Abstract
Emerging adulthood is marked by important decisions about life choices. These life choices have their roots in sociocultural and historical contexts. The present study used a mixed methodology, concept mapping, to understand the tasks that are deemed as important by emerging adults in India. Study 1 comprised five focus group discussions with individuals between 18 and 29 years (N = 40, M age = 23) providing insights on the range of life choices. Study 2 (N = 60, M age = 23) incorporated rating and sorting methodologies to derive cluster maps. Eight clusters emerged. In order of importance: responsibility toward family, independence/autonomy, financial security, education/career, parental expectations, romantic relationships, community and faith, and societal norms. Influences on decision-making of these life choices included self, others, circumstantial, and external. Findings have implications for adaptation to social change and overall well-being in emerging adulthood.
Keywords
Each period in the adult life span brings forth important choices to be made. Decision-making of these choices often involves a holistic and intuitive appraisal of options, amid contexts such as education, family, social capital, social class, and the larger sociocultural milieu. Achievement of important developmental goals across the life span involves appraisal of resources and constraints (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995). During emerging adulthood, there are rapidly changing roles and environments. Choices are made not only in the realm of education and relationships but also in relation to migrating from parents and extended family, financial independence, spirituality, and civic responsibility (Arnett, 2015). The choices made during emerging adulthood, in the form of personal goals, both arise from and contribute to a person’s identity and set the foundation for adult life (Masten et al., 2004; Schulenberg, Maggs, & O’Malley, 2004). Additionally, life choices and implementation of goals continuously adjust to fit the ontogenetic age graded and historical dimension of time (Brandtstädter & Rothermund, 2002). While emerging adulthood is often seen as a time of self-focus in individualistic cultures, it may be different in other cultures, such as India, where interests of the community are placed higher than the interests of the self (Arnett, 2011; Seiter & Nelson, 2011). The mechanisms that are used in making these life choices can thus be identified on the societal and individual level (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1993).
There is limited research investigating the implications of the various life choices that emerging adults make during this time of their lives. Life choices in this article are defined as major decisions an individual makes during their current life stage that shape the direction of their life course. The purpose of this article is to identity the life choices deemed important during this time of life by emerging adults in India by using a ground-up approach. It attempts to capture the agentic role that individuals play in shaping their life course while forming their identity amid their personal and sociocultural circumstances. Choice here is defined not as a typical cognitive exercise of binary options but as an exercise of choosing among alternatives amid constraints, restrictions, and capital. Life choices are not made in a social vacuum (Elder, 1999). Establishing culturally normative goals is important in providing a basis for determining which behaviors are adaptive or maladaptive. An individual’s negotiation with various developmental tasks during the transition to adulthood has implications on their well-being during that time and in later life (Schulenberg et al., 2004).
Explorations and Tasks During Emerging Adulthood
Arnett (2015) proposed that the period of emerging adulthood is highlighted by five primary features in the United States: identity explorations, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and possibilities/optimism. While individuals are faced with challenges of finding out who they are and in which direction they are moving, they embark on exploration of alternative roles, in love, work, and worldviews (Erikson, 1968). Tasks during this phase may include a reassessment of existing values and goals and search of options for growth within oneself and the world (Levinson, 1986). Life choices made during this period often have lasting implications on an individual’s life (Arnett, 2000). When looking back, older adults consider the choices made during their 20s as the most important events in their lives (Berntsen & Rubin, 2004).
An important concept related to life choices is the concept of developmental tasks. Across the life span, each period presents a certain set of culturally specified tasks that are essential to be accomplished. The success or failure of achieving these developmental tasks is predictive of the individual’s adjustment in future tasks (Havighurst, 1953). These tasks are rooted in a society’s cultural and historical expectations (Roisman, Masten, Coatsworth, & Tellegen, 2004). The tasks often broadly encompass the various life choices individuals make during each period of life. Havighurst (1953) conceptualized these tasks as deriving from a multitude of interactions between the individual and sociocultural pressures.
Havighurst (1953) identified the period between 18 and 30 years as representing eight tasks related to intimate relationships (selecting a mate), learning to live with a marriage partner, starting a family, rearing children, managing a home, getting started in an occupation, taking on civic responsibility, and building a social life (finding a congenial social circle). More recently, Mayseless and Keren (2014) identified four central categories, across diverse samples, cultures, and methodologies, that resonate with the task of life meaning and purpose during emerging adulthood. These are achievements/work, relationships/intimacy, religion/spirituality, and self-transcendence/generativity. Some of Arnett’s (2015) five features of emerging adulthood can also be seen as developmental tasks, such as identity explorations and being self-focused. The Big Three criteria of adulthood (Arnett, 2015), viz., taking responsibility for oneself, making independent decisions, and becoming financially independent, also resonate with developmental tasks. The three criteria are tasks emerging adults in many societies are expected to accomplish from age 18 to 29. Markers of adulthood reflecting values of individuality and independence are not only limited to Western populations but consistently endorsed as a marker of adulthood across other typically community-focused cultural groups, including groups of Argentinians (Facio, Resett, Micocci, & Mistrorigo, 2007), Mormons (Nelson, 2003), and Israelis (Mayseless & Scharf, 2003). Internal psychological attributes, such as autonomy and taking on responsibility, have been repeatedly found to be more important markers of adulthood than completion of life events and role transitions (Arnett & Galambos, 2003; Facio et al., 2007; Mayseless & Scharf, 2003; Nelson, 2003).
Cultural Context
In a family-oriented culture such as India, life choices are often constrained by societal expectations. Unlike many Western middle-class cultures, Asian cultures do not promote the independence of a “self” from family members and social contexts (Matsumoto, 1999). Indians, with interdependent self-construal, guide their behavior by actively responding to and incorporating the demands of others (Matsumoto, 1999). S. H. Schwartz (2008) has identified the culture in South Asia to be hierarchical and allowing limited autonomy. India had a score of 11 (M = 6.5), relatively tight, on the tight–loose culture scale in a survey conducted across 33 nations (Gelfand et al., 2011). Tight nations typically impose higher constraints which restrict autonomy in a range of behaviors and social situations (Gelfand et al., 2011).
Alongside, Indian culture has also been found to have a unique individualistic–collectivistic cultural blend. In comparison to China (individualism index: 20) and the United States (individualism index: 91), India stands at an index of 48 on the individualism–collectivism dimension, where the range is from 1 (collectivist) to 100 (individualistic; Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010). This intermediate score indicates the coexistence of attributes from both dimensions within the larger Indian culture. The collective dimension suggests preference to belong to a larger social framework and an inclination to the opinion of their family, relatives, and larger social network. Concurrently, these attributes interact with individualistic ideologies of personal responsibility toward their lives (Hofstede, 2001).
While some studies have found Indians to have both individualistic and collectivist attributes (Mishra, 1994; D. Sinha & Tripathi, 1994; Tripathi, 1988), others have found India to be primarily collectivistic (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004; J. B. P. Sinha & Verma, 1987). The present study attempted to address the “unresolved dualism” (Kapp, 1963, p.18) of Indian cultural beliefs and illuminate the role of these beliefs in decisions about life choices among emerging adults. It explored the influence of tightness, limited autonomy, and coexistence of individualism and collectivism on what emerging adults in India deem important life choices during this time of their life.
Moreover, rapid economic and social changes in India may also be changing the way emerging adults prioritize and choose tasks. The sociocultural landscape among the urban and suburban middle class in India is currently under transition. Situated in a postcolonial euro-centric culture, Indian youth are redefining narratives of self and identity amid this changing landscape (Bhatia, 2018). In recent years, nuclear families have become more common in India. This has led to shifts in family ideologies allowing for greater space for a negotiated parent–child relationship in decision-making (Bansal, 2013). As a consequence of the urbanization in India in the past decade, young people are increasingly moving to large cities for education and work (Chhapia, 2014). Seiter and Nelson (2011) have proposed that as the opportunities for higher education and well-paying jobs increase, the degree of autonomy that emerging adults will have in decision-making regarding their life choices will become like that seen in the developed nations.
