Parenting Centrality in Emerging Adulthood

The purpose of this study was to analyze parenting centrality across the early 20s among a sample of emerging adults. Many people desire to have children and place high value on parenting. However, no study has examined how central the parenting role, in comparison to other roles, may be for emerging adults. Using a longitudinal sample of 1823 emerging adults, we ran a multiple-group latent growth curve model on parenting centrality. We found that the trajectory of parenting centrality for emerging adults heavily depends on whether or not they had children during their early 20s. Research participants who became parents in early emerging adulthood generally showed growing parenting centrality over time, while non-parents tended to show decreasing parenting centrality over time. This study furthers understanding about how emerging adults’ think about the parenting role in their lives.