features of transition in emerging adulthood - final

Running head: EMERGING ADULTHOOD 1

Features of Transition in Emerging Adulthood

Bhavleen G Singh1

Dr. Padma Kumari P 2

1 Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Humanities, Reva University

2 Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Christ Deemed to be University

Abstract

This study investigated the features of transition into emerging adulthood in India, a highly under

researched subject in the country. There were 452 participants from Delhi and Bengaluru. The

developmental features of emerging adults, overall views of the future, and perceived adulthood

status were studied. The Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) was used to

compare the scores of the six subscales between the two age groups, males and females in

emerging adults, and people who are engaged in romantic relationships and those who are not. It

was found that there were significant differences between the features between the two age

groups thus proving the existence of this developmental stage in the Indian population. Also, it

was found that the majority of the people aged between 18-29 years did not consider themselves

to be adults.

Keywords: emerging adulthood, adulthood status, views of the future, IDEA

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EMERGING ADULTHOOD 2

Erikson proposed a theory of psychosocial development of an individual. It aimed at

explaining the development of an adolescent as a result of the integration of the individual with

the society. He argued that a psychosocial moratorium is extended to individuals in

industrialized, Western countries wherein individuals are able to explore their identities without

taking on the responsibilities of an adult (Erikson, 1994). However, as Erikson said, his work

“was a tool to think with rather than a factual analysis”. (Keniston, 1971) described youth as a

“new” limbo stage of life which is neither psychologically adolescent nor sociologically adult.

(Arnett, 2000) however, coined the term “emerging adulthood” to mark this stage of

development. By emerging adulthood, he referred to individuals “from roughly age 18, when

most young people finish secondary school, to age 25, when most people begin to move toward

making the commitments that structure adult life: marriage, parenthood, and a long-term job”.

He found the term “young adulthood” which had been previously in use, to be inadequate as it

suggested that adulthood had already been achieved. He proposed that transition into adulthood

is a process which extends over the course of a few years rather than a sudden jolt when one

merely turns 18. This stage may continue up till 29 years. According to this conceptualization,

emerging adulthood is characterized by five aspects (a) identity exploration in love, work and

worldviews; (b) active experimentation, many possibilities, open choices and optimism; (c) a

sense of negativity and instability due mainly to the unstructured nature of this period and the

many changes taking place in several life domains; (d) increased self-focus with the aim to attain

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self-knowledge and self-sufficiency, facilitated by the absence of obligations, and (e) a feeling

“in-between” adolescence and adulthood, that is an ambivalence toward adult status. These

features may be present in other life stages too but they were found to be more prevalent in

emerging adulthood than in other stages. He also found that the following three criteria were

stated as being present when one reached adulthood: accepting responsibility for oneself, making

independent decisions, and becoming financially independent. They seemed to occur in a gradual

and incremental manner rather than all at once.

Identity exploration

Erikson (1950, 1968) claimed that identity exploration occurs in the adolescent stage

however, Arnett (2000) claims that identity exploration is a feature which continues well into

emerging adulthood and involves finding a good career fit, dating to fulfil needs for interaction,

partnership, and fun, not love, attachment, or long-term commitment.

Period of instability

Since there are many explorations being made in all aspects of life, emerging adulthood

is also marked as a period of instability. From frequent residential changes to changing school

and work patterns, they are all manifestations of instability of this developmental phase in their

life.

Self-focused

This is a phase in one’s life in which individuals are able to focus on themselves. While

some consider emerging adults to be very selfish, Arnett argues that they are not selfish. Rather,

they are self-focused and busy paying attention toe self-development and attain self-sufficiency.

This may promote development of self-reflection and a comprehensive understanding of the new

self.

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Feeling in-between

Most emerging adults are themselves confused about having reached adulthood. This

stage is accompanied by feelings of ambiguity about the attainment of adulthood wherein

adulthood is achieved in some ways but not in others. The criteria deemed necessary for one to

have successfully reached adulthood (Arnett, 2003; Badger, Nelson, & Barry, 2006; Nelson &

Barry, 2005) can be broadly divided into three domains such as accepting responsibility for

yourself, making independent decisions, and becoming financially independent.

A time of possibilities

Firstly, it provides possibilities in the way of optimism and and second, it serves as an

opportunity for people with difficult backgrounds to overcome them and make changes. While

the public perception of people in their twenties may be that they are pessimistic, research says

otherwise. Research has shown that while emerging adults may portray a sense of pessimism

about the generation as a whole, they are fairly optimistic about their own future. They recognize

the problems that are prevalent in the society however they have good expectations about their

personal career goals and marriage (Arnett, 2000).

