The paper addresses, some problems concerning contemporary threats to human development in adulthood. With a reference to the R.J. Havighurst concept, the threats were examined from the perspective of the possibilities to fulfill developmental tasks in the period of adulthood. The phenomena creating a general context of the threats (among others social transformation or changes in the understanding of autonomy) as well as those that disturb the fulfillment of vital developmental tasks especially with regard to family and occupation (e.g. egocentrization and infantilization of adults, the disappearance of generativity) were scrutinized. Possibilities of preventing the phenomena endangering individual development were also presented.