Emerging Adulthood: Theory, Assessment and Application

Abstract

The later attainment of traditional adult roles by today’s youth compared to their counterparts of earlier decades has garnered considerable scholarly and public attention. This article describes a recent concept related to the transition to adulthood, known as emerging adulthood, including a discussion of relevant theory and historical background research. We then introduce a measurement instrument, the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA), which assesses identification with transition-to-adulthood themes. Results of initial scale-development studies were largely supportive of the measure’s reliability and validity. Respondents in their 20s identified with relevant themes to a greater extent than did their younger and older counterparts. Marital status differences on the IDEA emerged, but college and non-college respondents were largely similar. Finally, we provide suggestions for how parent educators can make use of the IDEA instrument in advising parents and their emerging adult children.

Número Completo/Full Number

“…During the scale development an additional dimension, other-focus, was created. In the first validation study of the IDEA, Reifman, Arnett and Colwell (2007) found that when comparing age groups, the IDEA sub-scales for identity exploration (i.e., trying Other-focus, exhibited the reverse pattern. The authors also found that across studies individuals in the emerging adulthood sample scored higher on identity exploration, other-focus, self-focus, and feeling "in-between" than did younger respondents (sixth through twelfth graders).…”

“…The steepest slope was found in Class 2, these individuals increased linearly in emerging adulthood across the time points. Emerging adulthood is expected to increase from 18, peak, and then decline until approximately age 25 when adulthood is reached (Arnett, 2004;Reifman et al, 2007 (Sussman, 2010) and this might explain why the largest group is not characterized by steep growth.…”

The Development of a Qualitative Extension of the Identity Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) Measure Using Relational Data Analysis (RDA)

“…Because this was the first effort to empirically identify progressive structural change in both the content and structure of the subjective meaning and significance of the life course experiences of emerging adults, the theoretical coders drew their conceptualization on the earlier reports of Arnett's qualitative research and the emerging literature on the IDEA (Reifman, Arnett, & Colwell, 2007). As can be seen from Figure 1, the conceptual model provided preliminary confirmatory evidence that the subjective meaning and significance of the experiences of emerging adults maps onto a developmental progression consistent with previous theoretical conceptualizations as well preliminary findings that begin to expand our empirical map of not only the structure and organization of emerging adults' sense of identity but the complex structural and organization changes involved as they undergo developmental change.…”

“…The Identity Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood-Qualitative Extension (IDEA-QE) builds on the pioneering worth of Reifman, Arnett, and Colwell (2007) in the development of the Identity Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) and the literature on emerging adulthood (e.g., Arnett's theory of emerging adulthood). The IDEA measures identification with emerging adulthood themes described by Arnett (2004;, including identity exploration, experimentation, negativity, other-focused, self-focused, and in-between using a Likert-like scale format.…”

“…The IDEA measures identification with emerging adulthood themes described by Arnett (2004;, including identity exploration, experimentation, negativity, other-focused, self-focused, and in-between using a Likert-like scale format. As part of the Adult Development Project (ADP), the IDEA is administered and scored as originally developed by Reifman, Arnett, and Colwell (2007).…”