10th SSEA Conference 2021 Goes Virtual!!
Given the members' feedback in a recent survey and continued discussion by both the Governing Council and the Conference Committee, the 10th SSEA Conference scheduled for 4-6 November 2021 (Eastern Daylight Time [New York Time]) is going Virtual. The uncertainty brought on by the Covid-19 Pandemic, where members indicated their concerns around health, safety, and travel, has meant that the Virtual format is the best way for us to move forward.
timeline
1. Submissions open (General and Special Program)
: CLOSED
2. Submission deadline : 1 June 2021
3. Submission decision notifications : July 2021
(delayed)
4. Early Registration (General, Special, and
Pre-conference Program) opens : 17 June 2021
5. Deadline Registration Presenters : 20 August 2021
6. Submission of Recordings (Some general program
submissions) : 9 October 2021
7. Early Bird Registration ends : 30 September 2021
8. Conference : 4-6 November 2021
conference committee
The conference committee is working hard on creating a conference experience worthy of its members and guests. Given the prominence of Social Justice and the Covid-19 Pandemic, we would like to encourage submissions surrounding these themes under the general conference theme "Well-being during Emerging Adulthood: Challenges and Opportunities." However, we seek to include health and well-being aspects related to all areas of emerging adulthood.
Meet the people who have been instrumental in putting the 2021 SSEA Conference together HERE.
sponsorship prospectus
We are offering the opportunity for academic institutions, government agencies, and private companies to sponsor and/or exhibit in the upcoming Emerging Adulthood Conference. Sponsorship at this conference will be a good opportunity to market your department, postgraduate program, or research projects. It will also be a good opportunity to offer other products and services relevant to scholars studying emerging adults. Historically, the Conference Sponsors engage with a wide audience of people, practitioners and researchers working with emerging adults. Due to the virtual nature of this conference, this year the conference platform will provide a novel and interesting way of interacting with conference participants. Depending on your needs, we will be offering dedicated interactive virtual booths, virtual exhibition stands with downloadable materials, one-on-one or larger live chats, video adverts played during conference breaks, dedicated seminars and workshops, links to external websites, push notifications, tracking and reporting ROI, etc. We will be offering sponsorship opportunities to suit any budget while maximizing return on investment.
Please download our
sponsorship prospectus for more information and
sponsorship rates.
Please contact us at cea.committee@ssea.org with any questions about these sponsorship opportunities.
invited program
Keynote Speaker
The conference organizing committee is honored to present Dr. Kendell Cotton Bronk as the Keynote Speaker for our 10th Virtual Conference on Emerging Adulthood.
Over the past twenty years, the body of
scientific literature on purpose among emerging
adults has exploded. Research sheds important light
on how we—as parents, professors, and
practitioners—can help emerging adults lead
inspiring and socially beneficial lives of purpose.
Research has similarly explored the intersection of
identity development and purpose formation. This
talk will explore this research, and also outline
leading scientific conceptions of purpose. In
addition, it will explore the many physical and
psychological benefits associated with leading a
life of purpose and the rare nature of the construct
among emerging adults. Based on this,
empirically-supported strategies for cultivating
purpose will also be addressed. Finally, given that
contexts shape the nature of purpose, this talk will
also discuss the role ethnicity, socioeconomic
status, COVID, and the recent movement for social
justice play in the pursuit of purpose during
emerging adulthood.
Kendall
Cotton Bronk, Ph.D., is the Principal Investigator
for the
Adolescent Moral Development Lab and a Professor
of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University, one
of the Claremont Colleges. She is a developmental
scientist interested in studying and promoting
positive youth development and the moral growth of
young people. Most recently, she has investigated
these topics through the lens of young people’s
purposes in life.
Her research has explored the relationship between
purpose and healthy growth, how young people
discover purpose, and the developmental trajectory
of youth with strong commitments to various purposes
in life. Her work has been funded by the Spencer
Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the
Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the
Fulbright Foundation.
