Is there a term for men in their twenties and thirties? I'm specifically asking in the context of men although I imagine there might be a gender neutral adjective.
- "Young man" seems like it could encompass teenagers.
- "Young adult man" seems the same
- "Post-adolescent" seems again teenager-ish
- "Pre-middle age"?
This is for an academic research project that describes the lives of men who are out of high-school (and maybe college) but before they marry (hopefully) in their mid-late 30s. The student is using "men in their twenties and thirties" but we were hoping there was something more succinct.
Best Answer
According to Wikipedia, "young adult"hood for psychologists is in the neighborhood of 20-39/40 year-olds, which would fit your student's population fairly well. There is clearly some variability; in addition to that pointed out in the article, for example, the American Psychological Association considers 18-29 to be the young adult age group, and 30-39 is called thirties, in its PsycINFO database. However, I think if the term were defined up front, it would be well understood (and clearly does not include younger teens).
I would therefore suggest Young adult males (this sounds better to me than young adult men, since the sexes are generally divided into male and female—see "Population" in the document linked above).