Importantly, while the phenomenon of emerging adulthood has been studied widely in developed nations, its research presence in developing nations remains underrepresented. The current youth bulge in India has also led to an increase in the number of persons aged 18–29 (Rajaram, 2013). Consequently, this study attempted to draw on the educated urban and suburban middle class in India that forms a significant portion of the population and has a vital role globally.
Examining Life Choices Through Concept Mapping
The main objective of the present study was to identify and understand life choices that middle-class Indian emerging adults engage in. This was done by utilizing a collaborative group research design to build a conceptual framework. The method of concept mapping (Trochim, 1989) allowed for a geography of life choices presented through a map representative of the participants’ perspective of what is important. The study aimed to answer the following questions: What are the life choices that emerging adults make during their transition to adulthood? Which choices are perceived relatively more important? What are the factors that most influence the decision-making across all these life choices?
Concept mapping (Kane & Trochim, 2007; Trochim, 1989) was utilized to answer the aforementioned questions. This mixed methodology blends a qualitative word-based and a quantitative code-based analysis and has been used widely for planning, evaluation, scale construction, and theory building in the social sciences (Conceição, Samuel, Biniecki, & Carter, 2017; Kane & Trochim, 2007). The study was conducted in two parts. Study 1 was the qualitative component, and Study 2 was the quantitative component. The focus groups in Study 1 provided inductive qualitative input that was supported and followed in Study 2 by the multivariate deductive methodological analysis of the derived statements after being categorized into groups and rated.
Study 1
This study used a mixed-methods research design. The specific method used was concept mapping (Kane & Trochim, 2007; Trochim, 1989), a type of structured conceptualization that can be utilized to develop a framework to guide a variety of purposes, such as evaluation, planning, theory building, scale development, and translating research into practice. There are six stages in concept mapping; the first two stages comprised Study 1.
The first stage preparing for concept mapping included selecting a group of participants to answer the research question. The focus prompt is the cue provided to participants to initiate generation of statements in response to the prompt to answer the research question. This was followed by the second stage of concept mapping, brainstorming and idea synthesis. The participants, in a focus group setting, brainstormed a list of statements relevant to the focus prompt. Concept mapping requires the participants to brainstorm a set of statements relevant to the focus. The resulting concept map provided a visual representation of the perceptions and ideas of the groups, how they are organized, and their relative importance.
Method
Participants
Forty participants between 18 and 29 years (M age = 23, SD = 3.4; Female = 57%) across three cities in India (South: Bengaluru, East: Kolkata, and Northeast: Siliguri) took part in focus group discussions. The aim was to collect a geographically dispersed and culturally diverse group. There was a range of demographic characteristics reported by the participants including age, gender, educational attainment, socioeconomic status (as measured by mother’s education level), relationship status, and children. Table 1 provides a summary of this information. Most of the participants were pursuing graduate studies (57%) and undergraduate studies (40%). Socioeconomic status was ascertained through mother’s level of education and participants belonged to varying socioeconomic groups (43% high school or less, 19% bachelor’s degree, 38% postgraduate or more). Close to half of the participants were not currently in a romantic relationship (52%).
Participants’ Demographic Information.
Note. N Study 1 = 40, N Study 2 = 60. All numbers in the table are percentages.
Procedure
Study 1 comprised the first two stages on the concept mapping methodology, preparing for concept mapping followed by brainstorming and idea synthesis.
Stage 1: Preparing for concept mapping
Convenience sampling was used. Participants were recruited through advertising on social media and through universities in the selected cities inviting individuals (emerging adults) to participate in a focus group discussion to discuss life choices made during this period of life and factors that influence decision-making of these life choices. Recruiting posts with information about the study and contact information of first author were provided. Location and time for each focus group discussion was finalized based on availability of participants.
