Religious Identity and Family Ideologies in the Transition to Adulthood

Marriage and divorce expectations predict family life and personal outcomes. Understanding how expectations are associated with varying characteristics over emerging adulthood (ages 18–28 years) will inform understanding of emerging adult development. Panel Study of Income Dynamics Transition into Adulthood 2005–2015 data were used in hybrid-effects ordinal logistic regression to parse interindividual and intraindividual variation associated with relationship experiences, socioeconomic and contextual characteristics, and mental and emotional well-being. Partnerships were associated with optimistic expectations: Both dating and cohabiting predicted greater marriage expectations and lower divorce expectations within individuals. Between individuals, greater time in full-time employment predicted more positive marital expectations, greater responsibility was associated with lower marital expectations, stronger religious identity predicted higher marital expectations and lower divorce expectations, having been arrested predicted greater divorce expectations, greater well-being predicted greater marriage expectations, and older age predicted lower marriage expectations. Both between and within individuals, greater worry predicted lower marriage expectations.

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Youth Development in Europe

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040.14.4.372 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 372-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Katariina Salmela-Aro ◽

Ingrid Schoon

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Relationship Quality ◽

Youth Development ◽

Social Relationships ◽

Transition To Adulthood ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Integrative Framework ◽

Reciprocal Interactions ◽

The Family ◽

Key Players

A series of six papers on “Youth Development in Europe: Transitions and Identities” has now been published in the European Psychologist throughout 2008 and 2009. The papers aim to make a conceptual contribution to the increasingly important area of productive youth development by focusing on variations and changes in the transition to adulthood and emerging identities. The papers address different aspects of an integrative framework for the study of reciprocal multiple person-environment interactions shaping the pathways to adulthood in the contexts of the family, the school, and social relationships with peers and significant others. Interactions between these key players are shaped by their embeddedness in varied neighborhoods and communities, institutional regulations, and social policies, which in turn are influenced by the wider sociohistorical and cultural context. Young people are active agents, and their development is shaped through reciprocal interactions with these contexts; thus, the developing individual both influences and is influenced by those contexts. Relationship quality and engagement in interactions appears to be a fruitful avenue for a better understanding of how young people adjust to and tackle development to productive adulthood.

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