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The current study expands upon existing developmental research on marital attitude change by examining how attitudes toward marriage and long-term relationships may vary across emerging adulthood. Utilizing five waves of data from the Center on Young Adult Health and Development’s College Life Study, discrete-time survival analysis and latent basis growth curve analysis are employed to assess the change—and predictors of such change—in three measures of relationship attitudes (desire for marriage, desire for long-term relationships, and importance of marriage and long-term relationships) of over 900 college students. Results indicate positive change in all three measures of attitudes, with most emerging adults desiring and placing importance on marriage and long-term relationships from the very beginning of college. Predictors of attitude change included sex, race, experience of parental death, student status, educational aspirations, and total number of sex partners. Results suggest a need for more longitudinal research in this area.

Psychological flexibility (PF), the core process of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; a third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapy), is the ability to stay focused on the present moment and intentionally engage in value-driven behavior despite experiencing difficult thoughts or feelings. This multifaceted construct includes components that target processes occurring both internally (e.g., cognitive processes) and behaviorally (e.g., value-consistent actions). Psychological flexibility has been applied to studies of adjustment in non-clinical samples and may be beneficial for college students as individuals navigate novel developmental stressors. Despite evidence suggesting the benefits of PF for psychological distress, additional work is needed to examine the potential of PF to foster adaptive functioning. The current study builds on previous research by a) conceptualizing distinct internal and behavioral components of PF as promotive factors and b) emphasizing competence-focused outcomes. This research examined the influence of components of PF over the course of an academic semester. A sample of college students (N = 250) completed self-report measures online at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of a college semester. Measures included components of PF, competence, and demographic and academic information. Structural equation modeling was used to examine associations between components of PF at Time 1 on competence at Time 2, while accounting for the influence of competence at Time 1. Findings suggested that within the social domain, value-consistent action at Time 1 was associated with increased social competence at Time 2. Additional results indicated that baseline competence accounted for associations between components of PF and Time 2 competence. Implications for the dissemination of ACT-informed efforts to promote positive adjustment among college students are reviewed, and future research directions are discussed.

Adolescents with Autism and their families experience a significant increase in the number and nature of challenges faced when leaving the structure of the formal education system. Increased support and planning is required in order to prepare for and better manage this period, as a successful transition is associated with family well-being. An ecosystemic approach was used in order to better understand the experiences of the individual, the family, the school and the community during this period. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of parent and professional perspectives on various elements of the transition process, including planning and support, predicted outcomes and the feelings experienced, in order to develop awareness, improved planning and consequently; outcomes. A sample of 14 participants (7 parents and 7 professionals) was engaged in semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that both parents and professionals feel an overwhelming sense of fear and uncertainty with regards to the future of the adolescent with Autism; however a sense of optimism and hope also exists, as participants reported effective interventions were beginning to occur. The knowledge and understanding of the needs of these individuals is continuously growing within the parents and professionals who are directly involved in the lives of adolescents with Autism; however increased awareness is required within the community and government sectors in order to gain increased access to resources and services. With the appropriate support, individuals with Autism can experience increased quality of life within residential, employment, social and community settings. The results of the current study are discussed with reference to previous research studies, and recommendations for further research are provided.

In this study I analyze how college students transition to adulthood. Based on 38 semi-structured interviews with young adults, I found that two groups appeared: emerging adults and accelerated adults. Emerging adults were more likely to come from economically privileged families and had the social and economic resources to focus on education, pursue a fulfilling career, and have fun while in college. In contrast, accelerated adults had adopted adult responsibilities during their childhood or teenage years and struggled to succeed in college due to inadequate guidance, lingering emotional anguish over childhood events, and lack of financial support. Although enrolled in the same university, these groups transitioned to adulthood very differently. I discuss the implications for each type of transition, as well as the implications of my findings for public policy and for future sociological research. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

在以个人主义为文化核心的西方发达国家，关于个体转成人这一生命历程的研究早在二十世纪中期就已兴起。但在以家庭和关系为主导文化的中国，关于个体转成人的研究却非常少见。另一方面，在全球范围内流动人口年轻化的趋势下，已经有一些研究开始关注流动人口的转成人生命历程。但在拥有大量新生代乡-城流动人口的中国，却鲜有研究关注这一群体所处的转成人生命历程。为了弥补这些空白，本研究将探索中国新生代乡-城流动人口的转成人及其成人身份认同。 / 作为质性研究，研究者通过目的抽样的方法获得19位来自深圳市的、具有不同人口学特征的访谈对象。通过对被访者外出、工作以及婚恋经历进行深入访谈与分析，本研究获得了非常重要的发现。首先，新生代乡-城流动人口的转成人呈现非阶段、非线性、漫长、漂泊以及高风险的特征。第二，这一群体的转成人既非个体被各样社会环境单方面影响和形塑的过程，也非具有统一的年龄界限和发展任务的发展阶段，而是能动的个体与社会环境不断互动的过程，体现出丰富的社会、文化与个体多样性。第三，在成人身份认同方面，这一群体并非单纯地将年龄的增长与社会角色的转变看作其转成人的重要标志，而是更看重自身所具备的应对城市生存挑战和满足农村家庭伦理要求的能力，呈现生存取向与伦理取向相结合的特点。 / 本研究一方面挑战了成年初显期这一普遍运用于西方个体转成人研究中的新兴概念，另一方面，也挑战了传统的生命发展阶段视角对个体成长过程的线性的、阶段化以及标准化的理解。更重要的，本研究为中国本土关于新生代乡-城流动人口的研究提出了新的、整合的研究视角，即整合的生命历程视角。最后，研究者提倡关于新生代乡-城流动人口的社会政策与服务的设计应该具有整合的生命历程的视角，因为个体在转成人过程中的每一个选择都会影响其整个生命历程的福祉。更具体的，研究者从家庭、教育、就业、草根劳工NGO、籍制度、与社会福利制度等方面提出关于促进其转成人过程顺利进行、提高其社会福利的政策建议。 / Research on individuals’ transition to adulthood has emerged from the mid-20th century in Western developed countries with individualism as the core of culture. However, in China with family and relationship as the dominated culture, research regarding individuals’ transition to adulthood is rare. On the other side, research about the transition to adulthood among young migrants has sprung up under the context of global mobility in which young migrants become the major drive. However, there is little research focusing on the very transition-to-adulthood life course among young-generation rural-urban migrants in China while this age group has gradually dominated the whole rural-urban migrants. This study is to fill these research gaps. / This research explored the transition-to-adulthood experience and adult identity among Chinese young-generation rural-urban migrants. As a qualitative research, the researcher obtained 19 participants in Shenzhen by purposive sampling. Through two rounds of face-to-face in-depth interview about their life experience in migration, work and intimate relationship, this research found that the transition-to-adulthood trajectory of the participants is neither linear nor progressive; it is rather prolonged, recursive, floating, and fused with instability, contingency and risks. / Second, this research indicated that the transition to adulthood among the participants is neither a one-way process in which the individuals were passively influenced by social environment, nor a normative life stage with unified age ranks and developmental tasks. Rather, it is an interactive process between individual agency and different social environment and a trajectory with social, cultural and individual diversities. / Third, with regard to the formation of adult identity, the participants did not consider the age and role transition as the main markers of becoming adults. On the contrary, they took high regard of the ability and responsibility in coping with survival environment in cities and fulfilling the ethic requirements and expectations from their families. In other words, their adult identity formation is both survival-oriented and ethic-oriented which was molded by their status as rural-urban migrants. / This research challenged the concept of emerging adulthood which has been widely used in transition to adulthood research in western society. This research also challenged the traditional life stage perspective which understood individual’s life development as linear and normalized stages. More important, this research introduced a brand-new and more integrated research perspective ─ integrated life course - to research on young-generation rural-urban migrants in China. / This research advocated that social polices targeting on the young-generation rural-urban migrants in China should be designed in integrated life course perspective because each life choice during transition to adulthood will influence the participants’ wellbeing. More specifically, the researcher proposed some key advice on policies and services in the areas of family, education and labor market, for supporting the participants’ transition to adulthood and enhancing their social welfare. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 趙瑞玲. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2016. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 326-361). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Zhao Ruiling.

This thesis presents findings from a longitudinal study of young people living in poverty providing a unique insight into their lives. The research set out to explore three themes, namely how young people end contact successfully (or not) from support, their experiences of the ‘transition to adulthood’ and also what triggered, helped and hindered those who were trying to desist from offending. It was revealed that a small number never left Includem’s Transitional Support, a unique service set up in Scotland providing emotional and practical help for vulnerable young people in this age group. For those who did leave, many had limited to no other support in their lives and were reluctant to ask for help again even when they were in real need. They were all acutely aware of their precarious situation. ‘Adulthood’ denoted certainty for them and was not viewed as a feasible destination. Members of the group dealt with this differently. Almost all retained hope of achieving their goals and in doing so suffered a form of ‘cruel optimism’, conversely, a smaller number scaled back on their aspirations, sometimes even to the extent of focusing on their immediate day to day survival. Over the course of the study most participants became more hopeless, isolated and withdrawn. Although they still wanted to achieve their original ambitions of having a job, own place and being settled this appeared less likely over time. A key finding from this study is that those who managed least had accepted the idea that independence was about ‘going it alone’ and proving oneself by oneself, but on the other hand, those who coped better viewed independence as being interdependence and welcomed help from others. It emerged that those who had offended had done so to achieve a sense of belonging, rejected by home and education. By desisting they moved from having some element of status and respect to then living a legitimate but often impoverished existence overshadowed by their past. This study opens up a series of questions about the pains of desistance and the pains of poverty. It is suggested that considering desistance and adulthood in terms of citizenship would emphasise the individual’s and societies interdependence so that rights, responsibilities and potential are recognised. At present, I argue that there is a mutual dismissal. Society dismisses impoverished youth and they in turn do not see that society holds anything for them. I call for renewed hope so that inaction and continued poverty and inequality are not rendered inevitable, and for criminologists to also embrace the idea of interdependence so that this issue is dealt with beyond the parameters of this field.

