Advice messages and helpful behaviors emerging adults receive during transitions from higher education: associations with dispositional and contextual hope

ABSTRACT

One of the most meaningful life transitions is from school to full-time employment. Emerging adults embarking on this transition to adulthood often face many financial, identity, and relational challenges. Hopefulness, encouragement, and advice from personal networks can play an important role in the way emerging adults process and navigate these challenges following graduation from college. A content analysis of 226 emerging adults’ responses to questions about this transition revealed typologies of advice messages and helpful behaviors received from personal network members. Findings revealed that emerging adults with higher levels of hope reported more encouraging messages and identity-specific support than those lower in hope, while also reporting more helpful behaviors from supportive network members than from sources outside their close personal network.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.