Arnett postulated that this intermediate life stage developed out of certain historical

events and societal changes such as the invention of birth control eventually led to people

engaging in sex without worrying about the need to get married. Increase in people participating

in premarital sex and cohabitation in the American society became more acceptable. Also, the

average age at which the general population is getting married has been getting delayed. In 196o

in the United States, the mean age for marriage was 20.3 for women and 22.8 for men compared

to in 2010, when the ages for women increased to 26 for and for men, 28 in the United States.

The postponement of marriage also affected child bearing practices.

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Nowadays, people are pursuing higher education with a lot more enthusiasm than they

did before (Arnett, 2004). The number of people entering college after graduating high school

has increased. These things also lead to a prolonged and often late transition to a stable work life.

One of the major changes was also the stirring up of the Women’s Movement in the 1960’s and

1970’s. The number of women being enrolled in universities increased and so did the

occupational avenues being provided to these women. Taking into account all these changes,

Arnett wanted to further explore and document the impact that all of these changes would make

on the youth in the United States.

While this is the case of the United States, recent trends in India have also seen a shift

due to globalization, economic development, education and increased awareness. It is interesting

to note the changes that (Verma & Saraswati, 2002) remarked which is why it is intriguing and

essential to study how tradition and modernity interact to shape and influence the youth in India.

Especially for a country with a great number of adolescents, it is important to explore this

population. One important change that has occurred is that the mean age for marriage in urban

women rose from rose from 12.5 years during 1921-31 to 15.6 years in 1951 and 21.5 in 1992

(Das & Dey, 1998). A country like India also has certain belief systems, norms, and practices

which differ greatly from the West such as arranged marriages and case system. These factors

may also influence emerging adulthood and thus the transition into adulthood.

Majority of the Indian population’s primary source of income was through agriculture.

However, with the coming of globalization, families in developing nations do not have to depend

upon their children’s labour on the field and thus, they can afford to educate them instead

(Arnett, 2000). Globalization has also offered an extended moratorium available to the youth in

these countries.

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Each country has a different culture, values, traditions, and history because of which the

experiences of emerging adulthood will also differ. A research conducted in China (Nelson,

Badger & Wu, 2004) studied how the country’s economic conditions or culture might impact

emerging adulthood. They surveyed college students and found out that most of them believed

that they had already reached adulthood. This serves as evidence that emerging adulthood is

experienced for a shorter duration of time in the Chinese culture as compared to that in the US.

There are various reasons as to why the features of transition into emerging adulthood

may differ in India. As per the census of 2011, literacy rates for women (65.46%) are much lower

than they are for men (82.14%). Even the age of marriage is lower for women (22.2 years) than

that for men (26 years) as given in the National Health Profile (2016). These two factors may

result in a difference in the subjective experiences of emerging adulthood by both the sexes.

Also, owing to the country’s collectivist culture as compared to the West’s individualistic culture,

there may arise differences in the appearance of the features. It is expected that as an individual

grows up and enter adulthood, these features may become less prominent however, it is

important to put it to test to know with certainty. In 2013 and 2014, further research done by

Arnett found that the five features were more prominent during the emerging adulthood phase as

compared to when one has reached adulthood in the United States.

(Shulman & Connolly, 2013) suggest that it may possible that much like gender, different

relationship statuses may impact the transition into adulthood. While certain stage theories

suggest that emerging adults have attained the skills to deal with romantic relationships and the

problems that may arise from time to time, however, there are certain other factors such as

attention to work, occupation, studies, and other risks and uncertainties which may make it

difficult for a person to settle down.

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Much of the researches in the field of psychology today are dominated people who are

WEIRD – Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. Undergraduate students from

such cultures provide researchers with a convenient pool of data (Jones, 2010). Psychologists

make broad claims about human psychology and behaviour by generalizing the results of such a

population on to the entire world. When experimental results on domains such as heritability of

IQ, moral reasoning, spatial reasoning, fairness, cooperation, visual perception were compared, it

was found out that in no way are WEIRD societies representative of the world wide over

(Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, n.d.). Therefore, the findings on the developmental features

present in emerging adults in the USA or other Western countries cannot be generalized to a

country like India whose cultures varies from the West in many respects. Unlike in India, in the

West, most people grew up in nuclear families with few kin around them, with a lot of active

instruction in school, different sort of exposure to books and movies, a dissimilar education

system. It has been proposed that emerging adults in India develop a hybrid or bicultural identity

with one aspect participating in the local culture whereas the other part of the global economy

(Jensen, Arnett, & McKenzie, 2011). One instance that supports this is despite growing

technological advancements in the country being led by the youth, so many of these people still

continue to stick to the Indian traditions of engaging in an arranged marriage. Despite emerging

adulthood being a worldwide phenomenon that may cut across cultures, there still exist

variations in how it manifests itself in people from varying cultural backgrounds. Though

adolescence may be a cross cultural occurrence, their experiences may differ depending on

factors such as social class, gender, economic status, and religious groups.

