Beschreibung: Emerging adulthood, the time between ages 18-25, has been defined in the West as a stage characterized by identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and optimism (Arnett, 2000). Many life changes happen during this period that can variously impact when and how emerging adults experience themselves as adults. Emerging adulthood has been reported to be one of the most stressful periods across the human life span, including the ages with the highest reported mental illness onset (Zhong & Arnett, 2014). Emerging adulthood has been studied extensively in the West, and to some extent in East Asian countries, where the features and experiences have some similarities but also marked differences (Zhong & Arnett, 2014). It is important to explore the influence of culture and context on the reported important features and markers as these events are impacted by cultural expectations and the possibilities of the specific context. Sub-Saharan Africa, which has a significantly young population with a median age of 19.7 years and 70% of the total population under the age of 30, remains understudied and poorly represented in the current literature. This project will explore how emerging adulthood populations in Sub-Saharan Africa (specifically in either South Africa or Kenya) are transitioning into adulthood, and what ways this is similar to or different from the West and Asia. This will be investigated, utilizing data on the Markers of Adulthood scale, an instrument that measures what milestones are endorsed to become an adult with 38 items, clustered into seven categories: Independence, Interdependence, Role transitions, Norm compliance, Biological transitions, chronological transitions and Family capacities. The scale has been reviewed by Fosse, Grahe, and Reifman (2015) and Norman, Grahe & Lee (2021) to assess its validity. This thesis will be a psychometric exploration of the measures in Kenya or South Africa and exploration of the markers that are significant to this context.
Key references:
Arnett, J., 2000. Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), pp.469-480.
Fosse, N., Grahe, J. E., & Reifman, A. (2015). Markers of Adulthood Subscale Development: Comparative Review and Assessment of Inductive and Deductive Psychometrics. Retrieved from https://osf.io/p8nwq/
Norman, K. B., Grahe, J. E., & Lee, S. (2021). Reconstructing adulthood: Revising the markers of adulthood scale for increased ecological validity. Psychological Reports, 003329412110617. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941211061700
Zhong, J., & Arnett, J. J. (2014). Conceptions of adulthood among migrant women workers in China. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38(3), 255?265. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025413515133
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: FS23
Eingabedatum: 17.11.2022
Kontakt: Selma N. Uugwanga, E-Mail
