed consider the acquisition of personal self-sufficiency reflected in the possession of three character qualities important measurements of adulthood gained in their lives. This includes (1) making independent decisions, (2) assuming financial self-sufficiency, and (3) accepting responsibility for oneself and one’s actions [4, 71, 89]. In most cases, this independence is specifically from parents [6]. However, it is difficult to separate the effects of self-defined self-reliance from the previous role-based transitions because new roles often provide the conduits for building these capacities. Thus, certain transition markers related to cohabitating, marriage, and parenthood remain relevant to self-perceived adulthood [70]. Many emerging adults do achieve independent living, committed domestic partners, educational goals, and vocational stability by the end of their twenties—similar to the previous socioeconomic outcomes—just not according to a standard sequence or timetable. Similar to previous transitions, the adolescent transition into emerging adulthood and into young adulthood exhibits biological, social, psychological, and legal milestones that mark this progressive passage. This section explores these newer more internal and subjective milestones, all of which are youth-defined character qualities that emphasize the centrality of the self, as well as previous markers still found to be important related to social roles that emphasize communal relationships.

4.1 Biological adulthood: cognitive-specific physical markers

Emerging adults aged 18 and older have typically completed puberty and reached full reproductive maturity, but this does not mean the end of physical changes. Unlike the previous biological changes, this stage’s neurodevelopmental changes are internal and unseen. Of the three character qualities defined by youth as desirable goals and thus important developmental milestones, independent decision-making or functioning independently requires a high level of cognitive maturity and the ability to identify and weigh possible choices. Scientific consensus now upholds that most human brains do not fully develop until age 25 and the rate of this development is markedly varied in young people. As new mental capacities develop, emerging adults should be able to delay gratification, filter unnecessary input, plan for the future, regulate their emotions, problem solve, and make their own decisions [89]. Until this cognitive and emotional maturity solidifies, youth should rely more heavily on the input of involved adults, knowledgeable communities, religion, laws, and etcetera to help make important decisions. The most common ritualization activities associated with the capacity for complex thinking cited by many emerging youth as a benchmark relate to familial dynamics and substance use. The inclusion of them in “backstage” family decisions and secrets by older generations acknowledges their ability to weigh options and offer advice or opinions and their new near-equal familial relationship [68]. The end of the excessive use of substances like alcohol and other risky behaviors is seen by them as signaling their readiness for adulthood and their ability to control their impulses and delay gratifications [3, 26, 50]. According to Statista, in 2021, 17% of American teens aged 18–20 binged use alcohol, while more than twice as many at 37% of those aged 21–25 and 35% of those aged 26–29 binged use alcohol [75]. In 2019, in the U.S. there were 686 fatal crashes due to a distracted driver by 25–34 year-olds, versus 297 fatal crashes by 21–24 year-olds [13].

4.2 Social adulthood: role-specific socioeconomic markers

In an increasingly postmodern America, individualism, self-realization, and personal expression have become ever more popular, leading to a diversification of life options and pathways. Thus, many emerging adults today do not consider many of the previously used demographic developmental markers (such as marrying, leaving home, or having kids) as the most relevant to measure the acquisition of social adulthood [6, 49]. One of the defining characteristics of the emerging adult phase is a lack of definite roles and place in society, allowing for much role exploration. It is also harder for emerging adults to complete the needed education, find a fulltime living-wage job with benefits, and thus leave home before their late twenties or early thirties [24]. In an age when previously sought roles are more difficult to achieve, are gained and then lost, or undesired, one role-based marker has come to the forefront. The socioeconomic developmental marker that continues to be widely viewed as marking the transition into adulthood is achieving financial independence [87], especially from one’s parents. Almost two-thirds of twentysomethings receive support from their parents [24]. Other role transitions that continue to resonate with twentysomethings are the completion of education and gainful employment. These markers of social adulthood uphold the values of self-sufficiency and self-reliance, which is markedly different from the more other-oriented former criteria enacted in relationships [5]. Relatedly, some emerging adults still cite home-leaving as a major benchmark on the road to adulthood, with one-in-three aged 18–34 living in their parents’ home in 2021 [60]. Those who achieve marriage or parenthood cite these experiences as ushering in adulthood because it requires more responsibilities towards others [70]. In many cases, some but not all markers are achieved. The most common ritualization activities observed regarding social maturation relate to finances and family. Many emerging adults cite the ability to pay their own way without parental financial support as indicative of their growing adultness, especially obtaining one’s own credit card, car, and cellphone [87]. Only 55% of 18–29 year-olds have at least one credit card [65]. Many emerging adults cite sitting at the adult table at holiday gatherings as a major benchmark signaling their acceptance as adults in the family [68], the group affiliation likeliest to make them feel not an adult [70].

