Adulthood Defined by Personality Change, Not Events -- CooKoo's Nest

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Date Posted: 21:45:48 05/04/02 Sat
Author: Anonymous
Subject: Adulthood Defined by Personality Change, Not Events

You've graduated from college, gotten married and had children--is it safe to say you're an adult? Not necessarily, says one British researcher. She found that for many people, "adulthood" is not defined as a passage through traditional events, but rather a change in personality and behavior.

"We found that the traditional markers of adulthood--such as marriage (or) getting a job--were of little importance to our participants," said Fiona Ulph of Southampton University in Highfield. Instead "it appeared that characteristics which fostered individualism were important in defining adulthood."

The findings are based on responses to questionnaires given to more than 1,300 men and women in the UK over 16 years of age. The participants were divided roughly equally into four age categories: 16 to 20, 21 to 24, 25 to 30, and over 30. All were asked to identify those events in life that represent transition into adulthood--and to what degree they felt these indicators held true for them.

At the recent British Psychological Society meeting held in Blackpool, Ulph reported that certain time-honored measures of becoming an adult--such as entering marriage, finishing education, becoming a parent or leaving home--were thought of as no better than "slightly important." Such indicators, she found, generally lost ground to more abstract definitions of growing up--such as having a sense of independence, emotional maturity or responsibility.

Regardless of age, the participants identified five important measures of adulthood:

--accepting responsibility for the consequences of actions;

--deciding on personal beliefs and values independently of parents or other influences;

--achieving financial independence from parents;

--becoming less self-oriented, and developing greater consideration for others;

--avoiding drunk driving.

She added that age did have some influence on such opinions, with those over 30 rating responsible behavior as more important than those under 30.

Overall, Ulph concluded that personality characteristics appear to have displaced specific life events as telltale signs that adulthood has arrived. This finding would also probably apply to individuals living in similar cultural environments, such North America, she said.

"I believe there has been a shift," Ulph told Reuters Health. "Western societies have increasingly become less community-based and more about the individual.... (So) my assumption is that these changes will allow individuals to be less constrained about society's expectations, and thus adulthood will be defined in a very individualistic manner."

Ulph emphasized, however, that her study was the first of its kind to be conducted in Britain and that further research is needed. Meanwhile, she cautioned that just because some historically valued events might no longer be viewed as stepping-stones to adulthood does not necessarily mean that they are no longer of any importance to younger generations.

"Although the participants did not believe markers such as parenthood and marriage were important in defining adulthood, this does not mean that these transitions were not valued in their own right," she said.

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Replies:

Re: Adulthood Defined by Personality Change, Not Events -- Anonymous, 16:09:09 05/05/02 Sun