A Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship Between Sociopolitical Development and Vocational Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood
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Date
2021-11-23
Authors
Rao, Kavitha
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Emerging adulthood is a developmental period marked by profound change socially, emotionally, and vocationally. The emerging adult vocational development process is characterized by dramatic individual growth that is influenced by many factors. Scholars have found that sociopolitical development exerts influence over adolescents’ vocational development, but little is known about whether sociopolitical development exerts similar influences over emerging adult vocational development. The present study builds upon extant adolescent and emerging adult literature to consider the longitudinal stability of, and relationship between, sociopolitical and vocational development for emerging adult populations. The primary aim was to utilize existing self-report survey data (Project Alliance 2 [PAL2]) collected from 456 emerging adults to test three objectives: (a) examine the stability of sociopolitical development and vocational outcomes of emerging adults ages 20 to 23, (b) explore if there is a predictive relationship between emerging adults’ sociopolitical development and vocational outcomes over time, and (c) examine whether race/ethnicity, sex, and postsecondary education moderate the relationship between emerging adults’ sociopolitical development and vocational outcomes. The overarching goal of this study was to increase scholarly understanding of the stability of sociopolitical and vocational development across emerging adulthood. Additionally, scholars hoped that study findings would verify whether, similar to adolescents, sociopolitical development and vocational outcomes predicted one another for emerging adults. Study results demonstrated that sociopolitical and vocational development are stable for a majority of emerging adult subgroups. Furthermore, findings indicated that these two constructs do not predict one another during emerging adulthood. Implications for practice and research are discussed to expand and diversify research on emerging adulthood.
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Keywords
Emerging Adulthood, Longitudinal, Sociopolitical Development, Structural Equation Modeling, Vocational Development