Emerging adulthood features and criteria for adulthood: Variable- and person-centered approaches

Abstract

Reaching adulthood is the aim of the transition to adulthood; however, emerging adults differently define both adulthood and the transitional period they are living. Variable-centered and person-centered approaches were integrated in the present paper to investigate if the criteria used to define adulthood are linked to how emerging adults perceive the transitional phase they are going through. Participants were 1513 emerging adults (53.60% female; 807 university students and 706 young workers), aged from 19 to 30 years. Participants completed self-report measures about dimensions of emerging adulthood and criteria for adulthood. Main results revealed that, according to the variablecentered approach, criteria of adulthood and dimensions of emerging adulthood are only slightly associated, while the person-centered approach revealed that people who have a composite view of adulthood are also less probably perceiving their emerging adulthood as a period characterized by a lack of possibilities. Implications and future lines of research are discussed.

Criteria for the transition to adulthood, developmental features of emerging adulthood, and views of the future among Greek studying youth

“…The role of contextual variables related to the financial crisis, such as unemployement, underemployment, and underpaid jobs, should be examined both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Also, person-centered approaches (e.g., Tagliabue et al, 2016) may identify clusters or profiles of youth with different conceptions and experiences of the transition to adulthood, by assessing important variables, such as types of identity status or dimensions of identity development, with more detail than in the present research. Τhe interplay of several economic and educational factors may lead to diverse paths to adulthood, at least as far as the felt experience of emerging adulthood, conceptions of what it means to be an adult, and identity outcomes are concerned.…”

“…The seven subscales have been used in many studies across cultures, without empirical examination of the factorial structure (Arnett, 2001, 2003; Cheah & Nelson, 2004; Cheah, Trinder, & Gokavi, 2010; Crocetti & Tagliabue, 2015; Facio & Micocci, 2003; Kins & Beyers, 2010; McNamara Barry & Nelson, 2005; Nelson & Barry, 2005; Nelson et al, 2004; Petrogiannis, 2011; Piumatti et al, 2016; Sirsch et al, 2009; Wängqvist & Frisén, 2015), whereas this structure was examined in fewer investigations (Arnett & Padilla-Walker, 2015; Badger et al, 2006; Doğan et al, 2015; Mayseless & Scharf, 2003; Tagliabue, Crocetti, & Lanz, 2016). In most of the former studies, some subscales (e.g., Independence) had low Cronbach alphas, whereas in the latter studies, variations from the original theoretical structure of the measure emerged but still some subscales exhibited low reliabilities.…”

Emerging Adulthood Features and Adjustment

“…Using the personcentered approach could thus provide a more comprehensive understanding of how this transition period may be experienced and the adjustment issues that may be associated with it. Tagliabue, Crocetti, and Lanz (2016) recently conducted a study involving 1,513 youths aged 19-30 in which a personcentered approach was applied to the IDEA. The authors performed a cluster analysis, submitting the scores obtained on the original five features of the IDEA (the other-focus dimension was not included).…”

Alcohol Use and Emerging Adult Development: a Latent Profile Analysis of Community Drinkers

“…Based on previous research on the relationship between Arnett's dimensions of emerging adult identity and alcohol use (Gates et al, 2016;Lisha et al, 2014;Smith et al, 2014) we anticipated that emerging adult profiles reflecting greater identity exploration, experimentation/possibilities, self-focus, feeling in-between, and negativity/instability will be associated with higher levels of binge drinking, alcohol problems, and social drinking motives, which are typical of emerging adulthood. Because background variables are related to perceptions of emerging adulthood (Reifman et al, 2007;Tagliabue et al, 2016), we also examined sociodemographic variables in relation to features of emerging adulthood.…”