Since the 2008 economic crisis, research on financial well-being has grown exponentially. Most of the studies have investigated the predictors of financial well-being, but there is still no consensus on the conceptualization of financial well-being itself. As of yet, little is known about the relationship between subjective financial well-being and subjective financial stress. Some scholars believe those two constructs are two sides of the same coin, while others consider them to be two different phenomena. The current study aims to contribute to disentangling the construct of financial well-being from the construct of financial stress. We conducted an intensive longitudinal study, collecting data for 14 consecutive days from 158 emerging adults. Participants had to report their level of financial well-being and financial stress each evening. Findings suggest that the two constructs are not coincident for the following reasons: they exhibit low-to-moderate associations at both the within- and between-level and they were not similarly affected by the same predictors. Furthermore, we showed that subjective financial well-being and subjective financial stress fluctuate considerably from one day to the next. Further research is needed to determine the source of this daily variability.

The study presents an application of Latent Profile Analysis to sustain the existence of different profiles of meaning-making (i.e., the process of searching and finding meaning in life) within the late adolescent’s population, and to investigate the role of resilience in predicting profiles’ belonginess. 943 Italian senior high-school students (52% females) were clustered into two adaptive profiles, highly-engaged (high presence, average search) and balanced (average presence and search), and two maladaptive profiles, frustrated (average presence, high search) and disengaged (low presence and search). A multinomial logistic regression revealed that adolescents with robust resilience skills were more likely to show adaptive profiles, and less likely to fall into the disengaged group, suggesting that individuals with higher resilience are more prone to engage in search for meaning even when they perceive a lack of presence of meaning. Findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of meaning-making, calling the development of personalized interventions to foster adolescents’ ability to navigate life challenges during their transition toward adulthood.

The present multi-study work presents a new self-report measure of meaning in life in the context of situational life experiences. Study 1 presents the development of the Situational Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMILE), a six-item measure that integrates the three content-dimensions (comprehension, significance and purpose) and the two process-dimensions (presence and search) of meaning in life. The scale is provided with a situational anchor that can be easily adapted to different event- and time-related situations. Two empirical studies examined the psychometric properties of the SMILE measure. Study 2 involved an Italian representative sample of 3035 individuals (51.6% female; M_age= 48.3, range= 18-91, SD= 14.03). Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the theorized structure of the scale and provided evidence of good internal consistency collected with McDonald’s Omega, generalizability across gender and age was established by measurement invariance, and criterion validity evidence was obtained by correlations with measures of well-being. Study 3 was conducted on a sample of 283 Italian emerging and young adults (76% female; M_age= 26; range= 19-36; SD= 4.09). Results confirmed the SMILE’s structure and internal consistency and added evidence of convergent and incremental validity by conducting a series of hierarchical regressions to test the predictive power of the SMILE over the Meaning in Life Questionnaire on well-being measures. Findings provided evidence of the psychometric properties of the SMILE as a valid and reliable measure of situational meaning in life. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Empirical evidence supported the existence of different meaning-making profiles among youths, however, it is unknown whether these profiles are related to specific transitional conditions. The present study applied a multi-group Latent Profile Analysis to examine the generalizability and criterion-validity of meaning-making profiles across two samples of emerging and young adults living different contextual situations (pre-COVID-19 vs during COVID-19), and to investigate their association with the balanced versus imbalanced conditions in the romantic and work role transitions. Three meaning-making profiles, searchers (high search, average presence of meaning), in-between (low search, average presence), and fulfilled (very low search, high presence) were supported by strong generalizability and criterion-validity evidence (i.e. fulfilled individuals showed higher well-being). As expected, older individuals were more likely to be fulfilled, while gender wasn’t a predictor of profiles. Imbalanced individuals in love and work were more likely to be searchers, while fulfilled individuals were predominantly living a balanced condition.

Subjective Well-Being (SWB) is a central indicator of mental health and overall quality of life in emerging adulthood; religiosity can contribute to this outcome. Emerging research suggests that religious identity and virtues not only can contribute independently to SWB but may work together in shaping it. Given this interplay, the present study adopts a person-centered approach, using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), to investigate profiles of emerging adults showing a similar configuration of religious identity and virtues and to examine their contribution to SWB. Two-hundred and ninety-one emerging adults living in Italy aged 18 to 30 completed an online survey asking for various demographic variables, religious status, religious affiliation, religious practices, religious identity (U-MICS Religious domain), character strengths and virtues (VIA- IS), and subjective well-being (SWLS and SPANE). A best-fitting model consisting of three distinct, non-overlapping profiles, each demonstrating a unique configuration of religious identity dimensions (commitment, in-depth exploration, reconsideration) and virtues (Transcendence, Humanity, Temperance), emerged. These profiles were differently associated with SWB. Specifically, individuals in the Engaged with High Religious Virtues profile displayed high levels of religious commitment and exploration, paired with high levels of religious virtues, particularly Transcendence, and exhibited the highest levels of SWB. These findings suggest that religious identity and virtues are strictly intertwined and that higher levels of this conjoint integration correspond to greater SWB. Future interventions aimed at fostering religious self-exploration and cultivating religiously grounded virtues can be particularly effective at this stage of the life cycle.

Presence of meaning in life has been found to be adaptive during the pandemic (Humphrey & Vari, 2021; Samios et al., 2021), however, no studies were conducted to understand whether meaning in life is related to future perspectives in young adulthood. In the current study both the objective impact and the subjective impact of the COVID-19 pandemic were considered as predictive factors of young adults’ negative future perspectives through the activation of presence and search for meaning in life, in Italy and Portugal. Data were collected from emerging adults (18–35 years) between February and October 2021 via an online survey. Results showed that the objective impact of COVID-19 was not associated to neither meaning in life nor future perspectives in both countries. While the subjective COVID-19 impact was similarly associated in the two countries with both meaning in life and future perspectives, as young adults who were more worried about the pandemic effects, perceived their future more negatively and were engaged in a deeper search for meaning in life. Cross-country differences were found only in the strength of the relations between meaning in life and future perspectives. Specifically, a low presence of meaning was associated to negative future perspectives especially in Italy, while a high search for meaning was associated with negative future perspectives especially in Portugal. The present study has the merit of underlining the importance of considering subjective COVID-related worries and the role of meaning in life in the way young people cope with present and future uncertainties related to the pandemic.