Vosylis, Rimantas

Many parents continue to provide financial assistance to their emerging adult children, which has particular links with emerging adults’ well-being. The current study examined how form and level of parental financial support shape need-supportive and -thwarting parenting and well-being of emerging adults. Participants in this short-term longitudinal study were 600 Lithuanian emerging adults (M age = 24.94, SD age = 3.03, range 19–29 years; 52.3% females), recruited from online survey panel using the controlled quota sampling strategy. The latent profile analysis identified four profiles characterizing dependence on parental financial support: entirely dependent, mostly dependent, dependent on direct support, and financially self-sufficient. Reliance on both employment income and parental support was linked to unfavorable parenting and poorer well-being, while reliance only on direct support was linked to more favorable parenting and well-being. The findings demonstrate the importance of differentiating between forms of parental financial support.

Many parents around the world continue to financially support their emerging adult children as the latter experience prolonged education and extended transition times to stable employment. This has made the path to financial self-sufficiency longer and more diversified. Some emerging adults achieve financial self-reliance quickly, while others rely on parents until their early thirties. Therefore, the pathways linking parental financial support to emerging adults’ financial and general flourishing and floundering have received considerable attention from researchers. First, this chapter examines the increasing role of parental financial support in contemporary societies. Second, it delves into how prolonged parental financial support promotes emerging adults’ financial wellness. Third, it discusses the role of family socioeconomic status in the form and level of financial support parents can provide. Finally, it addresses the negative effects of parental financial support on emerging adult children’s psychological well-being, developmental progression, formation of financial skills, and parent–child relationships.

Our study investigates whether motivation experiences are consistent between and within classrooms, focusing on students' perceptions of goal structures, personal achievement goals, and grades. We used multilevel struc tural equation modeling with data collected from 1268 ninth-grade students (51.7 % females; average age = 14.87; standard deviation = 0.39) placed in 72 classes. Our findings show that students' perceptions of goal structures vary across classrooms, and that shared mastery goal perceptions are positively associated with average classroom grades. Within classrooms, when individual students perceive more mastery-related messages, their personal achievement goals (both mastery and performance) are higher. However, only mastery goals, out of the two student achievement goal orientations, are positively linked with grades and mediate between mastery goal structures and grades. Moreover, students from less affluent families have lower scores on both goal ori entations and observe fewer performance-oriented messages in their learning environment; boys report lower mastery orientation. Student background effects on grades are partly explained by achievement goals, suggesting that unequal motivational experiences may partly account for achievement gaps related to social inequalities.

A robust body of research provides evidence of a strong connection between identity development and age-related functioning. A sense of financial identity may be an important precursor of adult self-sufficiency. For this reason, the study of financial identity (i.e., the answer to the question “Who am I from a financial point of view?”) as a domain-specific component of identity development during the transition to adulthood is a timely and important topic worldwide. In order to properly investigate the financial identity domain, a reliable and valid instrument is needed. The aim of the current study is to test both a variable-centered model and a person-centered model of the 12-item Financial Identity Scale in an international sample of 4,960 emerging adults from ten different countries: Austria, Finland, Hungary, India, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and the United States. The variable-centered model of the Financial Identity Scale suggests that the 12 items measure four latent factors, each corresponding to a different identity status: achievement, foreclosure, diffusion, and moratorium. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed this model in seven out of ten countries, and approximate measurement invariance indicated that Financial Identity Scale scores were comparable across these countries. The person-centered model of the Financial Identity Scale suggests that the four statuses of financial identity present three different configurations in the population: pathfinders, followers, and drifters. The latent profile analysis conducted in the current study identified four distinct profiles, the first three of which correspond to those in the original model, and a fourth which was labelled “Indecisive”. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This edited book is a comprehensive resource that is intended to benefit scholars seeking guidance for how to use diverse research methods to study emerging adulthood. Studying emerging adults (typically people between the ages of 18 and 29) presents specific challenges; therefore, this book guides scholars in issues such as representative sampling and participatory inclusion of diverse emerging adults throughout the research process. This book is unique in its coverage of both quantitative and qualitative methods, and in its breadth of the entire research methods process: from philosophies of science to the creation of research questions, sampling techniques, data collection strategies, procedures of data analysis, accurate reporting of results, drawing evidence-based conclusions, and recognition of the limitations and strengths of each methodological approach. Each chapter uses simple, easy-to-understand language that is written as a tutorial with clear guidelines. Most chapters first introduce the reader to a particular method and how it is used in emerging adulthood research, then provide a step-by-step procedure demonstrating how to use that method with example emerging adult data, ending with an annotated bibliography of the most relevant resources for that method. This book covers the diversity of quantitative cross-sectional, quantitative longitudinal, quantitative dyadic, intensive longitudinal, in-depth qualitative, and mixed methods approaches with a breadth and depth that will benefit emerging and established scholars who are interested in learning new methods that capture the diversity and complexity of the lives of emerging adults.

The present study focuses on the role of family support to young adult children during COVID‐19 in ameliorating the negative financial impact of the pandemic. Guided by the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory of stress and coping, we conceptualize the negative financial impact due to COVID‐19 as a source of financial stress that would be associated with lower levels of both financial wellbeing and positive outlook of young adults. We rely on data collected from a multinational sample of young adults (ages 18–30) from six countries (China, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, US; N  = 2102) over a 3‐month period (July 2020–September 2020). We tested the potential effects of two types of support (i.e., parental financial support and family emotional support) using path analysis. While we find a consistent positive association between family emotional support and both financial wellbeing and positive outlook, we also find a consistent negative association between parental financial support and financial wellbeing, and a nonsignificant or negative association (Lithuania only) with a positive outlook. The significant interaction between COVID‐19 financial impact and family emotional support on young adults' positive outlook reveals that the benefit of family emotional support is more evident when the negative financial impact is low or moderate. We discuss the implications of these findings in assisting young adults to cope with financial disruptions.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging adults are especially vulnerable as they experience its financial impact as a source of stress. We tested a model of psychological resilience among emerging adults (18–25 years) during the pandemic from six Western countries (Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and United States) using online survey data collected between May and September 2020. Framed in the conservation of resources theory, we examined the association between financial loss and financial well-being and the moderating role of psychological resilience in the association. Using path analysis, we found a direct negative association between financial loss and financial well-being, a direct positive association between psychological resilience and financial well-being, but no evidence of moderation. We discuss the findings in the context of continuing global economic uncertainty and the support needed to foster adult independence and financial well-being of emerging adults.

Grade vs. test discrepancies and social biases in grading are complex phenomena shaped by the interplay of student characteristics, teacher behaviors, curricular elements, and the school environment. Despite this complexity, research examining how these phenomena vary across schools and in relation to school and curriculum-specific characteristics remains limited. This study delves into the discrepancy between grades and standardized math and national language test scores within a cohort of 18,812 8th-grade students in Lithuania nested in 418 schools. Multilevel regression analysis unveiled a pattern: female students were over-graded, whereas those from low socioeconomic backgrounds and those with special educational needs were consistently under-graded. Biases related to gender and special education needs varied significantly across schools, and the effects were linked to school characteristics. There were both similarities and differences in patterns for math and national language grading bias.