We're happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time. It's miserable and magical (Taylor Swift, “22”). Emerging adulthood is a critical juncture in human life with unique challenges that are mastered successfully by most people but not by all. First, this project will describe how individual differences in personality and parenting are related to heterogeneity in (mal)adjustment during emerging adulthood. I expect that the interplay of (changes in) personality and parenting is meaningfully related to a variety of important developmental outcomes. Second, I also aim to explain heterogeneity in (mal)adaptation in emerging adulthood by examining crucial mediating and modifiable psychological processes explaining these relations. I expect that emotion regulation and identity commitment are key mediators. The integration of a lifespan (macro-time level) perspective and a dynamic systems (moment-by-moment micro-time level) perspective measuring within-person variability will greatly extend our understanding of why young adults progress along different trajectories. Finally, I aim to predict successful transition to emerging adulthood by developing, implementing and evaluating an RCT intervention focusing on emotion regulation or identity using Virtual Reality, aimed to facilitate a successful transition to emerging adulthood. Ultimately, results from this project can provide young people tools that help them to experience emerging adulthood as the
time of their life.