4.3 Psychological adulthood: identity-specific personal markers

The third character quality, accepting responsibility for one’s actions, requires achieving a high level of psychological maturity and self-awareness. While in adolescence a person begins to form one’s identity separate from others, it is within emerging adulthood that this self-identity becomes stable and consolidated. According to scholars like Arnett [5], emerging adulthood offers the most opportunity for intense identity exploration and reflection in such areas as love, work, and worldview. Because of their still consolidating identity, emerging adults are given the wherewithal to explore sexual preferences, moral standards, and personal beliefs. The completion of neurobiological processes and the assumption of new social roles, especially towards others as a partner, parent, or caretaker, helps to crystallize one’s sense of self as an adult. As some sociologists have noted, a person’s self-image and felt or self-perceived age seems to trail behind our actual behavior and real or chronological age, requiring time and reflection before there is a shift in the mind and feelings as to one’s identity as an adult. Likewise, how others view oneself effects one’s sense of self and maturation status, speaking to the need for validation [68]. Many of the existing ritualization activities associated with psychological development and identity formation involve travel experiences. A study abroad semester, a gap year of backpacking, or a Kerouac-style cross-country road trip, all of which are similar to the eighteenth century Grand Tour of Europe, can be a major turning point. It allows for independent travel that generates reflection and identity consolidation of important values [32]. Yet, less than 10% of college students study abroad during their degree program [54].

4.4 Legal adulthood: age-specific legal markers

The two major state-endorsed legal markers attained in a person’s twenties are, as with the previous chronological adolescent transitions, age specific and fixed. At age 21 a person can legally drink alcohol and purchase tobacco and vape products. As before, the most obvious rites of passage for emerging adults are related to the legal threshold of drinking at age 21. Four of five celebrate their 21st birthday with alcoholic drinking, with 12% consuming a hazardous 21 drinks [66].

Recognizing the difficulties of youth today, many American societal institutions have slowly begun to change public legal policies regarding dependent-claimed twentysomethings [87]. The California State Assembly extended foster care benefits and services to age 21 in the state (up from 18), effective in 2012. Per the federal 2010 Health Care Reform law, youth can remain on their parents’ health insurance until the age of 26 (up from 19), regardless of their marriage or student status.Footnote 7 Probably no one celebrates this loss of legal- and tax-dependent status. As with the previous adolescent-related legal age milestones, these milestones are not viewed as important developmental markers of achieving adulthood by emerging adults because they are unearned and arbitrarily given. Age is a poor substitute for determining a youth’s maturation.

In sum, during the emerging adulthood stage, increasing individualistic agency and independence occur in conjunction with decreasing institutional, communal, and familial supports. Most emerging adults’ significant daily relationships are with other emerging adults. Youth are all too often surrounded by their peers in a same-age social network [74]. This limits the amount and quality of mentoring advice and teachings received, the accountability brought to bear, and the obligations and responsibilities incurred. As with the adolescent life stage, there are not many existing rites of passage associated with the prevailing (and mostly shallow) milestones of emerging adulthood, possibly because it is still such a newly acknowledged life stage. The newer milestones of self-sufficiency found in self-directed decision-making, finances, and responsibility for actions are much more subjective criteria than the previous demographic criteria such as marriage and children, making it all the harder to observe and validate with related rites, especially if they have few ties to mature adults. It would seem that a corrective needs to occur regarding the essential developmental markers of this stage’s progression before rites can be addressed. Tanya Sharon’s [71] survey found that 98% had already attained independent decision making and accepting responsibility for actions at an average age of 20.38 for participants. Yet, risky behaviors continue to be an issue. After all, cognitive, social, and psychological maturity is a gradual process that begins in adolescence. While making one’s own decisions is a worthwhile goal, I argue a more definitive marker of cognitive maturity is the full awareness of others outside oneself and the existence of multiple, other perspectives on any given situation or issue that requires critical reasoning and the weighing of options to make well-informed, self-directed decisions and judgements that healthily balance the consideration of self against others—which sometimes requires putting others’ needs first, whether it be children, spouses, or coworkers. Secondly, social maturity requires more than self-sufficiency; it entails being a productive, contributing member of society who conforms to societal norms and standards in different roles appropriate to different situations in which one gives as well as takes from surroundings. This is achieved through impulse control, reliability, and accountability. This combines the importance of acquiring adult social roles, whether it be not-in-school, not-at-home, worker, partner, caretaker, as well as the importance of personal character qualities [41]. Thirdly, psychological maturity entails the ability for emotional and mental self-care and the stabilization of a political, gender, sexual, moral, and/or religious identity of one’s own, such as becoming a vegetarian, feminist, or environmentalist or joining a political party, church, or activist group—all of which reflect the internalization of a healthy known self-identity. It requires thoughtful reading and introspection that leads to the individuation of beliefs and values that establishes one’s own worldview.