Till now, there has been no comprehensive research which studied this developmental

stage with the use of the Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA). The objective

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of this research is to assess the occurrence of emerging adulthood in the young people of India by

evaluating the perceived adulthood status, views of the future, a comparative analysis between

emerging adults and young to midlife adults, and a comparative analysis of emerging adults

along the dimensions of gender, relationship status, and employment status.

Hypothesis 1: There will be a significant difference in the features of the transition into

adulthood between EA and people from young to midlife. Also, the study will see whether

emerging adults hold optimistic views about their future or not.

Hypothesis 2: There will be a significant difference between the features of transition into

adulthood between males and females.

Hypothesis 3: There will be a significant difference in the features of transition into adulthood

between individuals who are in a romantic relationship and individuals who are not.

Method

Participants

The participants were 452 individuals from the cities of Delhi and Bengaluru, including

358 emerging adults (aged 18-29), 94 young to midlife adults (aged 30-55). Table 1 represents

the sociodemographic characteristics of the sample. The same number of participants were used

from each group for the purpose of comparisons.

Table I. Sociodemographic Variables of the Sample (N= 452)

Characteristic All 18-29 Midlife

Age (Mean) 25.83 21.61 41.46

Female 69.45 74.7 48.9

Relationship Status (Yes) _ 39.3 _

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Marital Status

Single 97.7

Married 2.3

Employment

Student 78.9

Employed 18.8

Unemployed 2.3

Note. All numbers in the table are percentages except for the ages.

Procedures

Participants were selected through convenience through convenience sampling. Data

collection was done through Google Forms and by handing out forms. Potential participants were

approached in public places and in Christ (Deemed to be University) and asked if they would be

willing to fill out a brief questionnaire as part of research. Permission was taken from university

teachers for the same. Almost everyone voluntarily agreed to take part in the study.

Measures

Perceived Adult Status (Arnett, 2001). Participants were asked “Do you think you have

reached adulthood?” (No = 0, In some respects yes, in some respects no = 1, Yes = 2).

Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (Reifman et al., 2007). It

consists of 31 items assessing developmental characteristics of emerging adulthood in six

subscales, which include the five defining features of emerging adulthood and the Other-focus

subscale to enable the comparison with the Self-focus subscale: Identity exploration (e.g., time of

finding out who you are); Experimentation/possibilities (e.g., time of trying out new things; time

of open choices); Negativity/instability (e.g., time of feeling stressed out; time of confusion);

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Other-focus (e.g., time of commitments to others), Self- focus (e.g., time of focusing on

yourself), and Feeling “in-between” (e.g., time of feeling adult in some ways but not others).

Participants were asked “Is this period of your life a time of ...” (Strongly Disagree = 1 to

Strongly Agree = 4).

Views of the Future. Participants were asked the following questions in order to

examine their optimism about the future (Arnett, 2000): “Overall, do you think the quality of

your life is likely to be better or worse than your parents’ has been?”; “Overall, do you think

your financial well-being in adulthood is likely to be better or worse than your parents’ has

been?”; “Overall, do you think your career achievements are likely to be better or worse than

your parents’ have been?”; “Overall, do you think your personal relationships are likely to be

better or worse than your parents’ have been?” (response options: “Better”, “About the same”,

“Worse” and “Uncertain”).

Results

Perceived Adulthood Status

Table II. Perceived Adulthood Status

Non-Adult Emerging Adult Adult

f % f % f %

14 4 233 61.6 98 28.3

As can be seen from Table 1, when individuals aged 20-29 years were asked whether they

had reached adulthood or not, more than half (233, 61.6%) responded with “in some respects,

yes” or “in some respects, no” (emerging adults), 98(28.3%) responded with “yes” (adults) and

14 (4%) responded with “no” (non-adults). There was no significant difference between the

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responses of males and females who perceive themselves to be adults, emerging adults, and non-

adults.

