How Do Young Poles Perceive Their Adulthood?

The present study focuses on three issues: sense of adulthood, self-perception within five features of emerging adulthood, and conceptions of adulthood. The sample consisted of 684 subjects (349 late adolescents, 207 emerging adults, and 128 young adults). The results show that emerging adults differ in their perceived adult status from both late adolescents and young adults, being situated in-between those two groups. The findings also confirm that age groups differ with respect to self-perception within the features of emerging adulthood but they do not show a predominance of any of the features in emerging adults. Furthermore, young people who have already settled down into the roles and responsibilities of adult life demonstrate lower frequencies of features of emerging adulthood and a greater sense of adulthood. When compared with the results of research conducted in the United States and Western European countries, the present study shows that young Poles display the features characteristic of the developmental period called emerging adulthood only to an extent.
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: Special Section: The Neglected 95% Source Type: research