Arnett Invited Symposium:
Ten Conferences and Twenty Years: Reflecting on the
Rise of Emerging Adulthood
Convened by: Jeffrey J Arnett (Clark University)
This will be the 10th conference on emerging
adulthood, and it is now a little over twenty years
since the Arnett (2000) article in American
Psychologist that launched the new field. This
symposium will reflect on the development of the
field and of the SSEA over this time, with
participants offering personal reflections on their
first EA inspiration as well as considering some
questions about EA past and future. Questions will
include: What are some of the things that
distinguish SSEA conferences, and the EA field, from
other domains of developmental psychology? What are
the most exciting challenges in the field and for
the SSEA organization, in the next 20 years? Three
SSEA members from different parts of the world will
address these questions, followed by reflections and
commentary by Jeffrey Arnett.
Jeffrey
Jensen Arnett is the Founding President and
Executive Director of the Society for the Study of
Emerging Adulthood. He is also a Senior Research
Scholar in the Department of Psychology at Clark
University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the
author of the book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding
Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, now
in its 2nd edition, published in 2015 by Oxford
University Press. For more information, see
www.jeffreyarnett.com.
Master Lecture 1:
Generational Differences in Development and
Mental Health
Presenter: Jean M. Twenge
As cultures change over time, the experiences of
people growing into adolescence and emerging
adulthood create generational differences. First,
adolescence and young adulthood are different
developmental experiences now than they were in the
mid 20th century. Not only has young adulthood
become the slower process of emerging adulthood, but
adolescents are taking longer to engage in adult
activities such working, driving, dating, having
sex, going out, and drinking alcohol. Families have
shifted toward a slow life strategy in which
children take longer to grow to independence; the
entire developmental trajectory from childhood to
late adulthood has slowed. Second, recent
adolescents and young adults (known as iGen or GenZ)
spend more leisure time with digital media and less
seeing their friends in person; they also spend less
time sleeping. This pattern of time use is
associated with compromised mental health, which
might explain why rates of depression, anxiety,
self-harm, and suicide suddenly increased after
smartphones became common around 2012. Overall, iGen
is physically safer but more mentally vulnerable.
Jean
M. Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego
State University, is the author of more than 140
scientific publications and six books, the latest of
which is iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are
Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less
Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. She
holds a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and
a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Master Lecture 2:
Who Gets to Live the Good Life? Master
Narratives, Identity, and Well-Being within a
Marginalizing Society
Presented by: Moin Syed (University of Minnesota)
and Kate C. McLean (Western Washington University)
The question of whether emerging adulthood is a
period of flourishing or floundering has been a
central debate since the early days of the field.
Psychologists tend to favor the flourishing view,
arguing that emerging adulthood is a time of
optimism, possibilities, and agentic exploration of
different life paths. But what does flourishing, or
well-being more broadly, mean? Is it is a feeling of
enjoyment (i.e., hedonia), a sense of growth and
meaning (i.e., eudomonia), the successful completion
of developmental tasks, or something else? And do
all emerging adults have the same ability to
flourish and “do well”? In this team master lecture,
Moin Syed and Kate McLean will outline how a master
narrative perspective—which examines the culturally
shared stories that guide thoughts, beliefs, values,
and behaviors—brings attention to the structural
constraints on well-being among individuals in
marginalized positions in society due to race,
gender, and sexuality. Syed and McLean will first
review the master narrative framework and highlight
key findings in the area. They will then discuss the
relevance of master narratives to understanding
well-being, highlighting the limitations of how
well-being has been defined within mainstream
psychology. Finally, they will outline
recommendations for emerging adult researchers and
practitioners on how to better integrate a
structural perspective via master narratives in
their work.
Bios
Moin
Syed is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His research
is broadly concerned with identity and personality
development among ethnically and culturally-diverse
adolescents and emerging adults. Much of his current
scholarly work focuses on methods, theories, and
practices within the broad frameworks of open
science and meta-psychology, with a particular
emphasis on ethnic minority psychology, diversity
within the field, and building bridges across the
fractured sub-disciplines of psychology. He is
currently the Editor of
Infant and Child
Development, is co-Editor (with Kate C. McLean) of
the
Oxford Handbook of Identity Development, the
past Editor of
Emerging Adulthood, the official
journal of the
Society for the Study of Emerging
Adulthood, and is past President of the
International Society for Research on Identity.
