I'll start off with an example of contrast between youth and young adults. Everyone says that adolescence is a time of identity formation, and also a time when self-esteem is really a key issue. Fundamental questions are, Who am I?, and, Am I OK? You experiment with identity, and you want people to love you for who you are. Now I'm not saying that need ever goes away; but in young adulthood, especially after you get out of school, the focus changes. It's less, Am I OK? and more, Am I doing OK? Less about who I am, and more about what I am accomplishing. After a certain point, people get fed up with being told, "you're wonderful no matter what you do." They want to know, did I do it well, or not? Young adults want to start making an impact on the real world. It starts to be less about self-esteem, and more about achievement.
An example of how this affects programming is the coffeehouses or talent shows we have at conferences. At a youth coffeehouse, the goal is to give every kid a chance to be celebrated. It's a beautiful thing to see the shy kid who hasn't spoken all weekend finally get up and read a poem he wrote. The quality of the poem is just not an issue. We are all beautiful.
At a young adult coffeehouse, people are much more interested in the excellence of the performances. There's a joy in seeing other community members do something really well. People want to be encouraged and inspired by the possibilities of acheivement, to call each other to excellence. It's more important to see one person whose skill inspires you, than to see five UUYANers in a row get showered with unconditional love for doing random things on stage.
It's a different phase. In some ways, the needs are opposite.
So what are young adults worried about achieving? What are the developmental tasks of young adulthood? I'm going to mention some areas: Adulthood, Religion, Career, and Sexuality.