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AcknowledgementsThis research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 846839, awarded to Anne Reitz. There are no conflicts of interest to disclose.The preregistration of hypotheses and the analysis plan, code, and data are available on the OSF (https://osf.io/ksugw/). The research materials can also be found on the OSF (Study 1: https://osf.io/fwak9/; Study 2: https://osf.io/evys8).
Introduction: Experiences during the last years of college could stimulate identity formation processes within and across the domains of future plans and education. In the present study, the irst research question addressed how identity formation dimensions for education and future plans were associated with each other during the last years in education. The second research question addressed whether identity processes (i.e., identity levels, changes herein, and the associations among identity variables between and within domains) would be different for students who were doing an internship versus those who did not. Method: We used a longitudinal design with three measurement occasions. Participants were Dutch psychology college students (N = 287; 83.3% women; M age = 21.8 years, SD = 2.0). We used two different self-report instruments to measure identity processes (i.e., commitment and exploration) in the domains of future plans and education. Results: We found that commitments in the domains of future plans and education were signiicantly associated. Enrollment in a practical internship was largely unrelated to identity processes, as it did not explain individual differences in identity levels, changes herein and associations between and within domains. Conclusions: Our results suggest integration between educational identity and future plans for commitment processes. At a group level, a practical internship in itself did not explain individual differences in identity processes.
Objective: Why personality changes in young adulthood remains a critical theoretical and empirical question. We studied personality change during the education-to-work transition, including (1) the specific timing of personality change, (2) the degree of individual variability in change, and (3) the link between sense of mastery and personality change. Methods: We used data from two intensive longitudinal studies. Study 1 included 5 waves of data across 2 years during the university-to-work transition (N=309; mean-aged 25). Study 2 included 3 waves of data across 8 months during an internship-heavy teacher education program (N=317; mean-aged 22). We assessed personality traits and personality states and work-related and general sense of mastery using questionnaires and experience sampling.Results: First, we found no evidence for mean-level personality maturation. Second, young adults differed significantly in change of personality traits and aggregated states. Third, young adults with higher levels of work-related sense of mastery showed more positive changes in trait Conscientiousness. Decreases in general sense of mastery predicted later decreases in state Emotional Stability and vice versa. Change in general sense of mastery correlated with personality change. Conclusions: Sense of mastery seems to be part of a dynamic short-term process underlying personality change in young adulthood.
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