Italian Emerging Adults’ Financial and Subjective Well-Being: Individual and Family Predictors

The prolonged transition to adulthood, characterizing the Mediterranean area and in particular Italy (Tagliabue, Beyers, Lanz, 2014), challenges research in investigating the factors enhancing emerging adults’ well-being . In particular the financial crisis of 2008 determined a difficult financial situation, especially for emerging adults. Thus, research on emerging adults’ well-being should also consider the financial dimension (Shim et al., 2009). The study aims to illustrate the different factors explaining financial and subjective well-being in emerging adulthood. Individual factors (work condition, living arrangement, financial independence, age, personal needs and expenses), family factors (family structure, parental [emotional] and financial support, perceived financial status) and individual and financial well-being were collected from 285 Italian emerging adults (20-30 years old). Preliminary findings underline that different predictors affect subjective well-being according to emerging adults ‘ work condition. Moreover, family variables (emotional support and perceived financial status) explain different percentages of financial well-being’s variance: students (54%), student-workers (27,3%) and workers (16,7%). Multigroup analyses related to emerging adults working condition will be performed. Findings will be discussed taking into account the European context .