Margherita Lanz

Do I Really Need Someone in Order to become an Adult?: Romantic Relationships during Emerging Adulthood in Italy.

Italian emerging adults stay at home with their parents until they marry. Being involved in a romantic relationship may be considered one precursor of the success of the transition to adulthood. In this study, 92 dating and 84 nondating emerging adults were compared on when they left the parental home and their future plans. They were also compared on individual outcomes (depression, sense of coherence, and self-esteem) and their perception of parental emotional support. Finally, the influence of parental and romantic relationships on individual outcomes was investigated. Results show that dating emerging adults do not differ from nondating emerging adults about perception of emotional support from parents and about most of the outcomes. However, there are differences in time leaving the parental home, future plans, and the influence of relationships on outcomes. In conclusion, different paths characterize emerging adulthood, confirming the heterogeneity of this period also in the Italian context.

Emerging adulthood in Europe: Common Traits and variability across five European countries.

The fact that there is a specific age marking the emergence of adulthood in the United States has been well documented. The starting point for the studies included in this special issue is the assumption that the same can be said for European countries. Thus, a comparison of characteristics of emerging adulthood between different European countries was performed. In this special issue, contributions of scholars from five different European countries are taken as representative of different regions: Spain, Italy, Finland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. The efforts of the research are twofold. The first is to look at how the traditional markers of adulthood have changed and how the concept of adulthood is seen in the different countries. The second is to highlight the influence that the entrance into the working world and romantic partnership have on emerging adults and to detect the impact of the timing of entering adulthood on identity achievement. The results are presented here as different pathways that emerging adults follow to reach the same goal of mature adulthood.

Congruence on child rearing in families with early adolescent and middle adolescent children

This study investigates the extent to which parents’ and adolescent’s reports of parental child-rearing behaviour are in agreement with each other. The aim of this study is twofold. The first aim is to verify whether familial congruence (congruence between family members) about child rearing exists. The second aim is to verify whether the level of congruence varies with the stage of the adolescent (early and middle) and gender of parent or child. The sample consists of 788 families with a child between the ages of 9 and 16 years. Congruence scores were computed on diverse aspects of child rearing: material rewarding, expression of affection, conformity, autonomy, ignoring, and punishment. The results show that familial congruence exists, not only between father and mother but also between parents and their children. A second result is that congruence between parents and their children increases from early to middle adolescence indicating that children become more competent interpreting their parents’ behaviour.

Psychosocial Adjustment and Family Relationships: A Typology of Italian Families with a Late Adolescent

The importance of family relationships in human development and adjustment has always been recognized in psychological studies. The present study aims to construct a typology of families with a late adolescent and to analyze the family relationships present in each type. The typology, constructed using family satisfaction—a global index of family functioning—as the discriminate variable, took into account eight types. This study is focused on the two extreme types of the typology: “Families with adequate functioning or satisfied families” and “Families with inadequate functioning or dissatisfied families.” These two types of families were compared according to variables such as: (a) parent-child communication and its topics and (b) the familys decision-making process on topics related to the adolescent and his/her future orientation. All subjects completed a questionnaire composed of different scales. The results show substantial differences in the two family types regarding both family functioning and the role played by mothers and fathers. Satisfied families give evidence of a better communication process than the dissatisfied ones, greater sharing between parents and adolescents and, finally, a decision-making process based mostly on sharing and support. Moreover, in satisfied families the father has the role of social mediator. In this way, he succeeds in part in restoring equilibrium to the relational imbalance in favor of mothers so typical of Italian families.

The transition to adulthood around the Mediterranean: Contributions of the special issue

This analysis of the papers in the special issue on the transition to adulthood around the Mediterranean calls attention to the role of the family of origin in the transition itself. All the papers analyzed a specific aspect of family relationships, focusing especially on the parent-child relationship. Moreover, several outcomes were considered, such as identity, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and criteria of adulthood, highlighting the multidimensional features of the transitional phase young people are facing. Together, these papers make a great contribution to the current literature, especially for the ones linked to the Mediterranean area, and provide both foundation and new paths for future research.

Supportive relationships within ongoing families: cross-lagged effects between components of support and adjustment in parents and young adult children.

Italy is the first country in which the phenomenon of cohabitation of parents and young adult children was examined. From the earliest studies, it seemed clear that the transition to adulthood occurs within the family of origin: indeed, the successful outcome of this transition depends on the quality of family relationships. Using the Social Relations Model, this study examines the importance of the components of support within family relationships during the transition of young adults from university to job contexts (Kenny & La Voie, 1984). The cross-lagged influence among the components of perceived support and the adjustment of family members has also been investigated. Findings show that family components of support are significant for perception in both parents and young adults. Furthermore, cross-lagged models reveal different results for parents than for young adults. Discussion of results regarding the transition to adulthood and family theory is provided.

Emerging adulthood features and criteria for adulthood: Variable- and person-centered approaches

ABSTRACT Reaching adulthood is the aim of the transition to adulthood; however, emerging adults differently define both adulthood and the transitional period they are living. Variable-centered and person-centered approaches were integrated in the present paper to investigate if the criteria used to define adulthood are linked to how emerging adults perceive the transitional phase they are going through. Participants were 1513 emerging adults (53.60% female; 807 university students and 706 young workers), aged from 19 to 30 years. Participants completed self-report measures about dimensions of emerging adulthood and criteria for adulthood. Main results revealed that, according to the variable-centered approach, criteria of adulthood and dimensions of emerging adulthood are only slightly associated, while the person-centered approach revealed that people who have a composite view of adulthood are also less probably perceiving their emerging adulthood as a period characterized by a lack of possibilities. Implications and future lines of research are discussed.

Inter-Rater Agreement Indices for Multiple Informant Methodology

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the potential applications of multiple informant methodology (MIM) to family research. The MIM is used when data on the same unit of analysis are collected from more than one informant, and when the researchers’ purpose requires a dyadic or group level of analysis. The MIM relies on inter-rater agreement (IRA) indices, which are needed to both estimate agreement among informants and aggregate scores from different informants. This review describes the main IRA indices: reliability within-group index (rWG), agreement within-group index (aWG), average deviation indices (ADM and ADMd), intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), and random group index (rWG). For each index, we describe the aim, application contexts, formula(s), ranges, cutoffs, requirements to apply the index, and its possible application to family research.