These more expansive and attainable criteria are endorsed by youth as important to achieving adulthood, after the top three independence traits, including relational maturity at 71.1%, norm compliance at 67.5%, and role transitions at 59.5% [71]. Arnett [4] also alludes to these modifications of criteria in his discussion. With the developmental criteria for the transition out of emerging adulthood and into young adulthood still currently debated and uncertain, it is not surprising there is a definite lack of associated rites of passage as well. How does one create associated rites of passage in such a situation? Would it be better to correct the experience of adolescents in hopes of staving off the emerging adulthood stages’ permanency?

5 How a lack of effective rites leads to a lack of wellbeing

The socioeconomic resources, educational and vocational opportunities, and experiences of youth during adolescence and emerging adulthood greatly influence the trajectory within and out of these life stages and into adulthood [41, 71]. It is also true that most youth-related problems of misguided living have their origins in the larger adult world into which these youth are socialized, because youth culture reflects to a large extent American culture in general. Some scholarly literature addresses these problems, such as civic disengagement, habitual intoxication, and moral adriftness, by advocating for universities to promote healthy lifestyles, for adult family and friends to mentor, and for religious communities to provide moral teaching [74]. Yet, the literature does not much focus on the equal importance of public ritual celebrations and familial validation of the transitional achievements in youths’ lives that help them “feel” like adults. American initiatory rites for youth to orient, instruct, challenge, mentor, celebrate, and validate the passage from childhood into adolescence and beyond by such societal institutions as the family, school, church, sports, and community are almost non-existent. There are still many youth-centered biological, socioeconomic, psychological, and legal transition markers of development, but no similar intentional rites to mark the attainment of these milestones. Instead, there are an array of age-based, passage-related “activities” that are usually connected to secular social events and our legal system, such as completing schooling or getting one’s driver license [34]. More often than not, when the rite disperses into a ritualization activity that is unstructured, personal, or peer-based, it does not fully flesh out any of the three phases of Van Gennep-Turner’s useful model, nor does it employ the principles of ritual enactment first discussed in order to make the experience reflective and meaningful—which leaves something to be desired. The types and quantities of rituals found in a culture reaffirm and validate the values and beliefs of the society. What does this situation say about America today? Non-existent, ineffective, indifferent, inappropriate, or abusive rites can lead to confusion, angst, and anxiety [34]. In 1994 the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential named the lack of rites of passage in global society as a major problem [79]. There is a general “disorientation of youth” as a result of a lack of guidelines on how to operate in society in age-based roles, which causes youth to feel confused, disillusioned, alienated, and discouraged. The Union of International Associations who publishes the encyclopedia views the paralysis of elders faced with the future and the limited community responsibility of adults as related causative problems. Without such intentional guidelines and initiations there is a serious breakdown in the maturation process of our youth. Which aggravates youth-related risky behaviors such as delinquency, criminal activity, substance misuse or overuse, early sexual activity, and suicide.

