Original article
Adolescent Care-Orientation and Positive Development in Young Adulthood

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.07.024Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

This study examined the extent to which care-oriented attitudes and behaviours in adolescence (e.g., volunteering) predict positive development (PD; e.g., life satisfaction and meaning/purpose) in young adulthood (19–28 years).

Methods

The analytic sample comprised 1,359 participants participating from a 35-year (16 wave) population-based cohort study (The Australian Temperament Project). Adolescent care-oriented attitudes and behaviours were defined in mid-adolescence (15–16 years). Young adult PD was defined by latent growth curve modelling across three waves (19–20, 23–24, and 27–28 years).

Results

There was considerable variation in PD at the beginning of young adulthood (19–20 years) (variance of intercept = 40.22, SE = 4.53, p < .001). Once baseline PD levels were established in young adulthood, there was evidence of increasing PD over time (mean slope = .34, SE = .04, 95%CI = [.26, .41], p < .001, β = .65), with little variation in this rate of change between participants (variance of slope = .27, SE = .15, p = .087). After controlling for sex, parental education, and personality factors (b = 3.49, SE(b) = .67, 95%CI = [2.17, 4.80], p < .001, β = .22) care orientations in adolescence predicted PD at age 19–20 years, establishing the starting point of PD trajectories across young adulthood.

Conclusions

Results suggest that promotion of care-oriented attitudes and behaviours in adolescence may enhance adult development by increasing PD levels at the start of the twenties. Intervening earlier in life is indicated as PD tends to remain stable throughout young adulthood once established.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

The ATP was initiated in 1983 with a representative sample of Victorian infants aged four to eight months (N = 2,443), and their parents, followed prospectively to 27–28 years. Participants were recruited through Maternal and Child Health Centres across rural and urban areas of Victoria, Australia, and were surveyed by mail every one to two years until 19 years of age and every four years thereafter. Further information on the ATP sample has been published elsewhere [20].

The study used

Young adult outcome measures

Global PD in young adulthood was assessed across five domains[7,15]: (1) life satisfaction; (2) social competence; (3) trust and tolerance; (4) trust in authorities and institutions; and (5) civic engagement (see Table 1). Measures of these domains were derived and/or adapted from two sources: (1) the National Survey of Families and Households [21], which was designed to provide information on family life including parenting, relationships and economic and psychological wellbeing; and, (2) ATP

Results

Correlations between all variables in the study are presented in Table 3. There were strong positive correlations between measures of PD at each time point. There were also weak to moderate significant positive correlations between adolescent care-orientation and young adult PD at each time point.

Fig. 1 presents the results of the unconditional latent growth model. The model had adequate model fit (χ2[1]=13.45, p = .0004; CFI = .984; RMSEA = .093), although it is noted that the RMSEA value was

Discussion

Findings highlight significant individual variation in young adult PD at baseline (i.e., 19–20 years), and a pattern of consistent growth in PD scores over the three young adulthood time points, spanning eight years (ages 19–20; 23–24; and 27–28 years). There was little variation between individuals in the rate of change over time and no covariance between the intercept and slope growth parameters. This indicates that individuals generally have the same trajectory of increasing PD over time

Conclusion

Results contribute to our understanding of the characteristics of growth in PD in young adulthood. The study identified variation in PD at age 19–20 years as the source of relative differences in stable growth of PD through the twenties. Adolescent care-orientation was found to predict PD in the early twenties, after controlling for a more comprehensive range of covariates than in many previous studies, increasing confidence in the associations identified. The current study highlights the

Author Contribution

DH conceptualized and designed the study, contributed to the collection of data, interpreted the results, supervised the write-up of the manuscript, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. GY conceptualized and designed the study, prepared the data for analysis and carried out the analyses, interpreted the results, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. AB conceptualized and designed the study,

Funding

This research was funded by a project grant from the Australian Research Council to Principal Investigators Ann Sanson, Craig Olsson, and Diana Smart, 2008–2011 (DP0987573) and a grant from the Financial Markets Foundation for Children Australia to principal investigators Craig Olsson, Delyse Hutchinson, and Joanne Ryan, 2015–2016.

Acknowledgment

The ATP study is located at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne and is a collaboration between Deakin University, The University of Melbourne, The Australian Institute of Family Studies, The University of New South Wales, The University of Otago (NZ), and the Royal Children's Hospital; further information available at https://www.melbournechildrens.com/atp/. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and may not reflect those of their organizational affiliations, nor of

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    Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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