How does financial life shape emerging adulthood? Short-term longitudinal associations between perceived features of emerging adulthoofd, financial behaviors, and financial well-being

Becoming independent from parental financial support and developing financial capabilities are important life tasks in emerging adulthood. However, research on how the accomplishment of these tasks contributes to perceptions of emerging adulthood features is rare. This study investigates how functioning in the financial domain shapes perceptions of emerging adulthood features during the early years of emerging adulthood. Participants in this short-term longitudinal study were 533 emerging adults (57.2% women; Mage=18.94, SDage=.73, range 18 to 21 years) freshly enrolled into a set of programs at three higher education institutions. Results show that: (a) financial well-being promotes more desirable perceived emerging adulthood features while financial difficulties tend to be related to more negative ones; (b) change in economic dependence is primarily driven by financial well-being; (c) perceived features of emerging adulthood also contribute to how one functions in financial life; (d) parental SES plays at least some role in these matters.