Working Status and Perception of Adulthood: A Comparison between Italian and Dutch Emerging Adults.

The purpose of this study was (a) to identify the criteria Italian and Dutch emerging adults consider more important to achieve adulthood, (b) to compare Italian emerging adults’ criteria with the criteria espoused by Dutch emerging adults, and (c) to examine how these criteria might differ on the basis of the individuals working status (temporary employment vs. permanent employment) of the participants. Participants included 111 unmarried Italian (Mage = 25) and 151 unmarried Dutch (Mage = 23) university working students. Results revealed that (a), on average, Italian and Dutch emerging adults’ answers on which criteria for adulthood were more important were aligned with previous researches; (b), Italian and Dutch emerging adults also agreed upon the same order of importance of the criteria for adulthood presented to them, although some answers significantly differed as in function of the nationality of the participants; (c) when taken into account the working status of the participants only among Italian participants’ answers’ did the weight and order of importance of the criteria for adulthood differ. The findings suggest areas of meaningful differences in the perception of adulthood among temporary and permanent young workers and as a result the Italian case is highlighted as a “sensible” case for possible future research.