The following is a quantitative study, with a convenience sample of 117 adults, ranging in age from 18-73, to gather information about the public’s perspective towards extended foster care (EFC) and emerging adulthood. Topics varied from when foster youth should emancipate to when emerging adult children should move out of their parents’ homes. There is very little literature regarding the topic of EFC, which could impact the sustainability of this program as its objective is to help emerging adults transition more successfully into adulthood and out of the child welfare system. An online survey was created through Qualtrics with 25 questions. The link to the survey was distributed through text message and the social media website, Facebook. The results showed that the participants appear to believe that foster youth should stop receiving services at the age of 18 and emancipate out of care at the age of 21while also suggesting that emerging adults, not in foster care, should be self-sufficient and moved out of their parents’ home by the age of 23. These views could be due to the lack of awareness of the general population regarding the reality of the impact abuse, neglect, and life in the child welfare system can have on a developing child. Furthermore, the implication for the future of EFC is that foster youth may need continued assistance until the age of 23, perhaps in the form of housing vouchers as opposed to financial assistance.

Sense of community, social capital, and emerging adulthood are all topics of increasing interest in multiple fields over the past three decades. Both sense of community and social capital are predictors of overall well-being for individuals and communities. As emerging adults begin to establish a sense of person and place, many have begun to look to young professionals groups as an outlet for networking and identity exploration. There is limited research on the impact of these organizations related to sense of community and social capital. This case study is meant to be a starting point to expand the research on this topic. A survey of 97 members of the Young Professionals Networking Group in San Luis Obispo assessed level of participation within the group as well as sense of community utilizing the Sense of Community Index (SCI-2). A one-way ANOVA compared mean differences between established participation levels (low, medium, high). It was determined the more active a member is within the YPNG, the higher sense of community they displayed. Six active members were then recruited to participate in a focus group to discover if active participation in YPNG impacts one’s sense of perceived social capital. Open and axial coding of the focus group data indicated that membership within YPNG increases relational qualities that are consistent with the literature on social capital. The results from this case study indicate that active membership in networking groups may lead to a higher sense of community and enhanced perceptions of social capital. More research is necessary to determine how one’s sense of community and social capital are impacted before and after joining such groups.

The developmental period of adolescence typically refers to the years between 13 and 19, and is associated with developmental tasks that help youth become young adults. The transition to adulthood is typically recognized by common adulthood benchmarks such as leaving home, finishing school, marriage, financial independence and having children. However, many young men and women attending college remain financially and emotionally dependent on their parents, as they have not entered the professional work ranks and are faced with the challenges of college. Increasingly, colleges and universities are becoming places to help teach young people to become prepared for the professional ranks and engaged with the world that surrounds them. However, very little research in higher education is focused on the developmental benefits associated with the college experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the presence of developmental supports for self-determination and initiative in a student leadership program. Throughout the youth development literature, self-determination and initiative are recognized as important internal capacities that aid young people as they transition to adulthood. These concepts provide the theoretical lens for a qualitative case study of a college leadership group. Data were gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews, observations, a year end focus group, and supplemented by a review of the organizational instruments and tools they develop. Findings from this study confirm past studies of youth development organizations and extend this work by applying it to the developmental period of emerging adulthood. For the leadership group under investigation, initiative and self-determination were supported primarily through the actions of peers within the group. The experience of student leaders often shaped how the group was led, and these leaders became an important source of support for the basic needs of relatedness, competence, and autonomy within the group. The study covers a three-year period, and contrasts how peer leadership changed and impacted group functioning and performance over time. Practical implications of the study relate to the important role of faculty and graduate student advisors in training and monitoring student leaders before these individuals take a formal leadership role for these groups.