University Library
  • Login
A gateway to Melbourne's research publications
Minerva Access is the University's Institutional Repository. It aims to collect, preserve, and showcase the intellectual output of staff and students of the University of Melbourne for a global audience.
View Item 
  • Minerva Access
  • Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses
  • View Item
  • Minerva Access
  • Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Wellbeing and functioning in emerging adulthood: A longitudinal study of determinants and mechanisms

    Thumbnail
    Citations
    Altmetric
    Author
    Armitage, Jessica
    Date
    2018
    Affiliation
    Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Document Type
    PhD thesis
    Access Status
    This item is embargoed and will be available on 2022-06-22.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/240607
    Description

    © 2018 Jessica Armitage

    Abstract
    During the key periods of adolescence and emerging adulthood, individuals can be particularly vulnerable to experiencing suboptimal wellbeing and functioning. With potential long-term impacts on adult trajectories, early wellbeing promotion is critical. This study aimed to further understand wellbeing development across adolescence and into emerging adulthood, by examining the role of a range of individual and environmental characteristics. The individual characteristics examined included temperament, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms. Environmental characteristics included parental responses to emotion expression, parental mental health, stressful life events, and maltreatment. The role of emotion regulation strategies were also explored in relation to the characteristics and wellbeing. The study utilised a longitudinal community cohort from the Adolescent Development Study, recruited from schools across Melbourne, Australia. The sample included 245 families who completed questionnaires across three time points. At time 1 (mean age = 12.45), measures of temperament, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, parental depression symptoms, parental anxiety symptoms, and parental responses to offspring emotion expression were completed. At time 2 (mean age = 15.01), adolescents completed measures of stressful life events and maltreatment. They completed emotion regulation and wellbeing measures at the final time point (mean age = 18.83). Predictor variables were factor analysed within each domain in order to provide sufficient representation of the structure of the data. A series of path analyses, controlling for gender and SES revealed that temperament traits, neglect, and abuse predicted wellbeing and functioning outcomes. Bootstrap path analyses (using 95% confidence intervals for the indirect effect) revealed significant associations between the emotion regulation strategies of rumination, distraction, mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression with the individual and environmental characteristics, and wellbeing and functioning outcomes. Findings suggest that wellbeing development across adolescence and emerging adulthood is associated with individual characteristics (e.g., temperament), as well as environmental experiences that deviate from adaptive ranges (e.g., neglect). The various patterns found in the study reinforce the salience of examining wellbeing as a multifaceted construct, with aspects of wellbeing potentially having different developmental pathways. Furthermore, emotion regulation strategies may be important for wellbeing pathways, with maladaptive strategies (e.g., rumination) being associated with lower wellbeing and adaptive strategies (e.g. mindfulness) associated with higher wellbeing. Therefore, emotion regulation may be a suitable target for optimising youth wellbeing.
    Keywords
    emerging adulthood; adolescence; wellbeing; emotion regulation; mindfulness; rumination; well-being; maltreatment

    Export Reference in RIS Format     

    Endnote

    • Click on "Export Reference in RIS Format" and choose "open with... Endnote".

    Refworks

    • Click on "Export Reference in RIS Format". Login to Refworks, go to References => Import References


    Collections
    • Minerva Elements Records [45689]
    • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses [294]
    Minerva AccessDepositing Your Work (for University of Melbourne Staff and Students)NewsFAQs

    BrowseCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects
    My AccountLoginRegister
    StatisticsMost Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors