EAMMi an Adult Yet?: The Relationship Between Features of Emerging Adulthood, Markers of Adulthood, and Age

Emerging adulthood (EA) is a developmental period between adolescence and young adulthood characterized by identity development and increased independence (Arnett, 2000). Using the MOA and IDEA8 measures from the EAMMi2 dataset, we investigated three hypotheses: 1) the more markers of adulthood (MOA) one has achieved, the less they would identify as EA, 2) age would be positively related to MOA achievement, and 3) age would be negatively related to identification with EA (IDEA8). Our correlations revealed a significant negative relationship between age and all four IDEA8 subscales and a significant positive relationship between age and all four MOA Achievement subscales. An independent t-test showed significantly greater scores on all IDEA8 subscales (except for negativity) in emerging adults than in adults, and significantly lower scores on all four of the MOA Achievement subscales in emerging adults than in adults. Significant negative relationships were found between the MOA Achievement subscales and the IDEA8 subscales. These results may suggest that, as people age, their identification with aspects of emerging adulthood decreases and their achievement of markers of adulthood increases. The implication may be that identity stabilization and increased achievement of culturally constructed adulthood benchmarks delineate the transition from emerging adulthood to adulthood.