Adolescents navigate the transition into young adulthood through their pursuit of developmental goals. While societal expectations and institutions provide normed paths to adulthood by shaping decisions on goal identification, individuals take various routes to attain adult-status through different goal prioritization. Using longitudinal data from a U.S. sample of 1,088 adolescents (55.6% female; 25.3% Whites, 19.8% Asians, 30.4% Latinx, 12.6% Multiracial), we identified young adults’ major developmental goal and subgoal trajectories during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants nominated goals within a 5-year period starting from the final year of secondary school, and responses were categorized into major developmental goals. Results showed moderate goal stability over time. Although career and education goals were initially prioritized, they were less frequently nominated over time while relational and financial goals became more frequent. However, rank-order stability was retained. Findings also showed that individual differences in education and employment status, motivational factors, gender, and ethnicity predicted goal identification in young adulthood. Collectively, findings reveal both general trends and interindividual differences in goals that highlight the interplay between society and individual agency, ultimately leading to different paths taken during the transition to adulthood.
ArnettJ. J. (2003). Conceptions of the transition to adulthood among emerging adults in American ethnic groups. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2003(100), 63–76.
2.
BachmanJ. G.SafronD. J.SyS. R.SchulenbergJ. E. (2003). Wishing to work: New perspectives on how adolescents’ part-time work intensity is linked to educational disengagement, substance use, and other problem behaviours. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27(4), 301–315.
3.
BealS. J.CrockettL. J. (2013). Adolescents’ occupational and educational goals: A test of reciprocal relations. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34(5), 219–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2013.04.005
4.
BealS. J.CrockettL. J.PeughJ. (2016). Adolescents’ changing future expectations predict the timing of adult role transitions. Developmental psychology, 52(10), 1606–1618.
5.
BensonJ. E.FurstenbergF. F.Jr (2006). Entry into adulthood: Are adult role transitions meaningful markers of adult identity?Advances in Life Course Research, 11, 199–224.
6.
BollenK. A.CurranP. J. (2006). Latent curve models: A structural equation perspective. (Vol. 467). John Wiley & Sons.
7.
BrunsteinJ. C.SchultheissO. C.MaierG. W. (1999). The pursuit of life goals: A motivational approach to well-being and life adjustment. In BrandtstadterJ.LernerR. M. (Eds.), Action & self-development: Theory and research through the life span, (pp. 169–196). Sage
ChangE. S.ChenC.GreenbergerE.DooleyD.HeckhausenJ. (2006). What do they want in life? The life goals of a multi-ethnic, multi-generational sample of high school seniors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(3), 302–313.
10.
CoxR. D. (2016). Complicating conditions: Obstacles and interruptions to low-income students’ college “choices”. The Journal of Higher Education, 87(1), 1–26.
11.
DavidA. (2010). Examining the relationship of personality and burnout in college students: The role of academic motivation. Educational Measurement and Evaluation Review, 1, 90–104.
12.
DesmondM.López TurleyR. N. (2009). The role of familism in explaining the Hispanic-White college application gap. Social Problems, 56(2), 311–334.
13.
DunlopW. L.BannonB. L.McAdamsD. P. (2017). Studying the motivated agent through time: Personal goal development during the adult life span. Journal of Personality, 85(2), 207–219.
14.
EcclesJ. S.WigfieldA. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132.
15.
FanW.WoltersC. A. (2014). School motivation and high school dropout: The mediating role of educational expectation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 84(1), 22–39.
16.
FraysierK.ReschlyA.AppletonJ. (2020). Predicting postsecondary enrollment with secondary student engagement data. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 38(7), 882–899.
17.
GauntR. (2013). Breadwinning moms, caregiving dads: Double standard in social judgments of gender norm violators. Journal of Family Issues, 34(1), 3–24.
18.
GiguèreB.LalondeR.LouE. (2010). Living at the crossroads of cultural worlds: The experience of normative conflicts by second generation immigrant youth. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(1), 14–29.
19.
GoldinC.KatzL. F.KuziemkoI. (2006). The homecoming of American college women: The reversal of the college gender gap. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(4), 133–156.
20.
GrimmK. J.RamN. (2018). Latent growth and dynamic structural equation models. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 14, 55–89.
21.
