Assessment of emerging adulthood in Chile: Validation of the extended - IDEA in Chilean University Students

摘要

Emerging adulthood is a new evolutionary period ranging from 18 to 29 years. The most used instrument to evaluate it is the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA). The general objective of the study was to evaluate the cultural relevance and psychometric characteristics of the IDEA and 25 cultural/emic items in a sample of 589 Chilean university students. Exploratory factorial analysis showed that the IDEA has a similar structure to one indicated by another Chilean study, and the cultural items form a three-factor structure. Confirmatory factorial analysis threw a unifactorial model of six indicators, three of them contain 21 original items of the IDEA, and three conserve 24 cultural items forming a single instrument, called extended - IDEA, with adequate psychometric properties. This instrument characterizes the emerging adulthood as a single stage of life, which contains ethical and emic aspects, giving an integrated view of its characteristics.