Stephanie D. Madsen

So Close, Yet So Far Away: The Impact of Varying Marital Horizons on Emerging Adulthood.

This article presents a marital horizon theory of emerging adulthood that posits that young peoples perceptions of marriage are central factors in determining subgroup differences in the length of emerging adulthood as well as the specific behaviors that occur during this period in the family life cycle. The model was tested with a sample of 813 emerging adults who were recruited from six college sites across the country. Results demonstrated that there are significant differences between young people who have relatively close marital horizons (i.e., those who desire marriage in their early 20s) and those who have more distant marital horizons (i.e., those who desire marriage in their mid-20s or later) in the areas of substance use patterns, sexual permissiveness, and family formation values. Results suggest that changes in lifestyle patterns previously assumed to be associated with the transition to marriage may in fact be initiated when young people anticipate marriage in their near future.

Connecting the intrapersonal to the interpersonal: Autonomy, voice, parents, and romantic relationships in emerging adulthood

Multiple forms of adolescent autonomy (emotional autonomy, voice, and cognitive autonomy) were examined as correlates of parental and partner relationships. Measures included parental warmth and psychological control, and romantic support and negative interactions. Participants were 206 students (age 17 to 20, M age = 18) who had romantic partners. Those who reported more emotional autonomy from parents (e.g., individuation and nondependence) reported less voice with parents and less cognitive autonomy. Adolescents reported less independence from their parents, more voice with parents and more confidence in their own choices when they reported more parental warmth. Adolescents reported less independence from their parents and less voice when their parents were more controlling. Participants reported more independence from parents and more voice when they reported more romantic partner support. The results show how necessary it is to consider multiple aspects of autonomy and relationships to understand how the intrapersonal and interpersonal are connected.

Emerging Adults' Psychosocial Adjustment: Does a Best Friend's Gender Matter?

COPYRIGHT 2013 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 18, NO. 3/ISSN 2164-8204) *Faculty mentor Friendships are advantageous to psychosocial development throughout the lifespan, but may become increasingly important during the third decade of life as individuals turn to friends instead of parents for support, advice, and companionship (Fehr, 2000). Indeed, due to demographic shifts that have delayed marital and parenthood timing and increased the pursuit of higher education, Arnett (2011) contended that the years from 18 to 29 are characterized by identity explorations, instability (e.g., changing roommates, love partners, jobs, educational directions), self-focus, feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood, and possibilities. As emerging adults experiment with romantic partners, they simultaneously forge close friendships in support of what Erikson (1968) called the young adulthood psychosocial crisis of emotional intimacy versus isolation. Because the majority of best friendships are with members of the same gender1 (Demir & Özdemir, 2010), much of this research on friendships has focused on these relationships and their contribution to psychosocial adjustment; consequently, less is known about the association of other-gender friendships with well-being (c.f., Monsour, 2002). Other-gender friendships provide opportunities for intimacy, companionship, perspective into the world of the other gender, and sexual exploration (among heterosexuals). Significant gender differences exist in emerging adults’ same-gender friendships, such that women tend to focus more on the intimacy aspects of friendships, although men focus mainly on agency (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). Thus, othergender friendships might impact adjustment differentially for men and women. In this study, we examined emerging adults’ gender and the role of their friends’ gender on psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-worth, identity, friendship quality, and social physique anxiety). ABSTRACT. Friendship quality has been associated with psychosocial adjustment throughout the lifespan. Although emerging adults’ friendships differ by gender, little is known about how the gender of emerging adults and their friends are related to their psychosocial adjustment. Undergraduate students from 4 U.S. universities (N = 792) completed an online study. Women reported higher levels of self-worth, identity commitment, social physique anxiety, and friendship quality than did men, F(5, 779) = 10.12, p < .001, η2 = .06. A gender x friend’s gender interaction was found, F(5, 779) = 3.22, p = .007, η2 = .02, such that women with male friends reported lower levels of self-worth and more social physique anxiety compared to those with female friends, and men with female friends reported lower levels of self-worth compared to those with male friends. Thus, gender differences existed in emerging adults’ psychosocial adjustment, but the gender of friends also aided in explaining that adjustment. Emerging Adults’ Psychosocial Adjustment: Does a Best Friend’s Gender Matter?