6 Need for new rites for youth

Youth today need to be loved, engaged, and mentored in order to flourish. They also need to be ritualized into adulthood for their well-being. I agree with critiques of the tripartite rites of passage model that argue that the model is an invention, a construction imposed rather than discovered [34]. Too often scholars fail to note Van Gennep and Turner’s own commentary on the tripartite structure of such rites. While Van Gennep [85] holds that a complete schema theoretically includes all three subcategories of rites, “in specific instances these three types are not always equally important or equally elaborated.” He never claims to have developed a rigid classification that must include all three kinds of rites as independent, fully detailed stages—only that if all three exist the order will always be the same. In some rites one stage is emphasized over the others. As Van Gennep [85] states it, “Rites of separation are prominent in funeral ceremonies, rites of incorporation at marriages. Transition rites may play an important part, for instance, in pregnancy, betrothal, and initiation.” Also, Turner [83] focuses more attention on the middle, marginal or liminal phase of the tripartite model, the “betwixt and between” times, as being especially experientially rich and transformational. Many successive theorists and practitioners alike have built upon this tripartite rites-of-passage model. Adventure therapy programs like Outward Bound have created intense wilderness journeys that mirror this structure by having expedition participants separate from society, spend time in the liminal wilderness learning technical and interpersonal skills, in order to return to society transformed [51]. Turner [83] concedes that the model is based on ethnographic work done in small-scale traditional societies where this three-part structure reaches its “maximal expression,” where life changes are correlated with biological and meteorological rhythms.

Theorists or practitioners seeking to build a model and subsequent program for rites of passage who use Van Gennep-Turner’s tripartite structure as a theoretical foundation should fully understand its functions and limitations. As Julian Norris [51] notes, treating the model as a self-evident truth and applying it simplistically as a program formula is likely to yield shallow results (and possibly ineffective, unethical, and unintended results). However, applying the model incompletely, incorrectly, or superficially does not negate its potential worth. In my view, the model does have merit. A three-step process that attends to each part of the story of a transformation can be empowering—whether it be Van Gennep’s rites of separation, marginality, and incorporation or Joseph Campbell’s [12] heroic narrative pattern of departure, ordeal, and return, Mircea Eliade’s [18] divine model of symbolic death, recapitulation, and rebirth, or Bruce Lincoln’s [44] model for girls’ initiation of enclosure, metamorphosis, and emergence.

Any offered model should also attend to different possible levels of interaction and how this affects the specialness, expansiveness, and responsiveness of the rite. I offer an amended version of Van Gennep-Turner’s tripartite model that incorporates a macro/public and meso/interpersonal tier into the model. Thus, a youth-focused rites-of-passage model must include a macro-rite of orientation that acknowledges and prepares for the transition beginning that reviews the past identity of child, acknowledges the commencement of the adolescent life stage, and looks to the future ending in young adulthood. Secondly, the model must include an interpersonal phase of periodic meso-rites of socialization by mentors that address the changes taking place and desired outcomes through given instructions, set challenges, imposed reflections, and celebrations. These rites socialize youth and change their self-perception regarding their status, identity, roles, and responsibilities. Lastly, it must include a macro-rite of validation that enacts a celebratory reconciliation that changes the perception of others regarding the initiate’s place in society by incorporating the initiate into the new adult status in the community. This final rite fulfills the need for witnesses and recognition of the transition that has occurred. It is often the only rite enacted. In what follows I will utilize this orientation-socialization-validation model to flesh out possible new rites of passage for youth.

First, older adults need to become involved in the lives of youth which leads to the setting of appropriate developmental milestones. Secondly, we need to find new, compelling, and meaningful ways of acknowledging and ritualizing the important milestones gained and transitions occurring from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. As a cultural priority, youth rites should celebrate the biological, socioeconomic, and psychological transformative changes that occur in the adolescent and emerging adult life stages—not just the legal privileges gained. There are some organizations that provide age-appropriate instruction on important topics, such as The Social Institute, Common Sense Media, Wait Until 8th, and Parents Together. There are some organizations that initiate the young through mentoring (though none offer initiation rites as described above), including Youth Mentoring Connection, Generations United, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Boy and Girl Scouts of America. But the majority of youth and their families remain unengaged in these organizations. Some scholars have noted the potential for college campuses to offer a communal, place-based initiation into adulthood over a period of four years or more [11]. Unfortunately, this paper is long on the diagnosis and shorter on the prescription.

Because rites are culturally defined, one cannot simply borrow or cannibalize rites from other cultures or places in the process of inventing or renewing rites. Since American culture is also not homogenous, while the core principles guiding such rites will be similar, the applications could be different [2]. Grimes argues that effective rites of passage have three characteristics, which reflect how I have defined any ritual. First, initiation rites function to draw attention to and reflection on the transition, both spiritually, psychologically, and socially. Anyone who has not undergone the formative preparation and orientation in their heart, mind, and relations that makes the rite meaningful dilutes its transformative power. Most scholars fail to note that both Van Gennep and Turner describe rites of passage that last anywhere from days to months to years to include time for such reflection, preparation, and orientation. No rite(s) for any life passage should be quick, easy, or thoughtless. It is a process and a journey with multiple steps—not a magic trick. Second, effective, well-designed rites are characterized by and have the purpose of marking and making a transformation of body, roles, and identity. We undergo such rites because a life crisis has already begun, but in the enacted rites we attempt to understand and finalize the substantial change. The symbols employed, the acts embodied, the place and time set should all speak to the changes taking place. Thirdly, initiation rites require much from the initiates undergoing the rite and their communities. The rites must be successfully located within a healthy community context and ideally the rite strengthens the participants’ connection to that community. This is how, for Grimes, the rite becomes “deeply etched into the bone” [34].

