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.