Developmental Features of Emerging Adulthood

Analysis were conducted to see the differences between the scores on the six subscales of

the Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) – identity exploration,

experimentation/possibilities, negativity/instability, other-focus, self-focus, and feeling “in-

between”. The scores on these subscales were compared across gender and relationship status in

the individuals aged 18-29. Comparisons between males and females and relationship statuses

were done by analyzing the scores of individuals aged 18-29 years on the six subscales of the

IDEA.

Table III. Mann-Whitney U test comparing the six subscales on the IDEA across two age groups

Variable Age group N Mean Rank U Sig.


Emerging Adults 103 109.16 3692.00

.006*

Young to midlife 93 86.70

Experimentation Emerging Adults 103 117.49

2834.00 .000*


Instability Emerging Adults 103 116.54

2931.00 .000*


Other focused Emerging Adults 103 71.01

1964.50 .000*


Self-focused Emerging Adults 103 99.23

4714.00 .848


Feeling-in-between Emerging Adults 103 117.88 2793.50 .000*

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* p < .05

There are significant differences (p < 0.05) between the two age groups – emerging adults (20-29

years) and adult to midlife (30-55 years) on five subscales which are identity exploration,

experimentation, instability, other-focused, and feeling in-between out of the total six subscales.

Table IV. Mann-Whitney U test comparing the six subscales on the IDEA across gender

Variable Gender N Mean Rank U Sig.


Females 124 116.53 2026.50

.000*

Males 87 67.23

Experimentation Females 124 115.52

2126.50 .000*

Males 87 68.44

Instability Females 124 121.50

1534.00 .000*

Males 87 61.64

Other focused Females 124 113.81

2296.00 .000*

Males 87 70.39

Self-focused Females 124 116.58

2022.00 .000*

Males 87 67.24

Feeling-in-between Females 124 116.75

2004.50 .000*

Males 87 67.04

* p < .05

Mann-Whitney U test comparing the six subscales on the IDEA across relationship status

There was no significant difference on any of the six dimensions between emerging adults who

are involved in a romantic relationship and those who are not involved in one.

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Views of the future

Table V. Descriptive statistics of the overall views of the future of emerging adults

Overall

Better Worse Same Uncertain

Quality of life 64.4 3.7 14.1 17.3

Financial well-being 49.5 7.5 19.9 23

Career achievements 61.6 5.5 16.9 17.1

Personal relationships 41.3 9.8 22 26.9

For the question assessing views of overall quality of life in the future, 64.4% of

participants responded “better”, 14.1% “about the same”, 3.7% “worse” than that of their parents

and 17.3% were “uncertain”. For the question on financial well-being, 49.4% responded “better”,

19.9% “about the same”, 7.5% “worse”, and 23% “uncertain”. For the question on career

achievements, 61.6% responded “better”, 16.9% “about the same”, 5.5% “worse”, and 17.1%

“uncertain”. Finally, for the question on personal relationships, 41.3% responded “better”, 22%

“about the same”, 9.8% “worse”, and 26.9% “uncertain”.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to assess the features of transition in emerging adulthood,

as well as the difference in these features between the two age groups – emerging adults (18-29

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years) and young to midlife (30-55 years), between males and females, and between people who

are involved in romantic relationships and those who are not. This was done by using the

Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood which has six subscales. Differences in the

scores of the six subscales were compared.

Perceived Adulthood Status

Despite having legally reached adulthood, more than half (61.6%) the people in the age group

18-29 felt that they had not fully reached adulthood yet. They felt that they were on the way to

adulthood. This is slightly lower than what was found in Greece (71.4%) (Galanaki &

Leontopoulou, 2017). This finding points towards the fact that salient developmental feature of

emerging adulthood, i.e. feeling between adolescence and adulthood is present in the Indian

population.

Developmental Features of Emerging Adulthood

When the scores on the six subscales were compared across the two age groups, emerging

adults and young to midlife individuals, it was found that there were significant differences on

five out of the six subscales. Emerging adults scored higher on experimentation, instability,

identity exploration, other-focused, and feeling-in-between. It goes to show that these

developmental features which are proposed to be higher in emerging adults, shows a similar

trend in the young people of India as well. These factors are present in the older population as

well, however they are more pronounced in emerging adults thus proving right the hypothesis

that there are significant differences on the prevalence of these features in the two age groups.

People who are aged 20-29 years have more flexibility and freedom in their lives whereas the

other age group does not. People aged 30-55 years tend to be married, have a stable job and have

kids therefore, this restricts their life choices.

