Gender, life events, and mental well-being in emerging adulthood

M. Pilar Matud, Ignacio Ibáñez, D. Estefanía Hernández-Lorenzo and Juan Manuel Bethencourt

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2023, vol. 69, issue 6, 1432-1443

Abstract: Background: Emerging adulthood is a critical period of life involving many life transitions that may generate stress and compromise health and mental well-being. Aims: To know the most frequent life events of women and men in emerging adulthood, analyzing also the relevance that such stressors have on their psychological well-being and life satisfaction. A second aim is to determine the relevance of age, educational level, most frequent life events, coping styles, and perceived social support as risk and protective factors for well-being. Method: The sample consisted of 2,000 individuals from the general Spanish population (55% women), aged between 18 and 29, who were assessed using five questionnaires and scales measuring life events, coping styles, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and social support. Results: The findings showed that 90% of the sample had experienced one or more life events during the previous year and that a higher number of life events experienced over the past year was associated with lower mental well-being. Multiple regression analyses made clear that, although some events experienced in the previous year (namely, family conflicts and change in the relationship with parents) were associated with lower women’s and men’s well-being, the most important determinants of well-being in either gender were coping styles; however, some predictors of women’s well-being proved different from those of men. In the case of women, family and intimate partner conflicts predicted lower life satisfaction and psychological well-being was lower in the case of family conflicts. As for men, work or academic life events predicted lower life satisfaction. Conclusion: These research findings are relevant for the design of programs and strategies to improve mental well-being in emerging adulthood.

Keywords: Gender; life events; psychological well-being; life satisfaction; coping styles; emerging adulthood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640231164012 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:69:y:2023:i:6:p:1432-1443

DOI: 10.1177/00207640231164012

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().