Emerging Adulthood

rezentovaná štúdia sa sústreďuje na vybrané
behaviorálne a sociálne špecifiká homosexuálne
orientovaných mužov v období dospievania a dospelosti.
V behaviorálnej oblasti sa zameriavame predovšetkým na
heterofaksimilitu, ktorá predstavuje výrazný aktivačný
prvok pasívnych copingových stratégií, ako je napríklad
abúzus alkoholu, ktorého zdrojom je napríklad ego
obranný mechanizmus racionalizácie. Suicidálne konanie,
ako konanie, ktoré predstavuje útek pred niečím, čo môže
degradovať sebaúctu a môže Tieto fenomény predstavujú
najvýraznejšie dôsledky vplyvu vyššie uvedenej
heterofaksimility. V sociálnej oblasti analyzujeme
predovšetkým fenomény, ako je sociálna anxieta (úzkosť)
a sociálna izolácia, ktorých spúšťačom sú osamelosť,
pomyselné hodnotenie inými, či aj samotné fenomény
uvádzané v oblasti behaviorálnych špecifík.

With the protraction of higher education, delays in marriage and childbearing, and extended financial support from parents, emerging adults (or EAs, ages 18–23) enjoy unprecedented freedoms. What does that mean for their spiritual formation? Smith, a veteran sociologist of religion, and Snell, of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at Notre Dame, draw on statistical samples and more than 200 in-depth interviews to craft a compelling portrait of college-age Americans. This generation, steeped in religious pluralism, gets high marks for inclusivity and diversity awareness but has troubling consumerist tendencies, consistently prioritizing material wealth and devaluing altruism. Not surprisingly, EAs are less religious than older adults and than they themselves were as teenagers—which comes home especially poignantly in a chapter of follow-up profiles on some of the interview subjects from Smith's 2005 book on teen spirituality, Soul Searching. Surprisingly, however, EAs are not significantly less religious than emerging adults of prior generations. Although the book is heavy on survey data, tables and sociological typology, it's well-organized and seasoned with enough memorable interviews that lay readers will value it as much as specialists. (Publishers Weekly)

The transition to college, which for the majority of youth coincides with the transition to emerging adulthood, is stressful and disruptive. Using latent growth curve modeling (LGM), this study examines the longitudinal course of psychosocial adjustment in a sample of 2,095 emerging adults, at three time-points across this transition: In the week prior to college entry and at the end of each semester of the first year. Overall, the immediate transition is characterized by steep declines in psychological well-being, cognitive-affective strengths, and social well-being as well as increases in psychological distress and cognitive-affective vulnerabilities. These setbacks generally plateau, but do not resolve, later in the year. Examining gender differences in developmental trajectories revealed that females experience additional elevations in psychological distress even after the immediate transition, while males evidenced worse baseline levels in cognitive-affective vulnerabilities, c...

This paper deals with the contact and relationship youth have with staff while in care and after emancipation and examines the young adults' needs in contacting staff after leaving care. The study was conducted through 60 interviews with young adults ages 21–26 who emancipated from residential settings in Israel. Results showed that most youth report having had a meaningful staff member in care and that 62% were in contact with staff after their transition to independent living for both emotional and practical needs that could not always be answered by staff. One of the study's conclusions is that despite their departure staff's relationship with these young adults continues informally years after. However, without formal recognition of the place staff have in the lives of aged-out youth, no resources are invested in training them to properly meet the young adults' needs. The discussion highlights the need for an integrative approach that sees residential settings and staff as a meaningful part in the continuity from care to independent living by supporting aged-out youth's gradual transition to adult life.

In the Children’s Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin, the Annual Lecture 2007
was delivered on November 14th by US Psychologist Professor Jeffrey Jensen Arnett,
Clark University, Massachusetts. The subject was Professor Arnett’s theory of emerging
adulthood. Dr. Maureen Gaffney, Chair of the National Economic and Social Forum,
responded to Professor Arnett’s lecture. An invited roundtable was convened following
the lecture to discuss the policy implications of emerging adulthood for young people’s
career and work patterns.
This Research Digest1 summarises messages from both events.

The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. This qualitative study explores the emerging adults'dissolution strategies leading up to and through enactment of disengagement through mediated contexts. Participants (N = 99) completed questionnaires about their ghosting familiarity and participation as initiators or non-initiators. The majority of participants reported participating in both roles. Five themes described why initiators chose to enact ghosting, and three themes chronicled their ghosting decision-making processes. Noninitiators illustrated how they realized ghosting occurred through three themes. This exploratory investigation offers a definitive definition of ghosting and a modern discussion of its contents to dissolution, communication, and romantic relationship development.

Life for emerging adults is vastly different today than it was for their counterparts even a generation ago. Young people are waiting longer to marry, to have children, and to choose a career direction. As a result, they enjoy more freedom, opportunities, and personal growth than ever before. But the transition to adulthood is also more complex, disjointed, and confusing. In Lost in Transition, Christian Smith and his collaborators draw on 230 in-depth interviews with a broad cross-section of emerging adults (ages 18-23) to investigate the difficulties young people face today, the underlying causes of those difficulties, and the consequences both for individuals and for American society as a whole. Rampant consumer capitalism, ongoing failures in education, hyper-individualism, postmodernist moral relativism, and other aspects of American culture are all contributing to the chaotic terrain that emerging adults must cross. Smith identifies five major problems facing very many young people today: confused moral reasoning, routine intoxication, materialistic life goals, regrettable sexual experiences, and disengagement from civic and political life. The trouble does not lie only with the emerging adults or their poor individual decisions but has much deeper roots in mainstream American culture--a culture which emerging adults have largely inherited rather than created. Older adults, Smith argues, must recognize that much of the responsibility for the pain and confusion young people face lies with them. Rejecting both sky-is-falling alarmism on the one hand and complacent disregard on the other, Smith suggests the need for what he calls "realistic concern"--and a reconsideration of our cultural priorities and practices--that will help emerging adults more skillfully engage unique challenges they face. Even-handed, engagingly written, and based on comprehensive research, Lost in Transition brings much needed attention to the darker side of the transition to adulthood.

The prolonged period of adulthood gave rise to the new stage of emerging adulthood. During this stage, well-being is one of the critical tasks to lead a flourishing life. Research on emerging adulthood has focused mainly on the adverse effects of this period. However, little attention is paid to their well-being. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the influencing role of a growth mindset, grit, and gratitude on achieving well-being and design a promotion model to improve well-being. In the present study, a mixed-methods approach was implemented through survey and focus group discussion. In the initial phase, a survey with three hundred (300) participants in Cebu City within the age of 18 to 29 years old was conducted, and data were collected and analyzed using multiple regression in SPSS. Findings revealed a high score in Growth Mindset, average Grit, and Gratitude, while overall Well-being appeared to be a low score. Besides, findings in the current study revealed that the Growth Mindset does not influence Well-being, while Grit and Gratitude appear to affect the research participants' overall well-being positively. In the focus group discussion of 9 research participants, different themes emerged: personal, career, financial, social, health, and spiritual. Examining these emergent themes of adults' well-being in Cebu City yields the opportunity to comprehensively understand how their well-being is experienced. Based on the results, a promotion model of well-being is proposed providing valuable insights on how to achieve well-being during emerging adulthood.

The purpose of this paper is to address the trend of declining church attendance among emerging adults by discovering what makes for an effective college-age ministry in hopes that the needs of emerging adults will be better understood and effective methods of ministering to them replicated. A review of relevant literature was conducted in combination with a series of interviews of current and former college-age ministers. The findings of this research suggest that emerging adults need a unique sort of ministry from the church which serves as a bridge between youth and adult ministries and has three key components: (1) authentic community among peers, (2) meaningful service opportunities, and (3) intentional discipleship by older, more mature believers in the church.

In her landmark paper Age as a Sociolinguistic Variable, Eckert states that ‘‘age is a person’s place at a given time in relation to the social order: a stage, a condition, a place in history’’ (1997:151). Speaker age has long been one of the primary social categories within sociolinguistics, and may be argued to be the sociolinguistic category. Indeed, many of our theories about how language varies and what becomes of that variation are built upon notions of how speaker age relates to and reflects language use, including age-related cut-offs for the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation (Payne [1980] Locating language in time and space, New York: Academic Press), the apparent time hypothesis of language change (Bailey et al. [1991] Language Variation and Change, 3, 241–64), and the relationship of age to linguistic style (Bakht [2010] Lexical Variation and the Negotiation of Linguistic Style in a Long Island Middle School. New York University). However, as Eckert points out, we often do not go deeply enough into the theoretical background that such uses of age entail and that ‘‘the study of age as a sociolinguistic variable … requires that we focus on the nature and social status of age and aging’’ (Eckert [1997] The handbook of sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell: 152). Over the course of the last few decades, however, the nature of age has changed significantly for one specific group, that of emerging adults (Arnett [2004] Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. Oxford: Oxford University Press). The theory of ‘‘emerging adulthood,’’ as developed by Arnett over the last decade (i.e., Arnett [2000] American Psychologist 55(5), 469–80; Arnett [2004]; Arnett [2007] Childhood Development Perspectives 1(2), 68–73; Arnett et al. [2011] Debating emerging adulthood: Stage or process? Oxford: Oxford University Press), is a ‘‘new and historically unprecedented period of the life course’’ (2004:4) that has only recently arisen within ‘‘industrialized or ‘postindustrial’ countries’’ (2004:21) and, therefore, could only have been experienced as a specific life-stage by those individuals born after 1975 or so. In broad terms, emerging adults are those individuals in industrialized societies who exist in a transitional period between the parental care and stability experienced during adolescence and the self-sufficiency and stability experienced during adulthood. Though typically made up of individuals aged 18–25, emerging adulthood can span a number of years on either side, encompassing for some a period of life stretching into the mid-thirties, or for others, a short period of only one to 2 years after leaving secondary school. The emerging adulthood stage is composed of individuals who have not yet settled into the long-term choices and life-paths that make up adulthood. Emerging adults often are university students, are highly mobile, engage in large but not necessarily dense social networks, and are generally unmarried (or, perhaps, not in the long-term marriages that are associated with adulthood). If we accept Arnett’s theory that emerging adulthood is a distinct and relatively new psychological-developmental period, then we must recognize that these people, ‘‘trying out different experiences and gradually making their way toward enduring choices’’ (Arnett 2007), also represent a new kind of sociolinguistic actor – an age group that may at once challenge and provide a rich proofing ground for our theories on sociolinguistic identity, variation, and change. In this paper, I describe why the theory of ‘‘emerging adulthood’’ should be incorporated into studies of sociolinguistic variation, describing how some of the basic concepts of sociolinguistic theory may need to be reconsidered in light of this new stage of the life course. I begin by providing background on ‘‘emerging adulthood’’ and the characteristics of ‘‘emerging adults’’ as developed by Arnett and others, focusing on the argument that emerging adulthood is not simply a new way of marking an age-group, but an entirely new developmental stage. Next,I show how emerging adulthood relates to the sociolinguistic concepts of ‘‘place’’ and ‘‘network’’, arguing that the societal shifts that have brought about emerging adulthood have likewise changed the assumptions of permanence, intimacy, and physical geography that these concepts are built upon. The social categories of ‘‘class’’ and ‘‘gender’’ are then discussed, highlighting how the understanding of these terms among emerging adults is neither predictable nor necessarily consistent across individuals. Especially difficult when discussing the sociolinguistics of class is the intersection of advantage and age that emerging adulthood seems to entail. Finally, I argue that because the characteristic features of emerging adulthood – exploration, instability, and change chief among them – are shared by sociolinguistic innovators, current and future sociolinguistic studies would do well to attend to the theory of emerging adulthood. This is especially true of studies regarding language change and the sociolinguistic leaders of variation. Examples throughout are drawn from my own work with university students in Illinois from 2005 to 2007 (Bigham [2008] Dialect contact and accommodation among emerging adults in a university setting. University of Texas at Austin). My stance in this paper is one of support and full recognition for the validity of the theory of emerging adulthood; for further reading on the debate surrounding emerging adulthood overall, the reader is referred to Arnett et al. 2011.