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When comparing differences across gender, it was found that females scored higher on all

the six subscales. There were significant differences between the features between the two

genders.

Views of the Future

Research has proven that there are beneficial effects of optimism on psychological and physical

well-being (Scheier & Carver, 1992). Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to know whether

the youth population hold optimistic views of the future or not. The most optimistic predictions

were made for quality of life and career achievements whereas less optimism was shown for

financial well-being and personal relationships. This is similar to the findings in Greece

(Galanaki & Leontopoulou, 2017). The findings support the existence of resilient optimism

(Arnett, 2012) even in the face of socioeconomic problems in the country.

Limitations of the study

The study was focused only on individuals residing in the urban settings of India. It could

not incorporate people from other parts of the country. India being a huge country hosts people

from different cultures and therefore, of various ideologies. Therefore, these must be tapped into

to gain a comprehensive understanding of what the process of gaining adulthood means to

people. Also, perhaps a qualitative approach towards understanding the same would help gather a

more in depth understanding. Interviews could be conducted to achieve this purpose.

Summary and Conclusion

Despite these limitations, this study proves that there are clear evidences for the existence of the

developmental stage of emerging adulthood with the proposed developmental features. Factors

such as identity exploration, experimentation, feeling-in-between, and feeling of ambivalence

with regard to one’s status as an adult are the salient features of this developmental stage. This

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study also proved that though these features may present themselves in various life stages, they

are most prominent in emerging adults. Finally, emerging adults are optimistic about their futures

thus ensuring psychological and physical well-being.

Competing Interests

The author has declared that no conflict of interests exist.

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Reflective Essay

It is the nature of the psychologist to be driven by the need to find answers to questions

concerning the human behaviour. It is not simply that a person engages in a certain action or says

something particular. There is always a reason or factors contributing to that behavioural

response. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why research is very popular and necessary in the

field of psychology. The goal is to find gaps in the previously existing literature and keep

updating one with newly discovered knowledge. And this is a never-ending process for humans

keep evolving and therefore, changing.

That is the focus I had in mind when I set out on my journey of research. I must

admit that since I had never engaged in any scientific endeavor in my life, it was a difficult task.

It comes easily to some, however, not all. The first step, choosing an idea or a research question

to work took me a long time to come across. I hoped to gain a more comprehensive

understanding of young adults in the country. This is a topic close to heart. I decided to go

forward with this was because I had faced difficulties and challenges in my life, moving away

from home, becoming independent However, when it did I was fairly satisfied with

conceptualizing it. My supervisor and presenting my proposal helped me get inputs and useful

feedback into shaping it better.

The hardest part was collecting data to substantiate my hypotheses. Though it seems easy

to write on paper that one should have certain number of responses on a form to be able to

conduct statistical analysis, however, when one actually gets down to collect data, does one

realise that it is no piece of cake. The college authorities did not make it any easy job to facilitate

data collection. Anyway, in this country people are not aware about research and its usefulness in

the creation of knowledge which again was a problem in collecting data from the common man.

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People would blatantly refuse to fill out forms or fill incomplete forms thus making it harder for

the researcher. Moreover, the pressure to get our papers published in a journal created all the

more burden to collect more and quality data.

Once data had been collected through forms, manually entering it on a database was also

a very tedious task which demanded so much back breaking effort. Especially, because it can get

very monotonous.

However, once the collection and analyses are over, comes the hardest part – writing

about it. I think that is where I lost part of my motivation to engage further in the process of

research. The earlier steps had been so exhausting and draining that my interest in my own

research had diminished to low levels. I must say I am not proud of it. It is just the way it is. This

also contributed to lesser meetings with my supervisor.

Now that this course is coming to end and I look back at the trajectory of my research in

retrospect, I think I could have worked harder. This was a great chance to have conducted

research and getting it published as well. I did not utilise it up to its full potential.

I believe I could not do justice to my research. I lost interest midway which lead to me

writing a imperfect manuscript. However, I would like to pursue this topic further in a different

manner which would allow me to gain thorough and extensive about the subjective experiences

of the emerging adults in the country and their personal experiences that helped shape why they

are the way are, the problems and dissonancy they might have encountered, factors that helped

them go on.

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Appendix A

Informed Consent

I am Bhavleen G Singh, pursuing Masters in Psychology (Clinical) from Christ (Deemed

to be University), Bengaluru. I am doing research on “The Features of Transition in Emerging

Adulthood”. You are invited to take part in my research study. Kindly the read the form carefully

and decide whether you wish to participate in the study.

