Life at a Stop Sign: Narrative Plots of the Transition to Adulthood During Unemployment Among South African Graduates

Abstract

Compared to older cohorts, emerging adults are more susceptible to unemployment as they enter the labor market. In the context of increasing higher education access, an unstable economic climate is leaving a growing number of South African graduates unemployed. After the exploration that is typically part of higher education, unemployment could influence emerging adult graduates’ ability to make adult commitments. The aim of the current study was to gain both a detailed and a holistic perception of the developmental impact of unemployment during the transition to adulthood. A sample of 12 participants were recruited to partake in individual interviews. A narrative analysis revealed six common plotlines of progression and regression as the participants approached the goals they had set to achieve as adults. The findings illustrate the inability to accomplish adult commitments as a contributing factor in explaining the decrease in subjective well-being associated with unemployment specific to emerging adults.

“Protecting my Positivity”: Emerging Adults as Social Media Actors, Agents, and Authors

“…Participants also referred to the negativity associated with extensive exposure to negative messages in particular and the dangers of social comparison, especially considering the inauthenticity of messages portrayed on social media, as also mentioned in the Facebook Influence Model of Moreno and Whitehill (2014). In South Africa, these dangers of social comparison are exacerbated by the economic inequalities, sociopolitical concerns, and social complexity of the society (Dunn & Falkof, 2021; Hendricks & Kanjiri, 2021; Oyedemi, 2021; Van Lill & Bakker, 2020). This also confirms the research of Vannucci et al (2019) who explain how Twitter’s emphasis on sharing news, opinions, and updates can increase anxiety and how engaging excessively with Facebook may provide opportunities for experiencing negative emotions, avoiding real-world problems, and encountering difficulty in facing developmental tasks.…”

“…While celebrating the post-Apartheid freedom of the Rainbow Nation, they also have to contend with the challenges of economic inequalities and cultural contestations (Oyedemi, 2021). The narrative journeys of South African emerging adults are thus shaped in a society filled with social complexity, multicultural diversity, continuous transition, sociopolitical concerns, resource constraints, and an unstable economic climate (Alberts & Durrheim, 2018; Du Plessis et al, 2020; Naudé, 2022; Van Lill & Bakker, 2020). South African emerging adults’ identity development is also interwoven with strong ties to African personhood, interconnectedness, spirituality, and family roles and responsibilities (Du Plessis et al, 2020; Naudé & Piotrowski, 2022; Sodi et al, 2021).…”

On Becoming an Emerging Adult Parent in South Africa: Processes of Commitment, Exploration and Reconsideration of a Parental Identity

“…Specific contexts such as living in transitional societies or experiencing social challenges will affect the way in which emerging adulthood and the dynamics of this phase are experienced (Landberg et al, 2019) and how the themes of instability and possibility are balanced. For example, the sociocultural context of Africa and South Africa poses unique challenges – political transition, resource constraints and an unstable economic climate might influence the identity exploration and ability of emerging adults to fulfil adult commitments (Alberts & Durrheim, 2018; Du Plessis et al 2020; Naudé, 2020; Obidoa et al, 2019; Van Lill & Bakker, 2020). Furthermore, a specific life event such as becoming a parent will also affect the way in which emerging adults, for example, focus on their development and explore their identities (Canzi et al, 2021).…”

Emerging Adults’ Self-Efficacy as a Resource for Coping With the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…If the COVID-19 pandemic hinders emerging adults' progress on these developmental milestones, it is possible that this might lead to increased rates of singlehood, childlessness, a higher risk of loneliness due to interactions with fewer social contacts and lower lifetime earnings among the current cohort of emerging adults in the long run (Settersten et al, 2020). Because mastering developmental tasks has shown to increase well-being (e.g., Salmela-Aro et al, 2015), especially gaining employment (van Lill & Bakker, 2020), stalled progress on these tasks due to the pandemic may be particularly detrimental for emerging adults.…”