Objectives: Cultural variability (CV) is introduced as an overlooked dimension of cultural identity development pertaining to emphasizing and de-emphasizing the influence of a single cultural identity (i.e., cultural influence [CI]) on daily interactions and behaviors. The Cultural IDentity Influence Measure (CIDIM) is introduced as a novel measure of CI and CV, and hypothesis-driven validation is conducted in two samples along with exploration of associations between CV and well-being. Method: A multicultural sample of 242 emerging adults participated in a daily diary study (M age 19.95 years, SD age 1.40) by completing up to eight daily online surveys containing the CIDIM, criterion measures (ethnic identity, other group orientation, ethnic identity salience and daily variability in salience, social desirability), and measures of personal and interpersonal well-being. A second validation sample (n 245) completed a 1-time survey with the CIDIM and a subset of criterion measures. Results: Results using both samples show evidence of CI and CV and demonstrate the validity, reliability, and domain-sensitivity of the CIDIM. Further, CV made unique and positive contributions to predicting interaction quality after accounting for ethnic salience and variability in ethnic salience. An analytic approach utilizing standard deviations produced near-identical results to multilevel modeling and is recommended for parsimony. Conclusions: Ethnic minority and majority individuals make daily adjustments to play up and play down the influence of cultural identity on their social interactions and behaviors, and these adjustments predict interpersonal well-being. Cultural influence and cultural variability contribute to our emerging understanding of cultural identity as dynamic and agentic.

Erikson’s stage theory of psychosocial developmental was developed sixty years ago in a very different social milieu to the one which young adults inhabit now. The theory of emerging adulthood presents a challenge to the Eriksonian stage scheme, by suggesting that early adulthood should be separated out into two distinct stages, the first of which (emerging adulthood) pertains to the flux and instability of the 18-25 age range, and the second of which (early adulthood) is the subsequent more settled phase. Furthermore, my own research on early adult ‘quarter-life’ crisis has shown that there is now a normative crisis that occurs in the middle of early adulthood, typically around the 25-35 age range, which was not accounted for in Erikson’s model. Such crises can take two forms; the locked-out form (feeling unable to enter adult roles) or the locked-in form (feeling trapped in adult roles). Quarter-life crisis can be theoretically conceived as located in between emerging adulthood and early adulthood, and as having an integral role within a neo-Eriksonian scheme. I also propose a change in vocabulary for the defining dialectic of early adulthood, away from Erikson’s intimacy – isolation, towards commitment – independence.

The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. This qualitative study explores the emerging adults'dissolution strategies leading up to and through enactment of  disengagement through mediated contexts. Participants (N = 99) completed questionnaires about their ghosting familiarity and participation as initiators or non-initiators. The majority of participants reported participating in both roles. Five themes described why initiators chose to enact ghosting, and three themes chronicled their ghosting decision-making processes. Noninitiators illustrated how they realized ghosting occurred through three themes. This exploratory investigation offers a definitive definition of ghosting and a modern discussion of its contents to dissolution, communication, and romantic relationship development.

Główne pytanie tekstu dotyczy wchodzenia w dorosłość młodych Polaków w wieku 18-29 lat, ich postrzegania dorosłości. Zgodnie z wynikami badania młodzi odchodzą obecnie od defi niowania dorosłości w kategoriach tradycyjnych markerów społecznych na rzecz własności intrapsychicznych oraz kompetencji. Dorosłość jest silnie związana z po-strzeganiem siebie jako osoby kompetentnej w obszarze zawodowym i relacji społecznych, z pewną autonomię. Markery te (kompetencji, relacji, autonomii) na poziomie mikro od-powiadają najważniejszym potrzebom psychicznym człowieka (teoria autodeterminacji). Na poziomie makro markery te są zbieżne z charakterystyką czterech europejskich modeli wchodzenia w dorosłość, stworzonych przez Cécile van de Velde. Polski model wydaje się mieć charakter hybrydowy, łączący dużą rolę kompetencji zawodowych i autonomii z naciskiem na samorozwój jednostki.

The article focuses on the model of entering adulthood. According to the results of the on-line survey among 3264 (aged 18–29) people, in defining adulthood young people abandon the traditional social markers in favour of intra-psychic properties and competences. The sense of adulthood is strongly associated with the perception of oneself primarily as a competent person in both professional and social relations, and maintaining a certain autonomy. These markers (competencies, relationships, autonomy) at the micro level correspond to the most important psychological human needs (theory of self-determination). At the macro level, the markers of competence, relationships and autonomy are in line with the characteristics of four European
models of adulthood (Cécile van de Velde); the Polish model appears to be hybrid in character, combining the significant role of professional competences and autonomy with the emphasis on self-development of an individual.

Adolescence and becoming an adult have been frequently analysed by the developmental psychology of life stages of the man. In descriptions of these life stages, psychological categories such as developmental crisis, identity transformation and initiation all intertwine.
In the text, I combine the psychological theories that describe adolescence with the theory of rites of passage according to Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner.

Smartphones are a fundamental part of emerging adults’ life. The aim of this chapter is to determine which factors play a role in “phubbing” during emerging adulthood as well as to propose and test a model of this phenomenon. We tested a model of relations between phubbing, self-esteem, self-control, well-being, and internet addiction. The following measures were used: the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale,
the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS), the Flourishing Scale, the Internet Addiction Scale, and the Phubbing Scale. The participants in the online study were 640 Italian emerging adults (526 females and 114 males), ranging in age from 18 to 29 (M = 21.7, SD = 2.18). The results showed that the model was well fitted, particularly in postulating that a decrease in the level of self-control is related to an increase in Internet addiction, that an increase in Internet addiction increases the probability of phubbing behavior, and that the level of self-esteem and well-being do not affect Internet addiction. Gender differences, in favor of males, occurred only in self-esteem.

What does it mean to be an adult? In this original and compelling work, John Russon answers that question by leading us through a series of rich reflections on the psychological and social dimensions of adulthood and by exploring some of the deepest ethical and existential issues that confront human life: intimacy, responsibility, aging, and death. Using his knowledge of the history of philosophy along with the combined resources of psychology, sociology, and anthropology, he explores the behavioral challenges of becoming an adult and examines the intimate relationships that are integral to healthy development. He also studies our experiences of time and space, which address both aging and the crucial role that our material environments play in the formation of our personalities. Of special note is Russon's provocative assessment of the economic and political contexts of contemporary adult life and the distinctive problems they pose. Engaging and accessible, Adult Life is for anyone seeking the profound lessons our human culture has learned about living well.

“John Russon is one of the best phenomenologists in contemporary philosophy. He uses the phenomenological method to cast light on some of the most important issues in our lives. In this book, Russon offers a sensitive description of what it is like to navigate the world as an adult, displaying the ways in which adulthood involves a development of our relations with the world, one another, and ourselves. In doing so, he allows us to see afresh the ways in which our lives unfold over time.” — Todd May, author of Kenneth Lonergan: Filmmaker and Philosopher

This qualitative study examined the 18-24-year-old population of undergraduate students at one northeast, public university who participated in a structured gap program between their secondary and post-secondary schooling. Data were collected in three phases. Study participants emerged from an initial questionnaire that invited participation from the eligible university population of 3,355 students. Data included survey responses from 100 students, interviews with four respondents, and a case study of one informant. The four student interviews occurred on the university campus in audio recorded, face-to-face appointments. One of the interviewees, Caitlin, became the focus of an instrumental case (Stake, 1994) that reported the factors that led to her gap decision and her experience within the Student Conservation Association. Caitlin’s case was based on her survey responses; interview data; follow-up interview data; and photos, postings, and journal entries from her social network account which she maintained during her gap period and her university experiences. Additional narrative data about Caitlin’s case resulted from interviews with other informants to whom Caitlin provided access. The findings detailed the pivotal events and critical features of structured gap programs, evidence of personal development, and the factors of access and support involved with attending a structured gap year program. Informants gave evidence that structured gap year programming provided them with the opportunities to build resilience, become self-directed, relate to people, find independence, and define their passion. Findings reveal how participation in these programs fosters dispositions indicating greater likelihood that the student will enroll in college and persist toward degrees. The findings also give reason to both high school guidance and college advising programs to consider the role gap programming may serve in addressing the ephebagogical needs of the emerging adult and spur post-secondary institutions to appraise the extent to which they endorse and credential these experiences for young people.

As one departs from the stages of identity-ridden adolescence and intimacy-filled early adulthood, a new stage is set for the individual to perform; this stage of development is known as “middle adulthood.” Erikson’s crisis for this stage, Generativity Versus Stagnation, was initially grounded on the concept of caring for the next generation by either rearing one’s own children or educating and guiding younger individuals (Berger, 2010, p. 456). Given this general schema, society prematurely views procreation as the proper starting point as well as one of the main contributors to the quality of one’s generativity. Erikson further supports this notion by stating, “…parenthood is the ‘procreative core’ of generative adulthood” (Hoare, 2002, p. 192). Thus, it is not surprising that genital sexuality, hence sexual intercourse, is hypothetically deemed as a sublimation of generativity (Hoare, 2002, p. 192). If generativity aims to instill faith in the human species and the future generation, then adults must channel their own needs to ensure its livelihood and success (Hoare, 2002, p. 190). Procreation must therefore play a vital role in affecting generativity in this context. Nevertheless, various viewpoints must be analyzed and interpreted before conclusions are made about the morality of whether to have children.

