UC Irvine

Youth navigate the transition into young adulthood by deciding which developmental goals they want to pursue and when to pursue them. While societal expectations shape youths’ decisions on goal choices, goal nomination may change over time based on individual characteristics and life situations. In this study, we used a person-centered approach to identify common profiles of self-reported major developmental goals (N = 462) at two time points: (1) the final year of high school, and (2) four years after high school graduation. Multinomial logistic regression was then used to examine whether factors including work status, values, and demographics predicted latent class membership four years after high school. Results indicated that career and education goals were nominated less frequently over time, while relational and financial goals became more frequently nominated over time. However, the goal categories retained rank-order stability with education and career goals as the most frequently nominated goals at each time point. The Latent Class Analysis revealed four distinct classes of individuals who shared commonality in their goal choice, which was predicted by work status, values, and demographic variables. Findings from this study suggest that there are both general trends and interindividual differences in goal nomination during the transition to adulthood.