EMERGING ADULTHOOD VERSUS THE IDENTITY OF A YOUNG GENERATION –CONTEMPORARY THREATS TO SHAPING THE IDENTITY. A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS AND EMPIRICAL EXEMPLIFICATION

Abstract

Emerging adulthood is a phenomenon constituting the correlate of post-modernity and changes on the labour market, which affect particularly a young generation. It is a new phase in life, including the age of 18 to 25-30, the essence of which is experimenting with roles in life – in regard of family, love, work and changeability of worldview. The article consti-tutes an exemplification of threats which are caused by emerging adulthood to the develop-ment of the identity of a young generation. In the theoretical part of it, the article includes the characteristics of the phenomenon, and an attempt to indicate the factors which determine them. In the empirical part, it refers to developmental disorders of the identity, which are very characteristic for this phase of human life.