Kate
C. McLean is a Professor of Psychology at Western
Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Her
research centers on narrative identity development
in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Her recent
work emphasizes the social and cultural contexts of
narrative identity development, as well as the
relation between identity processes and personality
and well-being. She is the author of
The Co-Authored
Self: Family Stories and Construction of Personal
Identity. She is an Associate Editor for the
Journal
Personality and Social Psychology: PPID, and on
the Editorial Board of
Emerging Adulthood and
Qualitative Psychology. She is co-Editor (with Moin
Syed) of the
Oxford Handbook of Identity
Development. She is just finishing her term as the
Director of the Center for Cross-Cultural Research
at Western Washington University.
Master Lecture 3:
Well-Being During Emerging Adulthood: Challenges
and Opportunities
Presented by: Patrick McGorry (Centre for Youth
Mental Health, University of Melbourne; Orygen,
National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental
Health)
Mental health is the major health issue
threatening the lives and futures of young people in
transition from childhood to adulthood and are
responsible for 50% of the burden of disease. 75% of
mental disorders emerge for the first time by the
age of 25 years and around 50% of young people
experience at least a period of poor mental health
during the transition. There is growing evidence
amplified by the pandemic that the mental health of
young people around the world is getting worse.
Despite the recognition of this public health imperative, we have not
addressed the risk factors underpinning this surge
in mental ill health during this stage of life nor
have we understood the drivers of the recent
increase in morbidity. However, we have recognised
the need to respond clinically by developing a
specific focus on the extended developmental period
from puberty to the mid 20s when the peak incidence
and prevalence occurs and the developmental
challenges are most salient.
Adolescent psychiatry is coming of age and evolving into a new field of
youth mental health which will become the fulcrum
for early intervention and recovery in mental health
care.
Australia is at the epicentre of this reform which
will strengthen psychiatry; mental health care and
the wider health field and has an increasing number
of global partners.
The implications of this growth and evolution will
be significant for training, clinical governance and
definition of our field across the lifespan.
Bio
Professor Patrick McGorry is an Irish-born,
Australian psychiatrist known world-wide
for his development and scaling up of early
intervention and youth mental health
services, and for mental health innovation, advocacy
and reform. He is executive
director of Orygen, Professor of Youth Mental Health
at the University of Melbourne,
and founding editor of the journal “Early
Intervention in Psychiatry”. He led the advocacy
which resulted in the establishment by the
Australian government in 2005 of the National Youth
Mental Health Foundation, which in 2006 became
Headspace, and he remains a founding board member of
that organisation.
Professor McGorry has published over 980 publications, with 47,266
citations and a “h” index of 112 (Scopus). He has
played a key advocacy and advisory role to
government and health system reform in Australia and
in many parts of the world.
He is President of the International Association for Youth Mental Health,
Past-President of the Schizophrenia International
Research Society, Past-president of the Society for
Mental Health Research, and was Founding President
and is now Treasurer of the IEPA: Early Intervention
in Mental Health. He is also a Founding Board Member
of Australians for Mental Health.
Invited innovation sessions
Tips from Colleagues: How to Make an (Extra)ordinary Contribution to the Study of Emerging Adulthood
Presenters:
Dr. Ashley LeBaron-Black - Assistant Professor at
Brigham Young University, USA
Dr. David S. Green - Post-doctoral research fellow
at University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Mette Ranta - Post-doctoral research fellow at
University of Helsinki, Finland
Dr. Luciana Dutra Thomé - Associate Professor at the
Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil
Dr. Jacqueline Nguyen - Associate Professor at
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
Join the SSEA Emerging Scholars Topic Network for a
career networking session with a diverse group of
international scholars. The panel will provide tips
on how to be successful at different stages of your
career (the five speakers have earned their PhD
several months, 3 years, 6 years, 10 years, and 13
years ago respectively). The panel will cover topics
such as tips on pursuing your own ideas in research,
dealing with uncertainty, making contributions that
matter, publishing, finding new jobs, and what to
look for in a faculty position. Participants will
also have the opportunity to pose additional
questions to the panel.
