NCJ Number
219780
Journal
Journal of Adolescent Research Volume: 22 Issue: 5 Dated: September 2007 Pages: 476-503
Date Published
September 2007
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study administered the Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood to 720 Mexican and Spanish males and females ages 16 to 34, in order to determine how they viewed the current developmental period of their lives.
Abstract
The analyses of agreement levels with the questionnaire's items show that participants generally considered the current period of their lives as consisting of freedom, independence, and possibilities for forging their futures. Regarding differences by nationality, Mexican youth tended to be more resolute in their expectations and view of the future. The youth in Spain showed significantly more instability and a reluctance to plan their futures. Spain's youth apparently reflect a Mediterranean pattern of transition, which involves longer stays at parents' home, difficulty in finding long-term employment, assumption of adult roles at older ages, and a significant gap between physical and social development and adult independence. In Mexico, where many people enter the labor market as adolescents and leave the family home, marry, and have children earlier, it may be that Mexican youth are pressed toward psychosocial maturity at an earlier age. Research should be expanded to other ages, both younger and older, in order to examine whether experiences and perspectives vary by age and how. The survey was based on the Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood as well as on the principal ideas and affirmation of Arnett's theoretical proposals for the emerging adulthood period (Arnett, 2000; 2004). 6 tables, 7 figures, and 33 references