Emerging Adulthood: Transformative Years

Author Bio

Subject Matter Experts:

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, PhD, is a research professor 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 the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research and author of the book, Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, published in 2004 by Oxford University Press. He is also author of one of the most widely-used textbooks on adolescent development, entitled Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (2009, Prentice Hall, 4th Edition). He has appeared on television and frequently in print media, including a cover story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine in August, 2010. His new book is entitled, When Will My Grown Kid Grow Up? Loving and Understanding Your Emerging Adult. (Workman Publishing.)

Harold Bendicsen, LCSW, BCD, is a clinical social worker who maintains a private practice in Elmhurst, Illinois. He holds a certificate in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He has held clinical, supervisory, and administrative positions in child welfare agencies, residential treatment centers, and social service agencies. He is Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work and a member of the faculty of the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Maxine Wintre has been described by her students as very enthusiastic, funny, organized, knowing her material, and delivering informative, clear, and enjoyable lectures. She is professor of psychology at York University and conducts research on the transition from adolescence to adulthood. She has written, published, and presented at international conferences on aspects of this topic and has been the recipient of many awards and grants over the years. Among the different topics on emerging adulthood, Dr. Wintre has conducted many studies on students of divorced parents vs. students from intact families and their transition to university; plus studies of minority vs. majority students and their transition to university.

Jesse Viner, MD, founded Yellowbrick, a treatment center in Evanston, Illinois, in recognition of the specialized needs of emerging adults and their families, and the necessity for a treatment system that addressed the unique challenges of the transition into adulthood. In his program, Yellowbrick, Viner and his colleagues use their Developmental Neurobiology Model to offer an integrated treatment paradigm for treating emerging adults with substance abuse disorders. This treatment model is grounded in and guided by the latest research findings of the sociocultural, genetic, and neurobiological factors.

A recognized expert in the treatment of eating disorders, difficulties resulting from trauma and abuse, and bipolar disorder, Dr. Viner has three decades of experience applying the knowledge of psychiatry and psychoanalysis to the challenge of creating meaningful and pragmatically effective treatment programs.

Following his education at Yale, The Chicago Medical School, Northwestern University Medical School Psychiatry Residency and The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, Dr. Viner has served as Director of Adult Psychiatry Inpatient Services for Northwestern University Medical School; Medical Director of Four Winds Chicago, a private psychiatric healthcare system; and Director of University Behavioral Health, a group practice on the North Shore of Chicago. He is on the faculty of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and Rush Medical College, and on the faculty at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Dr. Viner is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Interviewer:

Barbara Alexander, LCSW, BCD,, is a graduate of the Smith College School for Social Work and the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. After working for 13 years in child psychiatric settings and 30 years in private practice, she is now founder and president of On Good Authority, and an expert interviewer.