Providing a model to investigate the impact of emerging adulthood components on psychological well-being of youth mediated by self-concept

Emerging adulthood is a new developmental period which components affects various personal psychological factors. The purpose of this study was to present a model to investigate the impact of emerging adulthood components on psychological well-being of youth mediated by self-concept. This study was a descriptive study with a correlation design in the framework of causal models. 395 participants (51% male) in the age range of 18 to 25 years were randomly selected from the educational centers of Ahvaz (In the 98-99 academic year). Participants responded online to Arnett Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (Reifman, Arnett, & Colwell, 2007), Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scale (Ryff, 1989), and Beck Self-Concept Test (Beck, Steer, Epstein, & Brown, 1990). Path analysis method was used to analyze the results. The results showed the average self-concept and above-average scores psychological well-being. The results confirmed the strong significant positive direct impact of emerging adulthood components on self-concept (Identity Exploration: 0/272; Possibilities: 0/210; Instability: 0/318; Focus on others: 0/245; Self-focus: 0/230; Feeling in-between: 0/213), as well as self-concept on psychological well-being 0/799 (p<0.01). Also, instability 0/247 (p<0.01), identity exploration 0/217 (p<0.05) and possibilities 0/205 (p<0.05) are impacted on psychological well-being by mediating self-concept. The results showed that individuals experiencing emerging adulthood had a better psychological well-being, due to their improved self-concept.