Abstract
Emerging Adulthood is a period of life between 18 and 29 years old, culturally constructed and not universal. Given the paucity of studies about this developmental stage in Chile, the objective of this research was to characterize Emerging Adulthood and determine its most important features in Chilean university students using a qualitative approach, focused at the protagonists themselves. Six focus groups formed by 60 university students revised the items of the Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) or discussed their beliefs about three areas defined a priori: Identity and self-concept, Relationship with parents and leaving home, and Love and sexuality. The presence of the Emerging Adulthood stage in university students is evident since its central features are present in this group; also there is evidence of others aspects that belong to cultural characteristics of the own Chilean university students which are related to the importance given to the family and social relationships.
