Finding a Meaningful Life as a Developmental Task in Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Two central life domains, love and work, are described as the focus of identity exploration in emerging adulthood. The present theoretical overview suggests an additional perspective. Current postmodern processes in Western industrialized countries set the stage for the saliency of a new developmental task in emerging adulthood: finding the meaningful life. This task is enacted in various domains of life including love and work. The pursuit in either domain is different in diverse cultures that ascribe different levels of importance and allow different levels of autonomy in each domain. Thus, a given domain may be more or less salient as a source of meaning in life. The studies in this special issue accord with this new viewpoint even though they were not conceptualized from this perspective. Current research has just begun to examine the search for meaningful life in emerging adulthood. Research is therefore called for to address this lacuna.