There were five focus group discussions with 7–10 participants in each. The first group comprised 18- to 23-year-olds and the second group comprised 24- to 29-year-olds. It was expected that there would be varying topics of discussion since these groups of individuals may be at different developmental phases. However, there were no differences in topics discussed, so the full age range of 18- to 29-year-olds was maintained across the remaining three focus group discussions. All discussion was moderated by the first author. Data collection was concluded after the data reached saturation.
Stage 2: Brainstorming and idea synthesis
Each focus group session lasted between 60 and 90 min. The prompts provided were, “What are the important life choices that emerging adults make during this period between 18 and 29 years of age?” and “What are the factors that influence the decision-making of these life choices?” The process began with gathering individual statements from the participants by instructing them to generate two lists of statements answering the two prompts. Participants were instructed to write brief and specific statements with each sentence containing a single unique life choice or influence. These statements were expected to be related to their experiences and their views on what could have an impact on the decisions made by an individual of a life choice in their emerging adulthood. Participants were informed that typically, in concept mapping, each participant writes an average of 8–10 statements, but they could write more if deemed important. In this study, participants wrote 10 sentences, on average, in response to each prompt and, in some cases, supplemented these with examples from their lives.
The intention was to have participants respond to the prompt individually and then bring their statements to a group-level discussion. A brainstorming process helps facilitate responses from participants that they may have not thought of in an individual setting. Further, each individual participant was also requested to provide a written list of statements in response to the focus prompts to ensure that their perspectives were noted. Participants were requested to read out their statements and asked to refrain from criticism or discussing legitimacy of statements. Each participant read out statements of choice, based on their level of comfort to share, to the group to initiate brainstorming with the goal of developing a final list of life choices and factors. The final list comprised all responses (individual and discussed in group setting). The focus group sessions were recorded to provide clarity and reliability for content analysis during later stages of the study.
Data Analysis
Statements from all participants and five focus group discussions were combined to create two comprehensive lists of statements pertaining to the two prompts. The first list consisted of the important life choices and comprised a total of 266 statements across all focus group discussions. The second list pertained to the influences that impact decision-making of these life choices and comprised 220 statements. This was followed by the researchers editing lists of statements, based on their similarity, from all participants to create one comprehensive list of statements relevant to the focus group prompt. The repetitive statements were discarded leading to a list of unique statements relating to the research questions.
These lists were then again edited by the first author in collaboration with a subgroup of participants after all the focus groups were completed. Sentences were edited based on key words. Key words were highlighted in the recorded ideas to identify sentences that were potentially repetitive. One statement from each idea was retained to ensure there was no redundancy. If required, sentences were edited or split for clarity and comprehension. Through this method, the number of statements was reduced to 40 statements for life choices and 20 statements for influences on life choices.
Results
Findings of Study 1 revealed a range of life choices experienced by emerging adults in India. The methodology allowed for identifying choices that are perceived important by emerging adults themselves rather than utilizing a preexisting list of choices.
The list of 40 statements reflecting life choices is presented in Table 2. While most of the items were consistent with previous research (Havighurst, 1953; Mayseless & Keren, 2014; Schulenberg et al., 2004), statements about meeting parents’ expectations and responsibility toward family were discovered as new and unexplored life choices.
Clusters With Items and Mean Rating Values in Order of Importance.
The results of the second list of 20 statements are presented in Table 3. The list of 20 perceived influences on life choices was grouped under four broad categories: self, relationships, circumstantial, and external influence. For example, “self” comprised influences such as personality, life experiences, and religious and spiritual affiliation. Influences such as parents, siblings, friends, and teachers fell under “relationships.” Marital status, parenthood, and job satisfaction were “circumstantial,” while examples of “external” were political situation and popular culture. These findings will inform future research pertaining to decisions around life choices and developmental tasks.
Perceived Influences on Life Choices as Identified by Participants.
Study 2
Study 2 comprised the last four stages of concept mapping. The third stage, structuring of statements into categories, entailed participants individually sorting the list of 40 statements into groups based on their conceptual similarity. The participants then rated each of these statements on a response scale based on importance of the statements in their lives. Representation of statements in the form of a concept map, the fourth stage, involved running statistical analyses to create a concept map of these sorted statements. Finally, the last two stages interpretation of the map and utilization were used to manage the interpretation process of the map after viewing the resulting concept map and relating it to the groupings and ratings. The utilization stage is primarily to determine where the map is going to be used—evaluation, planning, or theory building.
