Positive Development and Resilience in Emerging Adulthood

Recently, calls have been made for an increased focus on successful development in young people and how optimal developmental pathways can be promoted. The concept of healthy functioning or positive development is particularly relevant to the emerging-adulthood period because of the significant potential for positive change and redirection of life pathways observed during this time. This chapter focuses on one empirically tested model of positive development in emerging adulthood developed with data from the Australian Temperament Project. Positive development is conceptualized as comprising the dimensions of civic action and engagement, trust and tolerance of others, trust in authorities and organizations, social competence, and life satisfaction. A growing body of research suggests that positive development in emerging adulthood is an important asset for young people, with distinct developmental antecedents and consequences for later functioning. The findings provide possible targets for interventions to promote healthy developmental pathways into adulthood. The ATP model of positive development is a theoretically informed and empirically supported model of positive psychosocial functioning in emerging adulthood, which we suggest provides a strong basis for positive development research. This model incorporates perspectives from developmental psychopathology (Cicchetti, 1984; Masten & Curtis, 2000), life course and lifespan psychology (Lerner, 2006), and social capital theory (Whitley & McKenzie, 2005), and was initially developed by M. Hawkins et al. (2009) as an empirical model of positive development in emerging adulthood (at 19–20 years). Empirical testing was conducted with data from the Australian Temperament Project (ATP), a large-scale longitudinal study following the psychosocial development of a community sample from infancy to early adulthood (Prior, Sanson, Smart, & Oberklaid, 2000; Vassallo & Sanson, 2013). five important dimensions during the early, middle, and late stages of emerging adulthood. Findings also indicated that the young person who is developing well is increasingly taking on norms of trust and tolerance, attaining social competence, experiencing satisfaction with life, is less trusting of authorities and organizations, and is more engaged and active in civic and social groups as he or she moves further into adulthood. These studies thus provide evidence of a cohesive higher order construct of positive development in emerging adulthood, representing a significant advance in the field and providing a robust measure during the emerging-adulthood period for positive developmental research to build on. these conceptualizations of The results that enlightened self-interest in many cognitive-behavior modern versions of the hedonic position. self-actualization in modern humanistic modern equivalents of the eudaimonic understanding of the extent to which positive development influences the successful negotiation of subsequent developmental tasks and the uptake of positive health behaviors may facilitate the development of intervention and prevention programs. Data from 890 young adults (61.7% female) were analyzed using path analysis. We observed consistent evidence of relationships between positive development in late adolescence and subsequent outcomes on transition to young adulthood. After controlling for gender, family socioeconomic status (SES), and earlier levels of outcome factors, the measure of positive development at 19–20 years significantly predicted emotional health, physical well-being, quality of relationships (including friendships and intimate relationships), lower levels of antisocial behavior, and later positive development. All outcomes were most strongly predicted by their previous levels, indicating considerable stability across these time points. results