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Italian emerging adults stay at home with their parents until they marry. Being involved in a romantic relationship may be considered one precursor of the success of the transition to adulthood. In this study, 92 dating and 84 nondating emerging adults were compared on when they left the parental home and their future plans. They were also compared on individual outcomes (depression, sense of coherence, and self-esteem) and their perception of parental emotional support. Finally, the influence of parental and romantic relationships on individual outcomes was investigated. Results show that dating emerging adults do not differ from nondating emerging adults about perception of emotional support from parents and about most of the outcomes. However, there are differences in time leaving the parental home, future plans, and the influence of relationships on outcomes. In conclusion, different paths characterize emerging adulthood, confirming the heterogeneity of this period also in the Italian context.

After the 2008 economic crisis, the financial condition of youth has become a frequent research topic and the need for an instrument measuring financial constructs relevant for this stage of life is increasing. The current paper consists of four studies aiming to develop and validate an instrument measuring subjective financial well-being in a population of European emerging adults. The first study collected qualitative data – performing interviews with experts and the target population – in order to contextualize the construct. Based on these results, we developed the initial 44-item version of the scale. The second study aimed to test the psychometric characteristics of these items. There were 25 items measuring five different aspects of subjective financial well-being (general subjective financial well-being, money management, peer comparison, having money, financial future) with acceptable psychometric properties. The third study aimed to collect validity evidence about the newly developed scale. Five different kinds of evidence suggested that the scale is a good measure of subjective financial well-being. The last study tested measurement invariance between the Portuguese and Italian versions of the scale. Results suggested that the Multidimensional Subjective Financial Well-being Scale works well in both countries.

This study’s purpose is to investigate how implicit family financial socialization (family communication quality and family economic enmeshment) influences emerging adults’ objective and subjective financial well-being mediated by the degree to which the emerging adult child adopts their parents as financial role model. Using a multi-informant approach, structural equation model family-level analyses were conducted based on responses from mothers, fathers, and emerging adults in 160 Italian families. Results indicate that family communication quality has an indirect, positive effect on subjective financial well-being through adoption of parents as a financial role model. Family economic enmeshment has a direct, negative effect on the emerging adult’s personal income not received from their parents. A direct, positive relationship was found between adoption of parents as financial role models and economic dependence on parents.