HaaseC. M.HeckhausenJ.SilbereisenR. K. (2012). The interplay of occupational motivation and well-being during the transition from university to work. Developmental Psychology, 48(6), 1739.
22.
HairJ. F.BlackW. C.BabinB. J.AndersonR. E.TathamR. L. (1998). Multivariate data analysis (Vol. 5., No. 3., pp. 207–219). Prentice hall.
23.
HavighurstR. J. (1948). Developmental tasks and education. University of Chicago Press.
24.
HavighurstR. J. (1972). Developmental tasks and education (3rd ed.). McKay.
25.
HeckhausenJ. (1997). Developmental regulation across adulthood: Primary and secondary control of age-related challenges. Developmental Psychology, 33(1), 176–187.
26.
HeckhausenJ. (1999). Developmental regulation in adulthood: Age-normative and sociostructural constraints as adaptive challenges. Cambridge University Press.
27.
HeckhausenJ. (2006). Developmental regulation in adulthood: Age-normative and sociostructural constraints as adaptive challenges. Cambridge University Press.
28.
HeckhausenJ.BuchmannM. (2019). A multi-disciplinary model of life-course canalization and agency. Advances in Life Course Research, 41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2018.09.002.
29.
HeckhausenJ.ChangE. (2009). Can ambition help overcome social inequality in the transition to adulthood? Individual agency and societal opportunities in Germany and the United States. Research in Human Development, 6(4), 235–251.
30.
HeckhausenJ.ChangE. S.GreenbergerE.ChenC. (2013). Striving for educational and career goals during the transition after high school: What is beneficial?Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(9), 1385–1398.
31.
HeckhausenJ.ShaneJ. (2015). Social mobility in the transition to adulthood: Educational systems, career entry, and individual agency. In JensenL. A. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of human development and culture: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 535–553). Oxford University Press.
32.
HeckhausenJ.TomasikM. J. (2002). Get an apprenticeship before school is out: How German adolescents adjust vocational aspirations when getting close to a developmental deadline. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 199–219.
33.
HeckhausenJ.WroschC.SchulzR. (2010). A Motivational theory of life-span development. Psychological Review, 117(1), 32.
34.
HoutM. (2012). Social and economic returns to college education in the United States. Annual Review of Sociology, 38, 379–400.
35.
Hurtado-OrtizM. T.GauvainM. (2007). Postsecondary education among Mexican American youth: Contributions of parents, siblings, acculturation, and generational status. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 29(2), 181–191.
36.
JohnsonM. K.ReynoldsJ. R. (2013). Educational expectation trajectories and attainment in the transition to adulthood. Social Science Research, 42(3), 818–835.
37.
LamontE. (2014). Negotiating courtship: Reconciling egalitarian ideals with traditional gender norms. Gender & Society, 28(2), 189–211.
38.
LeeJ.ZhouM. (2014). The success frame and achievement paradox: The costs and consequences for Asian Americans. Race and Social Problems, 6(1), 38–55.
LittleR. J. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American statistical Association, 83(404), 1198–1202.
41.
LovenheimM. F.ReynoldsC. L. (2011). Changes in postsecondary choices by ability and income: Evidence from the national longitudinal surveys of youth. Journal of Human Capital, 5(1), 70–109.
42.
LucianoE. C.OrthU. (2017). Transitions in romantic relationships and development of self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112, 307–328.
43.
MarsiskeM.LangF. B.BaltesP. B.BaltesM. M. (1995). Selective optimization with compensation: Life-span perspectives on successful human development. In DixonR. A.BäckmanL. (Eds.), Compensating for psychological deficits and declines: Managing losses and promoting gains (pp. 35–79). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
44.
MasseyE. K.GebhardtW. A.GarnefskiN. (2008). Adolescent goal content and pursuit: A review of the literature from the past 16 years. Developmental Review, 28(4), 421–460.
45.
MortimerJ. T. (2010). The benefits and risks of adolescent employment. The Prevention Researcher, 17(2), 8–11.
46.
MuthénL. K.MuthénB. O. (1998–2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.). Author.
47.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2020). Public high school graduation and post-secondary students rates. National Center for Education Statistics.
48.
