When I Grow Up I want to be a Race Car Driver: The Role of Mental Wellbeing and Socio-Economic Status on Emerging Adults’ Aspirations

The emergence of the emerging adulthood period has coincided with many young Australians delaying marriage and parenthood. Instead they are exploring different opportunities in education, employment and travel. However, emerging adulthood is posed as a period only for the privileged. It has also been recognized as a highly turbulent period of the lifespan, in which mental health issues are most prevalent. It is argued (Arnett, 2000) that during this period, and as an outcome of their explorations, emerging adults form aspirations for their future, which then lay the foundations for adult life. To date, research has not investigated how SES and mental wellbeing predict variation in emerging adults’ aspirations for different life pathways. The present thesis aimed to investigate the relationship between emerging adults’ mental wellbeing and aspirations for work and travel, and to ascertain whether this relationship varied as a function of socio-economic status and gender. A sample of 102 male and 232 female participants aged 18-29 years completed an online survey. Four hypotheses were investigated. It was hypothesised that individuals of lower SES would have poorer mental wellbeing. Secondly, it was hypothesised that higher levels of mental wellbeing would be positively related to the importance and confidence of achieving employment-related aspirations. Thirdly, it was hypothesised that higher levels of mental wellbeing would be positively related to aspirations for leadership, with men of higher mental wellbeing expected to be the most likely to aspire to leadership. Finally, it was hypothesised that mental wellbeing would be positively related to travel aspirations, with participants of lower SES and poor mental wellbeing the least likely to aspire to travel. Self-esteem significantly predicted leadership aspirations and confidence of achieving employment related aspirations, while other findings were not significant. Strengths and limitations, implications and further research are discussed