Peer's and adult's attitudes toward emerging adults

Abstract

Za mlade osobe se već dugo vremena govori kako su previše samouvjerene, ovisne o medijima, materijalisti te u konačnici i devijantni. Također, pridodaju im se razni drugi epiteti, dok Pearson (Pickard, 2014) izvještava da se generacije mladih osoba smatraju problemom još od 19. stoljeća. Mnoge negativne karakteristike koje se pripisuju mladim osobama stvaraju iskrivljenu sliku o njima kod starijih i kod mlađih osoba pa mlade osobe često smatraju da se zapravo trebaju ponašati u skladu s tim oznakama te najčešće tako i postaju devijantni. Kako bi se ispitali stavovi prema osobama u nadolazećoj odraslosti i razlike u njima između različitih dobnih skupina, cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati stavove vršnjaka i odraslih osoba prema osobama u nadolazećoj odraslosti. U istraživanju su sudjelovali sudionici u mlađoj (N=207; u dobi od 18 do 30 godina) i odrasloj (N=208; u dobi od 40 do 67 godina) dobi. Korištene su IDEA skala (Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood; Reiffman, Arnett i Colwell, 2007) te je za potrebe istraživanja konstruirana i Modificirana skala stavova prema mladima koja je sadržavala procjene prikupljene kvalitativnim ispitivanjem različitih dobnih skupina. Utvrđena je dvofaktorska struktura Modificirane skale stavova prema mladima. Također, utvrđena je statistički značajna razlika između pozitivnih stavova prema mladima mlađih odraslih i starijih odraslih sudionika. Na kraju, od značajki nadolazeće odraslosti, jedino je značajka vrijeme negativnosti i nestabilnosti bila povezana sa stavovima onako kako se i očekivalo, točnije, očekivalo se da će biti povezana s negativnim stavovima prema mladima i kod mlađih odraslih i kod starijih odraslih ispitanika.For a long time, young people have been seen as overconfident, media dependent, materialistic, and ultimately deviant. There are also various other epithets attached to them, while Pearson (Pickard, 2014) reports that generations of young people have been considered as a problem since the 19th century. Many of the negative attributes attached to young people create a distorted picture of them in the elderly and in young people, so young people often feel that they actually need to behave in accordance with these labels and most often become deviant. In order to examine attitudes towards the people in emerging adulthood and differences between them in different age groups, the aim of this study was to examine the attitudes of peers and adults towards emerging adults. Participants in the study were younger adults (N=207; ages 18 to 30) and adults (N=208; ages 40 to 67). The IDEA Scale (Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood; Reiffman, Arnett, & Colwell, 2007) was used and a Modified Scale of Attitudes Toward Young Adults was constructed for the purposes of the survey, containing estimates collected through qualitative testing of different age groups. A two-factor structure of the Modified Scale of Attitudes Toward Young Adults was established. Also, a statistically significant difference was found between positive attitudes toward emerging adults. Lastly, of all the features of emerging adulthood, only the feature negativity/instability was related with attitudes as expected, more precisely, it was expected to be related with negative attitudes towards emerging adults in both groups