Authors:
This session has been organized by Emerging Scholar
Topic Network (co)chairs:
Shannon Claxton (chair/presenting chair), Fanli Jia,
Ohad Nahum, Angela Sorgente, Rimantas Vosylis
Disrupted Domains of Emerging Adult Life:
Post Pandemic Implications for Research and
Application.
Facilitator: Joyce Serido, Associate Professor &
Extensions Specialist, Department of Family and
Social Science, University of Minnesota USA
Dr. Serido studies financial behavior at the
intersection of family and personal well-being. She
is the principal investigator of Arizona Pathways to
Life Success for University Students (APLUS), a
longitudinal study of emerging adults and their
finances. Dr. Serido is the current Editor-in-Chief
of the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, an
interdisciplinary publication that explores the
intricate relationship between the family and its
economic environment. She received her PhD in family
studies and human development from the University of
Arizona.
Speakers:
*Jodi Dworkin, Professor & Extension Specialist,
Department of Family and Social Science, University
of Minnesota USA
*Joel Lane, Associate Professor & Chair of the
Department of Counselor Education, Portland State
University USA
*Margherita Lanz, Professor, Department of
Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore,
Milan, Italy
*Tabitha Grier-Reed, Associate Dean for Graduate
Education and Faculty Development, University of
Minnesota USA
*Margaret Kelly, Director Undergraduate Studies,
Department of Family and Social Science, University
of Minnesota USA
How has global economic uncertainty exacerbated
by the COVID-19 pandemic affected emerging adults’
ability to navigate the demands of adult life? The
purpose of this session is to engage in a discussion
about the challenges facing emerging adults across
life domains (e.g., education, employment, family)
as well as the implications for their own well-being
and the social institutions that support them.
The speakers will set the stage for the discussion
by providing brief opening remarks based on their
research on and/or work with emerging adults. In
highlighting the connections between increasing
uncertainty and emerging adults’ well-being, we will
cover a broad range of topics, including:
*How the transition from in-person to remote learning
disrupts students' education trajectories - and who
this
affects most.
*With emerging adult poverty on the rise prior to the
pandemic, what wage stagnation, limited advancement
opportunities, and high job turnover mean for
emerging adults and for society.
*The implications of different types of co-residence (e.g.,
living at home during lockdown) and family support
on renegotiated parent-emerging adult roles.
*What educators and clinicians can do to help students grow
and flourish in the aftermath of trauma, especially
in Black populations.
*How the cost of higher education may contribute to a new
emerging adult profile (Both in Education and
Employment).
A facilitated discussion following the presentation will focus on identifying topics for post pandemic research on life after COVID-19 for emerging adults and insights for application and practice.
Integrating research on recovery capital and
identity development: Meeting the needs of emerging
adults in recovery from substance use disorder
Speakers:
Michael Cleveland, PhD, is Associate Professor of
Human Development at Washington State University
where his research centers on the etiology,
prevention, and treatment of alcohol and other
substance use during emerging adulthood. He has
particular interest in understanding factors that
sustain recovery among youth diagnosed with
substance use disorder during the transition from
adolescence to emerging adulthood.
Noel Vest, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in
the Systems Neuroscience and Pain Lab at the
Stanford School of Medicine where he works with Dr.
Keith Humphreys to address problems related to
substance use disorder across a variety of
populations. His research interests include mental
health, substance use disorders, poverty, social
justice, addiction recovery, pain, and prison
reentry. He received his PhD and Masters in
Experimental Psychology from Washington State
University.
Alan Meca, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of Texas at San Antonio. He received my Ph.D. in Developmental Science from Florida International University in 2014 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Miami. His research agenda has focused on identity development and cultural stressors and their effects on health risk behaviors, mental health, and educational achievement. