Date of Graduation

7-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Human Environmental Science (MS)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

General Human Environmental Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Killian,Timothy

Committee Member

Garrison, Betsy

Second Committee Member

Ma, Weiyi

Keywords

college students; emerging adulthood; financial independence; identity development; marriage; parenthood

Abstract

The transition to adulthood has become increasingly prolonged and individualized. This raises questions about how college students conceptualize their readiness for long-term adult roles. Marriage and parenthood remain culturally meaningful markers of adult status, and expectations regarding the timing of these transitions offer a window into how emerging adults integrate identity development and financial considerations into life planning. Grounded in Arnett’s theory of emerging adulthood and Luyckx and colleagues’ multidimensional model of identity formation, the present study examined how identity processes and financial independence relate to college students’ anticipated timing of marriage and parenthood. Data were drawn from 247 undergraduate students at a large public university; multivariate analyses retained 242 cases for the marriage outcome and 240 for parenthood. Participants completed an online survey assessing identity processing styles, subjective financial independence, parental financial support, and ideal ages of marriage and parenthood. Sequential multiple regression analyses revealed that age, gender, and religious importance significantly predicted ideal age of marriage. Greater religious importance and female gender associated with earlier anticipated marriage. Greater parental financial support was also associated with later anticipated marriage, which was opposite to the predicted direction. Age and religious importance significantly predicted ideal age of parenthood, but no identity or financial variable did. Findings suggest that cultural factors, particularly religious importance, exert substantial influence on family formation expectations among college students, and that marriage and parenthood expectations may be shaped by partially distinct sets of factors. Implications for emerging adulthood theory are discussed. Keywords: emerging adulthood, identity development, financial independence, marriage, parenthood, college students

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