Are They Emerging Adults or Emerging Adults Who Are University Students? An Investigation Through Risk Taking and Identity Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to make comparison among university students, high school
students and nonstudent groups according to evaluation of themselves as adult, identity dimensions and risk
taking behavior. The research group consisted of 506 ( 235 female, 271 male) participants. 175 of them are
high school students, 182 university of them are students and the 154 are nonstudents. To collect data The
Dimensions of Identity Development Scale and Adolescent Risk-Taking Questionnaire were used. To analyze
data One-way ANOVA test was used. According to results, there are significant differences among high
school sdudents, university students and nonstudents groups. The results also revealed that nonstudent group
didn’t showed charecteristic of emerging adulthood period.