One way of moving forward would be to make these rites coincide with and relate to existing developmental milestones associated with current physical, social, psychological, and legal changes taking place. Following my outlined model, for youth-related biological pubescence there could be an orientative macro-rite with the beginning of menstruation and/or ejaculation. This would be followed by a successive series of instructive teachings that explain sexual development and health, hygiene, and the dangers of risky behaviors that are paired with challenging and celebratory meso-rites related to major thresholds gained such as the beginning of shaving, wearing a bra, or showering instead of bathing. And a final macro-rite would validate the gaining of biological adulthood. Relatedly, there could be an orientative macro-rite at the beginning of social adolescence when new freedoms and responsibilities are given. Followed by periodic meso-rites of instruction, challenges, and celebrations related to such milestones gained as the giving of chores for an allowance, the first time away at camp, a first paycheck, military enlistment, or university admittance letter. A final macro-rite would validate the maturation process into social adulthood. In order to convert existing psychologically-related opportunities, following my model, there could an orientative macro-rite enacted when youth begin to assert their own will, identity, and thinking as separate individuals. This would be followed by meso-rites helping youth explore and form their preferences, values, and beliefs. Finally, a celebratory macro-rite would acknowledge and validate the successes gained, the self-selected religious commitments and group affiliations affirmed and the declared lifestyle trajectory that informs and sets future expectations.

Since greater financial independence is still a main professed goal of older youth, an overall program of financial wellbeing could be developed by any interested adult stakeholders that includes an initial rite of orientation that acknowledges the need for lifelong financial health, outlines the journey ahead, and requires youth to agree to undertake the challenge. It would include successive acts of mentoring, teaching, and doing that explore what financial independence entails and what future milestones should be established. It may include teachings related to saving, investing, mortgaging, leasing, and renting that clarifies youths’ values and commitments in order to create a five-year financial plan. A rite within this instructive phase could involve a field trip to acquire a bank account and credit card as necessary tools. A final celebratory rite could publically validate the solutions found and the milestones achieved, such as consolidating debt, maintaining a good credit score, or following a monthly budget. It would be a months-long process of successive rites following a tripartite orientation-socialization-validation model that aims to integrate the youth into our society and economy and financial adulthood. One ingenious journalist, after watching with her 13-year-old son a young Kunta Kinte in Roots (1977) experience “manhood training” that required skills tests, devised 13 challenges covering 13 different areas of life for her son to complete that included riding the train alone, cooking dinner, and a solo thirteen-mile walk [62]. These intentionally designed rites, in order to be effective, need to be distinct experiences with active participation and reflection by youth and the giving of knowledge and mentoring by connected adults in order to encourage a transformation of roles and identity and a sense of unity with the community. The rite-of-passage process must guide youth through difficult transitions by affirming familial, social, and cultural values, needed skills, and obligatory responsibilities. The goal must be to evoke a passage into adulthood in which one is a productive member of the community who understands the new role(s), required behaviors, and is able to meet the new responsibilities of this adult identity.

7 Conclusion

Enacted rites can be powerful and transformative meaning makers. The adolescent and emerging adult life stages are full of potential opportunities for youth-based rites. It is also possible that emerging adulthood could be experienced differently or shortened with the correction or addition of healthy developmental milestones for achieving adulthood and effective rites of passage that bring about and validate achievements gained. In many fictional media we are presented with creative, intentional, and meaningful teachings and challenges for youth that dramatize some aspect(s) of the many biological, social, economic, spiritual, and mental changes occurring. Think The Karate Kid (1984) or Dead Poets Society (1989). We need to be just as creative in our real lives. Today, most American youth-centered rites are age-graded, legal-related ritualization activities. This does not have to be so. And it is to our detriment if we do not rise to the challenge.