Lecture 3: TTA

1. Lecture 3: TTA Transitions to adulthood: Snowstorm edition!

2. Defining Adult experiences: Methods : • Studied a large, diverse sample of young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 (N = 726), including: • both UMass Boston students (n = 517) • young adults who were neither attending nor had graduated from college (n = 209) • Used open-ended questions to solicit incidences in which participants “really felt like an adult,” and coded for the traditional and non-traditional roles and experiences • investigated variation by age and college status to explore how young adults’ subjective experiences of adulthood relate to developmental maturity and context.

3. Subjective Adulthood • Much research in the last decade suggests an “in between,” or “not quite adult” status period for those aged 18-25 (Arnett, 2000).

4. In between status • Researchers have measured experiences that youth feel “must be achieved before a person can be considered an adult” Items on this scale have been organized into five subscales: • individualism (e.g., “accept responsibility for the consequences of your actions”), • family capacities (e.g., “capable of caring for children”), • norm compliance (e.g., “avoid drunk driving”), • legal/chronological transitions (e.g., “reached age 18”), • role transitions (e.g., “have at least one child”). • Arnett consistently has found that young adults emphasize three criteria reflective of individualism: responsibility for one’s self, independent decision making, and financial independence.

5. New way of asking • more open-ended interviews might yield a different breakdown of roles that youth associate with adulthood. • processes are likely to be shaped by individuals’ age and life circumstances. • we asked participants to describe a specific event in which they felt like an adult--a different lens into subjective experiences of adulthood. • Age—older may be more likely to feel adult • 4 year College enrollment—less likely “ • Taken on more traditional adult roles