Method
Participants
Sixty participants between 18 and 29 years (M age = 23, SD = 3.2; Female = 54%) from across five cities in India (New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Siliguri) were recruited to complete the Life Choices Rating Scale and sorting. Cities were selected based on geographical distribution and convenience. Bangalore is a cosmopolitan city in southern India which has seen the largest influx of population in India since the information technology boom in the 1990s. Kolkata, in eastern India, used to be the capital pre-independence from the British and is largely influenced by the colonial rule. New Delhi, the current capital, represents Northern India, while Mumbai widely captures the culture of Western Indian states. Siliguri was selected to represent as closely the northeastern part of India as it comprises a diverse representation from various suburban middle-class communities in India.
The participants in this study were asked the same range of demographic questions as in Study 1. Study 2 comprised 60 persons; about half of these participants were enrolled in undergraduate studies (51%). Participants belonged to range of socioeconomic groups as determined by mother’s education level (33% high school or less, 41% bachelor’s degree, and 26% postgraduate or more). Most participants were not currently in a romantic relationship (58%) and only one was a parent (2%). Table 1 provides a summary of this information.
Procedure
The study used same method of recruitment as in Study 1. The Life Choices measure for rating and sorting was administered in person by the first author. The 40 items in the measure were based on the statements identified in Study 1. Participants responded to the items on a 4-point Likert-type scale (1 = not important to 4 = very important).
After completing the Life Choices measure, participants completed a sorting task that is a part of stage three of concept mapping. The purpose of having participants sort each of the statements into categories was to derive an understanding of the interrelationship of life choices from the participant’s view. Each of the 40 statements from the measure was printed on separate index cards and administered individually to each participant. They were instructed to sort the cards into groups based on conceptual similarity—that is, in a way that made most sense to them. Participants were reminded all statements could not be grouped into a single pile, a single sentence cannot be its own pile, and that each sentence could only be used in one pile.
Data Analysis
Ariadne 3.0 (Severens, 1995), a software for computing concept maps, was utilized for data entry and analysis. It combines multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis to understand relationships between statements and how they are prioritized among participants. Concept mapping integrates the focus group processes with several multivariate statistical analyses such as multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis (Trochim, 1989). Each participant’s sorted data was represented using a matrix of binaries which were then superimposed to form a group matrix incorporating responses from all participants. This was done through a two-dimensional nonmetric scaling of the similarity matrix through the aggregated data. This group matrix was used to run a hierarchical cluster analysis that calculates the distances between items. As depicted in Figure 1, the items within clusters indicate statement number of life choices, whereas numbers at the end of each streak are indicative of participant code numbers.
Cluster and rating map of life choices.
Results
Stage 3: Structuring of Statements Into Categories
Structuring statements through sorting provided a collective view of the participants’ perceptions of interrelationships of life choices. Eight clusters were observed from the data. These were responsibility toward family, independence/autonomy, financial security, education/career, parental expectation, romantic relationships, community and faith, and societal norms. Statements within each of the clusters are presented in Table 2.
This was followed by analyzing the ratings of importance. Scores on each statement were averaged to represent perceived importance of each cluster. The mean values on each item and clusters are presented in Table 2.
Stage 4: Representation of Statements in the Form of a Concept Map
Eight clusters were derived from the 40 statements. Each item from the Life Choices measure is represented through the statement number (within the cluster boundaries) on the map. The proximity of the items on the map is an indicator of the association between them and the strength of that association. Items that are closer together were grouped together by participants. Hence, clusters are indicative of how this group of participants perceived the relationship among life choices. The x-axis ranges from items pertaining to society and community on the left to more individualistic goals on the right. As presented in Figure 1, participant directions indicate highest importance for responsibility toward family (M = 3.33), independence/autonomy (M = 3.29), and financial security (M = 2.96).
