Young adults are defined as those aged 20-34 years old. Ronald Rindfuss called this a ‘demographically dense phase’, because this is the time when a large number of crucial demographic actions occur. Young adults are faced with many decisions in their life regarding education, employment, relationship and marriage, sexual intimacy, family formation and family planning and living arrangements. The density of events during the young people years is even more dramatic during periods of rapid social change because ‘young people are typically the engines of social change’. Nevertheless young adults are often forgotten as Indonesian policy makers continue to see them as dependent children even as they reach ages traditionally associated with autonomy. In contrast, in developed countries, policy discussions have long been informed by studies on transition to adulthood including some based on sophisticated longitudinal surveys.

This study is the first comprehensive survey in Indonesia focusing at young adults’ life including their political and religious affiliations, their voting behaviours, gender aspiration, health and wellbeing and risky health behaviour. Parental background economic status as well as political and voting behaviour our also inclused in the survey. We named the survey ‘The 2009/2010 Greater Jakarta Transition to Adulthood SurveyŸ? of 3006 representative samples collected through a multi stage PPS random sampling in Jakarta, Bekasi and Tanggerang. In this presentation, preliminary results on education, employment, gender norms, motherhood and fatherhood, exposure to media and political affiliation will be presented.