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Individuation As An Adolescent Developmental Task: Associations With Adoptee Adjustment, Danila Musante

Doctoral Dissertations

This study evaluated the associations between adolescent individuation and concurrent and long term adjustment in adoptive families. Individuation was assessed using an observational measure examining behaviors and communications demonstrative of individuality and connectedness between each parent and the adolescent. Findings did not support the hypothesized connection between adolescent individuation and concurrent and long term adjustment in adoptive families. However, further analyses revealed particular importance of connectedness between adolescent and parent for adolescent adjustment, which was found to vary by adolescent gender. Specifically, analyses revealed that gender interacts with both adolescent-father connectedness and mother-adolescent connectedness in predicting adolescent internalizing symptoms; for …

Emotion In Adoption Narratives: Links To Close Relationships In Emerging Adulthood, Holly A. Grant-Marsney

Doctoral Dissertations

An adopted person develops a narrative or story to help make sense of his or her adoption. This narrative provides a window into how the adoptee understands the role of adoption in his or her life and articulates feelings and thoughts about it. Adolescent and emerging adult adoptees’ data from the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) were examined. MTARP longitudinally followed 190 adoptive kinship networks, with varying levels of openness in the adoption, from childhood to emerging adulthood. The current study sought to understand how emotion (affective valence and specific emotions), as identified in the adoption narratives during adolescence and …

Post-College Transition: A Study Of Evangelical Spirituality In Emerging Adulthood, Katharine R. Pals

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the question: How are the spiritual lives of evangelical Christian FIU graduates affected during the two to four years following their college graduation? In twenty mini-case studies participants describe their patterns in prayer life, devotion, community service outreach, and ways that they understand their own growth process as evangelical Christian emerging adults.

A total of twenty FIU alumni from the classes of 2009-2012 between the ages of 23 and 34 were interviewed in this study. The sample population of evangelical Christian FIU alumni was identified by the graduates’ previous membership in on-campus Christian organizations, including Campus Bible …

An Exploration Of Gender Roles And Communication In Emerging Adulthood, Francesca Guglielmi

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

What did you say? A common expression uttered by males and females reflects a potential lack of understanding between the sexes. Gender and communication is not a new area, but it is an under researched area within emerging adulthood. Traditionally, development progressed from adolescence to young adulthood, but changes in today’s modern society have altered the typical pattern of "growing up". High school graduates are no longer forced into adult roles—careers and marriage—but are able to spend their late teens through mid-twenties exploring a variety of opportunities (Arnett, 2007). As a relatively new developmental stage, emerging adulthood has not been …