Stages 5 and 6: Interpretation of the Map and Utilization
Items that are adjacent to each other are those that have been grouped together by participants. Streaks indicate general trend of participants in rating a life choice as being important. The thickness of the region boundaries of clusters denote perceived importance of those clusters. For example, responsibility toward family was rated relatively higher than community and faith and this is represented through the region boundaries as depicted in Figure 1. Clusters on the right side of the map focusing on individualistic goals were consistently marked as being more important. Similarly, the general trend in rating of the participants, as determined by perceived similarities in how participants groups items, was also toward items within these clusters in the lower right quadrant.
Discussion
This article adopted a descriptive approach in the interpretation of decisions about life choices, focusing on normative explorations among emerging adults from India. Across societies, as an adult, one is expected to become responsible for the attainment of goals through successful navigation of society and culture (Hauser & Greene, 1991). Findings provided insight on developmental processes, adjustments, and reorganization of ideologies and principles during the period of emerging adulthood in India.
The concept map results provided theoretical support to the existing body of literature on life choices during emerging adulthood. The ratings showed the saliency of these choices in this population. Additionally, sorting of statements into categories by the participants reflected their conceptualization of these events into larger task domains. Overall, the results offer insights into the influence of these expectations within the Indian culture.
Diverse Influences on Life Choices
Family obligations have long been recognized as a central expectation for people in eastern, collectivist countries such as India (Bejanyan, Marshall, & Ferenczi, 2014). Responsibility toward family averaged at 3.33, indicating it was the most important perceived influence on their life choices. This is reflective of the rather large commitment that emerging adults in India feel toward their parents. It shows that an individual’s personal life choices will not inhibit their ability to care for their parents. Responsibility toward family members posits being responsible for the well-being of one’s parents and for their finances, as well as maintaining any assets they may have. Similarly, parents also provide support and expect to have influence in all aspects of their children’s lives, from emotional to financial, throughout the life span. A similar finding was also reported for emerging adults in China who continue to maintain close relationship with their family during this period and involve parents in life decisions (Badger, Nelson, & Barry, 2006).
It is clear from the above that traditional value systems and familial expectations play a role when considering decisions around life choices. However, the results here suggest that high priority is also placed by emerging adults in India on exploring their own identities and becoming self-sufficient. The independence/autonomy cluster had an average of 3.29, suggesting that autonomy is valued and implemented when making important life decisions. This resonates with two of the Big Three criteria for adulthood (Arnett, 2015)—responsibility for oneself and making independent decisions. Items in this cluster included independent living, decisions to live independently of parents, financial security, and commuting independently within the city.
The importance of being responsible toward the family while also requiring autonomy, as depicted above, addresses the “unresolved dualism” (Kapp, 1963) in this culture that is indicative of the presence of both individualistic and collectivist attributes in this population. The findings endorse previous observations (e.g., Allendorf & Pandian, 2016; Bansal, 2013) of the importance, among Indian youth, of establishing continuity of family values and traditions while seeking and exploring identities to enhance their sense of their individual self. This is also reflective of findings of research conducted in China (Nelson, Badger, & Wu, 2004) where the beliefs and attitudes of emerging adults were found to be highly influenced by the culture. For example, 89%, in comparison to 16% of American emerging adults, stated “become capable of supporting parents financially” was important to achieve adult status (Nelson et al., 2004; also see Arnett, 2003).
The results for the financial security cluster, averaging at 2.96, show that there is a clear need to become financially independent, also familiar from previous studies as one of the Big Three criteria of adulthood (Arnett, 2015). This cluster was defined by items such as making investments in real estate and making independent financial decisions toward savings and investment. Future research could explore the influence of socioeconomic status of the immediate family and what kind of impact this could have on young Indians. This can be related back to the individualism/autonomy cluster, as both clusters stem from a place of need for their own independence.
The exploring education and career cluster averaged at 2.87. This domain comprised items pertaining to moving abroad for education, working after graduating to save money to fund further education, and moving to a new city within the country for educational pursuits. Additionally, it also covered work-related items such as moving abroad for work pursuits, pursuing a job that complements their skills and interests, and having a part-time job to gain life experience.
