Emerging Adulthood in Romania: Comparison between the Perceptions Twelfth Graduates and Students about Maturity

AbstractRecent studies on emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004) conducted in different countries and cultures concluded that 18-25 years old adolescents do not consider markers such as getting married, finishing school or getting a job as criteria for adulthood. Instead they relate to psychological criteria that are usually achieved gradually and individually: taking responsibility, making decisions independent and achieving financial independence. After school completion youth can choose between several possible routes in the transition to adulthood: they can either continue their studies, enter the labor market or do both. For a large number of young people, college is an important step in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. We focused teenager's perception of what they think it would be necessary for someone to be considered an adult and whether attending a university (as institutional social experience) influence their perception of maturity. The database has a total of 1,240 respondents between 16-25 years (M=18,87, SD=1,05), the majority girls (60,6%) and consists of two samples: 897 XIIth graders (F=52,8%) and 343 first year students (F=81%). The most frequently marked maturity criteria by youth (94,03%) was “to take responsibility for the consequences of your actions”, in varying proportion for XIIth graders 96,99% and 86,30% for students. Our data supports previous studies results according to internal psychological attributes are more important markers of adulthood in the perception of teenagers and young adults of the new generations than external markers identified by the classic literature. It's necessary to research on the perception of young people who do not follow college because they might be constrained due to the economic situation to take certain roles that lead them to feel adult at an earlier age