Emerging Adulthood, Evolving Worldviews

Worldviews—a person’s fundamental perspectives on social and metaphysical reality—relate to multiple aspects of psychological functioning and well-being. Theory on emerging adulthood contends that individuals between the ages of 18 and 29 explore and change their worldviews as they strive to develop a coherent identity. Simultaneously, emerging adults experience many significant life events. The relationship between life events and worldview development in emerging adulthood has yet to be investigated. We conducted a longitudinal analysis of changes in emerging adult college students’ ( N = 168) worldviews over the course of a semester and explored how positive and negatives life events were associated with belief change. Findings revealed that 76.8% of emerging adults in our sample experienced a reliable change in at least one worldview. Additionally, the positive impact of life events was found to mitigate decreases in self-worth beliefs. We conclude by highlighting implications for theory and suggesting future lines of research.