Purpose of the research: A new phase of life has emerged post globalisation, which is

called emerging adulthood. It comprises individuals aged between 19-29 years old. This period

of life can be troublesome for some people as it is a volatile period and involved instability

which if not handled correctly can often lead to serious mental health problems. This research

aims to study the features of transition into emerging adulthood and the experiences faced by

them. This eventually will be helpful in addressing the problems associated with this stage and

thereby provide solutions for it too.

Procedure of the study: You will be required to fill out questionnaires provided to you

during the course of study. The questionnaires will not take more than 10 minutes. In case of any

ambiguity in the data provided by you, the researcher holds the authority to get back to you for

further clarifications.

Voluntary Participation: Your participation in this research is entirely voluntary. It is

your choice whether to participate or not. You are also free to withdraw from the study at any

point even if you agreed earlier, without any penalty.

Confidentiality and Privacy: The information that will be collected from this research

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project will be kept private. It will be kept in strict confidence and you would not be asked to

reveal your full name or any other identifiable information in the demographic datasheet in order

to maintain anonymity. The information that you provide will not be shared with a third party

without your consent.

Risks and Benefits: Participation in this research does not involve any physical risks.

There will be no direct benefit to you, but your participation is likely to help us find out more

about the transition into emerging adulthood and the problems that may accompany this period.

Therefore, interventions can be formulated accordingly.

If you have any questions, you can ask them now or later. If you wish to ask questions

later, you may contact the following

Name: Bhavleen G Singh

Email Id: [email protected]

Statement of Consent: I have read the foregoing information. I have had the opportunity

to ask questions about it and any questions I have been asked, have been answered to my

satisfaction. I consent voluntarily to be a participant in this study.

___________________________ ___________________________

Signature of the participant Date

___________________________ ___________________________

Signature of the investigator Date

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Appendix B

Socio-demographic Sheet

Please read each statement carefully and respond to the items. Kindly fill in the blank space or

circle the response that best describes you.

Name/Initials: ______________ Age ______________

What is your gender? Female ______ Male ______ Other ______

Where do you live? ________________

What is your employment status? ______________

Are you currently involved in a romantic relationship? Yes _______ No_________

What is your marital status? Single___ Married ___ Divorced _____ Separated _____

Are you currently on any medication? Yes ______ No _____

Do you have any history of any past psychiatric illnesses? Yes _____ No_____

Do you think you have reached adulthood?

• Yes

• In some ways, yes

• In some ways, no

• No

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Appendix C

Views about Life Survey

Please think about this time in your life. You should think about a roughly five-year period, with

the present time right in the middle. For each phrase shown below, please place a check mark in

one of the columns. Be sure to put only one check mark per line.

Is this period of your life a... Strongly

Disagree

(1)

Somewhat

Disagree (2)

Somewhat

Agree (3)

Strongly

Agree (4)

1. time of many possibilities?

2. time of exploration?

3. time of confusion?

4. time of experimentation?

5. time of personal freedom?

6. time of feeling restricted?

7. time of responsibility for yourself?

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8. time of feeling stressed out?

9. time of instability?

10. time of optimism?

11. time of high pressure?

12. time of finding out who you are?

13. time of settling down?

14. time of responsibility for others?

15. time of independence?

16. time of open choices?

17. time of unpredictability?

18. time of commitments to others?

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19. time of self-sufficiency?

20. time of many worries?

21. time of trying out new things?

22. time of focusing on yourself?

23. time of separating from parents?

24. time of defining yourself?

25. time of planning for the future?

26. time of seeking a sense of

meaning?

27. time of deciding on your own

beliefs and values?

28. time of learning to think for

yourself?

29. time of feeling adult in some ways

but not others?

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30. time of gradually becoming an

adult?

31. time of being not sure whether

you have reached full adulthood?

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Appendix D

Views about the Future

Read the questions given below carefully. Put a tick mark corresponding to the choice

you think reflects your opinion the best.

Questions Better Worse About the

same

Uncertain

Overall, do you think the quality of your life is likely

to be better or worse than your parents’ has been?

Overall, do you think your financial well-being in

adulthood is likely to be better or worse than your

parents’ has been?

Overall, do you think your career achievements are

likely to be better or worse than your parents’ have

been?

Overall, do you think your personal relationships in

adulthood are likely to be better or worse than your

parents’ have been?

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features of transition in emerging adulthood - final

Documents