Similar to the European education system, Indian college education is directed toward one specific career path (Seiter & Nelson, 2011). This does not leave much room for explorations in college courses, but emerging adults move to cosmopolitan cities across the country to explore prosperous job opportunities (Chhapia, 2014). There has been widespread migration to big cities as India has progressed toward more advanced degrees and individualistic ideals. Depending on the resources available to these individuals, they may choose to pursue an advanced degree in their preferred specialization. In India, there is a strong emphasis on family values and developing to follow through with family roles (Verma & Saraswathi, 2002).
Parental expectations, with a mean of 2.48, was a 1-item cluster as categorized by participants. It captured the duty that individuals feel to meet their parents’ expectations for their career path. This resonates with findings from other studies conducted in India (Bansal, 2013; Fouad, Kim, Ghosh, Chang, & Figueiredo, 2016) that have indicated the key role that family plays in shaping career decisions by emerging adults in India in the form of family obligations. Research has found that work volition (Duffy, Diemer, Perry, Laurenzi, & Torrey, 2012) is strongly related to family relationships (Fouad et al., 2016). It can be inferred that parental expectations play a significant role in the life choices of emerging adults in India.
The romantic relationships cluster consisted of items that entail engaging in casual romantic relationships, gaining sexual experience before marriage, and getting married. Preservation of family lineage is greatly valued in the larger Indian culture (Netting, 2010) which makes marriage an important goal to be achieved during this time of life. However, contrary to expectations, romantic relationships were seen at an average of 2.19, suggesting they are only slightly important as a life choice during emerging adulthood. One explanation for this shift could be that middle-class emerging adults in India are focusing on pursuing higher education and well-paying jobs (Seiter & Nelson, 2011), leaving romantic choices for later. Additionally, there has been a shift of arranged marriages as individuals are becoming more active in choosing their spouse. With increasing hybridization of Western and Indian practices in Indian marriages, research has depicted a rising trend of individuals having more autonomy relationship choices in selection of partners (Allendorf & Pandian, 2016). However, it may also be that most of them expect to have their parents help arrange a marriage for them when the time comes, so at this point they are not seeing this as an important domain of life choices.
Community and faith as a cluster comprised statements focusing on individual’s sense of spirituality, religiosity, and incorporating community’s tradition. The participants in the study averaged at a mean of 2.1, indicating this being only a slightly important domain for them. The items that comprised this cluster includes incorporating the community’s traditions and culture in their daily life; upholding the values, norms, and expectations of society; upholding religious beliefs and practices; and incorporating spirituality into their lifestyle. The findings may be indicative of the middle class, relatively highly educated sample for this study and pave way for exploration in ideologies across various social classes.
In adhering to societal norms, participants endorsed this cluster the least (M = 2.02) among all life choices. The everyday practices and social life practices of urban Indian youth have largely been transformed as a result of globalization. Increasingly, middle-class emerging adults have been found to follow a more global culture than Indian culture (Bhatia, 2018).
Overall, the findings of this research bring to light the sociocultural influences of globalization leading to reorganization of cultural norms. These are consistent with previous research on life choices and markers of adulthood in Western cultures (Arnett, 2015; Berntsen & Rubin, 2004; Havighurst, 1953; Schulenberg et al., 2004) and among emerging adults from other cultures (Arnett & Galambos, 2003; Facio et al., 2007; Mayseless & Scharf, 2003; Nelson, 2003). As presented in the figure, the general trend in participant ratings were toward clusters that represent individual goals of independence and autonomy, financial security, establishing a career, and responsibility toward family. The clusters on the left quadrants of the concept map, that were more community and other-focused, were not endorsed strongly as those pertaining to the individual and their parents. This is key factor in recognizing this time of life to be crucial for developing a stable identity. It would be interesting to see what a map may look like in a different sample of emerging adults in other cultures.