NeugartenB. L.MooreJ. W.LoweJ. C. (1965). Age norms, age constraints, and adult socialization. American Journal of Sociology, 70(6), 710–717.
49.
NurmiJ. E.PooleM. E.KalakoskiV. (1994). Age differences in adolescent future-oriented goals, concerns, and related temporal extension in different sociocultural contexts. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 23(4), 471–487.
50.
NurmiJ. E.Salmela-AroK. (2002). Goal construction, reconstruction and depressive symptoms in a life-span context: The transition from school to work. Journal of Personality, 70(3), 385–420.
51.
OvinkS. M.KalogridesD. (2015). No place like home? Familism and Latino/a–white differences in college pathways. Social Science Research, 52, 219–235.
52.
PlanteI.O’KeefeP. A.ThéorêtM. (2013). The relation between achievement goal and expectancy-value theories in predicting achievement-related outcomes: A test of four theoretical conceptions. Motivation and Emotion, 37(1), 65–78.
53.
PoyntonT. A.LapanR. T. (2017). Aspirations, achievement, and school counselors’ impact on the college transition. Journal of Counseling & Development, 95(4), 369–377.
54.
RantaM.DietrichJ.Salmela-AroK. (2014). Career and romantic relationship goals and concerns during emerging adulthood. Emerging Adulthood, 2(1), 17–26.
55.
Salmela-AroK.AunolaK.NurmiJ. E. (2007). Personal goals during emerging adulthood: A 10-year follow up. Journal of Adolescent Research, 22(6), 690–715.
56.
SchoonI.EcclesJ. S. (Eds.). (2014). Gender differences in aspirations and attainment: A life course perspective. Cambridge University Press.
57.
SchoonI.HeckhausenJ. (2019). Conceptualizing individual agency in the transition from school to work: A social-ecological developmental perspective. Adolescent Research Review, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-019-00111-3
58.
SetterstenR. A.JrHagestadG. O. (1996a). What’s the latest? Cultural age deadlines for family transitions. The Gerontologist, 36(2), 178–188.
59.
SetterstenR. A.JrHagestadG. O. G. (1996b). What’s the latest? II. Cultural age deadlines for educational and work transitions. Gerontologist, 36(5), 602–613.
60.
SetterstenR. A.JrOttuschT. M.SchneiderB. (2015). Becoming adult: Meanings of markers to adulthood. Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource (pp. 1–16). Wiley Online Library.
61.
ShaneJ.HeckhausenJ. (2016a). Optimized engagement across life domains in adult development: Balancing diversity and interdomain consequences. Research in Human Development, 13(4), 280–296.
62.
ShaneJ.HeckhausenJ. (2016b). For better or worse: Young adults opportunity beliefs and motivational self-regulation during career entry. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 40(2), 107–116. http://doi.org/10.1177/0165025415589389
63.
ShaneJ.HeckhausenJ. (2019). Motivational theory of lifespan development. In BaltesB. B.RudolphC.ZacherH. (Eds.), Work across the lifespan (pp. 111–134). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812756-8.00005-0
64.
StataCorp. (2017). Stata statistical software: Release 15. StataCorp LLC.
65.
StringerK. J.KerpelmanJ. L. (2010). Career identity development in college students: Decision making, parental support, and work experience. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 10(3), 181–200.
66.
TrustyJ. (2000). High educational expectations and low achievement: Stability of educational goals across adolescence. The Journal of Educational Research, 93(6), 356–365.
67.
TwengeJ. M.CampbellW. K.GentileB. (2013). Changes in pronoun use in American books and the rise of individualism, 1960-2008. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(3), 406–415. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022112455100
68.
WarrenJ. R.LePoreP. C.MareR. D. (2000). Employment during high school: Consequences for students’ grades in academic courses. American Educational Research Journal, 37(4), 943–969.
69.
WigfieldA.TonksS.KlaudaS. L. (2009). Expectancy-value theory. In WentzelK. R.MieleD. B. (Eds.), Handbook of motivation at school (pp. 69–90). Routledge.
70.
XiaoJ. J.ChatterjeeS.KimJ. (2014). Factors associated with financial independence of young adults. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 38(4), 394–403.
71.
Zimmer-GembeckM. J.MortimerJ. T. (2006). Adolescent work, vocational development, and education. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 537–566.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
