Czech emerging adults Petr Macek & Ondřej Bouša Institute for Research on Children, Youth, and Family Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic

What is special about Czech emerging adults? Young Czechs do not differ basically from their peers in Western and Central Europe. Similarly to other European industrial countries, one can identify a development stage of emerging adulthood in the Czech Republic (Arnett, 2006). It is evident both from demographic data and subjective responses of young people (Wallace & Kovatcheva, 1998; Macek, Bejček, & Vaníčková, 2007). However, we should consider the fact that the time of transition from adolescence to adulthood is also determined by specific cultural, social and historical factors.

What is special about Czech emerging adults? In this respect, the present Czech emerging adults represent a unique generation. They were born in the end of 1980s and on the beginning of 1990s, i.e. when the totalitarian communist regime collapsed in former Czechoslovakia. Compared to previous Czech generations, they experience: -a high level of personal freedom - much more possibilities - more personal responsibility

What is special about Czech emerging adults? The age of 18: the point of transition to EA: They get legal responsibility (voting, drinking alcohol, driving car, getting marriage) They also present typical psychological features mentioned by Jeff Arnett (2004): -Identity exploration (self-focused orientation, looking for new social identity, making commitments -Instability (in terms of many shifts and changes regarding partnership, studying, work, moving etc) and feeling of many possibilities and high personal freedom -feeling in-between (not adolescent but not fully adult)

Study I: Subjective developmental status Different subjective developmental status: „I am adolescent, not adult“, „I feel in-between, neither adolescent nor adult “, „I am adult“ Basic question: Is different developmental status related to specific socio-demographic and psychological characteristics of current Czech emerging adults Sample: 1750 respondents, 886 females, 864 males; aged 18 – 30, from different schools but mostly students of Masaryk University Brno in the Czech republic. A questionnaire, included the set of items regarding: -demographic variables; -items regarding the concept of individual freedom and possible restrictions of free will -a question about subjective developmental status (“Do you feel as an adolescent/not yet adolescent not already adult/adult?”) -IDEA questionnaire (Reifman, Arnett, & Colwell, 2003), -Other variables related to everyday life experiences

Subjective developmental status: feeling: not adult – in-between – adult (percentages within age groups) Regarding total sample, 63% report the subjective status in-between, 30% as young adult and 6% of respondents as adolescent. Age x status ((χ2 (6, N = 1 686) = ; p <.001).

Highest educational attainment x subjective developmental status feeling: not adult – in-between – adult (percentages within subgroups ) 3% of total sample reported elementary education, 73% high education, 24% graduated college Education x status ((χ2 (4, N = 1 681) = ; p <.001).

Employment status x subjective developmental status feeling: not adult – in-between – adult (percentages within groups within the same employment status) Total sample: 70% students, 21% working students, 9% working young people Employment x status ((χ2 (4, N = 1 681) = ; p <.001).

Partnership x subjective developmental status feeling: not adult – in-between – adult (percentages within subgroups of partnership) Total sample: 42% without partner, 37% with partner, 19% living with partner, 3% married Partnership x developmental status ((χ2 (6, N = 1 675) = ; p <.001).

Financial support x subjective developmental status feeling: not adult – in-between – adult (percentages within subgroups) Total sample: 14% respondents are self-supporting, 42% are supporting by parents, 44% are supporting fifty-fifty Financial support x developmental status ((χ2 (6, N = 1 646) = ; p <.001).

Housing x subjective developmental status feeling: not adult – in-between – adult (percentages within subgroups) Total sample: 30% respondents live with their parents, 45% spend the weekends with them. 25% live on their own Place of living x developmental status ((χ2 (4, N = 1 684) = ; p <.001).

Summary I The presented results confirmed that most young Czechs aged between 18 and 30 no longer feel as adolescents nor yet fully adult. This feeling is equally characteristic of both young women and young men and thus it is not affected markedly by gender stereotypes. Although feelings- in-between is the most frequent in group of university students, it is also frequent in people who already work. This result corresponds with the findings of studies reporting similar numbers of emerging adults among young Americans (Arnett, 2000, 2004), Dutch (Plug, Zeijl, & Du Bois-Reymond, 2003), Danes (Arnett, 2003) and Germans (Reitzle, 2006). Furthermore, there is an apparent connection between the economic dependence on parents and the perceived status. Those referring to themselves as emerging adults are largely dependant on their parents. Nevertheless, it is not a clear-cut indicator changing the subjective status of young people – it is not only emerging adults who are economically dependant on their parents but also half of the respondents who already regard themselves as adults. A connection was found between the subjective developmental status and partnership. As we expected, most married respondents feel as adults and not as emerging adults. However, the number of married respondents is very low in our sample not only in the group of feeling in-between but also in the group of those who already feel as adults.