Report from the EA SIG Meeting at 2002 SRA Biennial Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana  
by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett 

The first meeting of the Emerging Adulthood SIG was lively and fruitful. Many good ideas were offered for how to develop the group and how to develop emerging adulthood as a field of study. Here is a summary of those ideas. 

1. Review Panel on EA for SRA 2004. It was suggested that we should request a review panel specifically on emerging adulthood for SRA 2004. Initial inquiries on this topic were received favorably, so it looks promising. Look for this panel when it comes time to submit, and submit there if you have something on EA. The more submissions we get, the more likely we will be to retain this panel at the following SRA. 
   
2. EA at SRCD. We had a discussion of whether SRCD would accept submissions on EA for their next meeting in 2003. I queried the program chairs for that meeting, Erika Hoff and Brett Laursen, and they replied as follows: "To the best of our knowledge there is no rule regarding the maximum permissible age of subjects. We suggest you pick the most appropriate panel based on the topic and go ahead and submit." So, it sounds like it would be worth a try. The last SRCD did have a number of symposia on the transition to adulthood, so there does not appear to be any reason why the next SRCD would not accept proposals using the term "emerging adulthood." 
   
3. Journals Publishing Articles on EA. We had a discussion of where to submit articles on EA. Journal of Research on Adolescence was viewed pessimistically because of that journal’s stated goal of publishing studies on "the second decade of life," and this was confirmed later in a conversation I had with Brad Brown, the editor. However, several other journals have published recent articles specifically on EA, including Journal of Adolescent Research, Journal of Youth & Adolescence, and Youth & Society, so all three of these journals are promising places to submit EA articles. Other journals suggested were Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, International Journal of Behavioral Development, and Identity. 
   
4. Special Issues on EA. Several people suggested organizing a special issue of a journal that would bring together EA papers on a specific topic. Ofra Mayseless is thinking of organizing such an issue for Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Identity is another possible journal. I spoke to the editor, Jim Coté, at SRA and he said they would be receptive to the idea of a special issue on EA, so if anyone would like to take the lead on this, let me know. Journal of Social Issues is an APA journal that does only special issues, so this is another possibility. 
   
5. Expanded EA SIG Web Site. A wealth of ideas were offered for developing the web site, including: 

• Links to other web sites related to EA
• Funding opportunities
• Postdoc opportunities
• Membership roster with names, addresses, and interest areas
• Resource list of measures and methods
• Book reviews
• Summaries of recent articles
• Ongoing bibliography of journal articles, books, and other publications on EA
• Stat page with the latest statistics on a variety of areas related to EA
• Calls for collaborations on special issues, symposia, etc.
• Teaching ideas and resources for courses on EA. 

These are very promising ideas, and I will begin developing them. If anyone would like to assist, please contact me (arnett@wam.umd.edu)