This article aims at exploring the different representations young people and adults attribute to the concept of adulthood on a normative, ideal and descriptive level in order to analyse the effects these ideas have on their reciprocal perception and recognition as adults. In so doing, it draws upon data collected through a grounded theory study, which has been conducted in Italy involving young people and adults in semi-structured qualitative interviews. The main results underline a traditional model of adulthood is commonly diffused at the normative and ideal levels of the interviewees’ representations, constituting a powerful paradigm of recognition for both the involved generational groups. The article highlights how an ‘evaluative’ function is added to the notion of adulthood based upon classic transitional markers, which is used by both young people and adults to accuse each other of being ‘not mature enough’. The risk that these difficulties of mutual recognition could foster the consolidation of a scenario in which youth transitions to adulthood are turned into a sort of potentially ‘endless wandering’ is discussed.

This study investigates the relationship between resilience, self-esteem and the big five personality
traits, in a sample of emerging adults students, (N = 192). In this respect, three questionnaires were
administered: an instrument which operationalizes resilience as a skill of rapid recovery following
unpleasant events (Brief Resilience Scale – BRS), and personality and self-esteem questionnaires (the
Big Five Inventory-10 – BFI-10, respectively the Single-item self esteem – SISE). Correlational and
regression analysis shows statistically significant relationships between resilience, self-esteem,
extraversion and neuroticism. Self-esteem as well as neuroticism can be considered a predictor of
resilience, which suggests the fact that emotional balance and self trust are essential for the
confrontation with stressful factors.

In recent years, social media use and its effects on mental health have been investigated many times. Mostly, studies focused less on the global health when addressing mental health. In this cluster analysis study, on a sample of 261 Turkish college students who were emerging adults, the associations between social media use and depression, sleep disturbance, and global health were tested. By using k-means cluster analysis, participants were divided into three groups: ordinary and none, mild, and severe social media users.  The results indicated that male college students had higher social networking addiction than females. There was a significant and positive relationship between times spent on social media and depression and sleep disturbance. The results showed that mild level social media users differ statistically in global health and sleep disturbance from both ordinary/none and severe users. The results were similar with the previous published studies in different cultures and countries in the fields of mental health.

Research on crisis episodes during the first decade of adult life suggests two types of such ‘quarter-life’ crisis exist; locked-in and locked-out. Both relate conceptually to the transition out of emerging adulthood. A female case study was studied over a four-year period, starting when she left university. Wellbeing and depression data were gathered five times, two interviews were conducted, as well as a structured email exchange. Results showed two episodes of crisis within the study period. The first was the locked-out type, which occurred when the participant experienced multiple failures to find work, leading to self-esteem decline and anxiety. The second crisis was the locked-in type, which occurred when she felt obliged to stay in a job despite a bullying boss. The case study provides a rich exemplification of quarter-life crisis theory, and provides insights for further consideration in multi-participant studies on the challenges of leaving tertiary education.

The aim of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of faith transformation of Gozitan young people as they move to Malta to further higher education and secure professional employment. Moreover, the study questioned the effectiveness of childhood/adolescent faith formation on emerging adults as they negotiate and co-construct their identity during a major life transition. The study discusses the challenges Gozitan young people face in Malta and the impact of the socio-cultural context and higher education on their religious identity, beliefs, practices and worldviews. Applying Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis for a qualitative research on a sample of eight Gozitan young people in Malta, the study portrays how, through critical reflection, participants are consciously and explicitly reassessing their meaning structures and religious identities. Although provoking questions and generating doubts about core beliefs and worldviews, challenges are experienced as a constructive passage in the unfolding of their emerging adult lives, enabling participants to assume responsibility, manage their lives and own religious beliefs. While religion emerges as a key resource of meaning-making influencing their identity and worldviews, the study concludes that parental religion, positive faith formation programs, internalisation of religious beliefs and personal prayer support high levels of religious commitment and practice during emerging adult years.