These findings should be understood in the backdrop of the range of perceived influences of decision-making of life choices; viz. self, relationships, circumstantial, and external influences. The influences would vary depending not only on the nature of the life choice but also individual and family differences. Previous research (J. B. P. Sinha & Verma, 1987) has suggested that with respect to decisions about everyday situations (such as accepting a person as a friend, job preference, making social calls, and voting in an election), parents, spouse, friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors, and acquaintances have an impact in decreasing order of influence. In light of findings from this study, for example, the influence of one’s parents, relationships, may be more influential in the context of choices relating to choosing a career but not necessarily when it comes to religious faith. However, the results here provide a starting point to understanding concrete experiences and narratives of what it means to be an emerging adult in India. Further, the use of concept mapping created a collaborative approach to understanding what life choices are deemed important by young Indians and how they perceive the interrelationships among various choices.
Limitations of the Study
Despite the contributions of the present study, it must be considered within the context of its limitations. The study followed a concept mapping methodology that involves group-level participation in data analysis. As depicted in Table 2, some items may not entirely fit the cluster—as these categorized were based on conceptions made by the participants and not the researcher or the statistical relationships among the variables. For example, the items under romantic relationships seem well suited to the cluster; however, “maintaining a healthy lifestyle” under responsibility toward family is not indicative of the theme of the cluster. Further, some items may be perceived more as a value or goal than a choice, such as working for my family to ensure the continuation of our family-profession/business. Parental expectations was a 1-item cluster, and the item would have perhaps fit better in responsibility toward family.
Additionally, the findings of this study may not reflect the views of many young Indians who still live in rural agricultural villages as it particularly focused on the middle- and upper-class educated population of 18- to 29-year-olds across cities in India. This generation grew up in a socioeconomic context quite different from the previous generations and from most of their rural peers—with access to education, health care, and globalization. Both studies included fairly small self-selected samples. Another possible limitation could be that participants with more social power would dominate the conversation; however, this was avoided by encouraging everyone to participate. Replicating this study among emerging adults from a similar socioeconomic background but from rural settings would provide a broader understanding of this population.
Conclusion
Emerging adults from India are experiencing compounding challenges because of the demands of globalization, increasing urbanization, and changing social climate. This leads to an interplay of inertia arising from age old traditions and the flux of pressures of change (Bansal, 2013). It is indispensable, therefore, to develop skills to negotiate between costs and benefits, amid these sociocultural demands, to the task of continuing to be a well-functioning adult (Suchday, 2015). This has radically changed the experience of transitioning to adulthood in developing countries (Fatusi & Hindin, 2010). With a large proportion of the world population being from developing countries, research is necessary on their social, emotional, and physical well-being. These findings resonate with Arnett’s (2015) features highlighting this time to be for self-focus. However, with the existence of an “unresolved dualism” (Kapp, 1963), this negotiation between maintaining the traditional roles while also imbibing autonomy when making life decisions may be challenging for the individual.
Implications of the findings specifically for this population are manifold. The main objectives of this study were to identify and understand important life choices that emerging adults engage in making during this period of transition to adulthood. Achievement, or the lack thereof, of these choices has been found to have long-term implications on mental health and well-being (Hutteman, Hennecke, Orth, Reit, & Specht, 2014; Roisman et al., 2004; S. J. Schwartz, Côté, & Arnett, 2005). This necessitates understanding the processes involved in this decision-making. This study provides an initial understanding of life choices and overarching perceived influences on the decision-making processes. It lays the foundation for future studies to reveal more clearly the influences in decisions about life choices, implications on later life, and build a preventive–intervention model that would help individuals make effective decisions. We hope that the results of this study can be used to guide future research of emerging adulthood in India.
Footnotes
Author Contributions
D. Mitra contributed to conception, design, acquisition, analysis, and interpretation; drafted the manuscript; critically revised the manuscript; gave final approval; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of work ensuring integrity and accuracy. J. J. Arnett contributed to conception and interpretation, critically revised the manuscript, gave final approval, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of work ensuring integrity and accuracy.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Open Practices
Data and materials for this study have not been made publicly available. The design and analysis plans were not preregistered.
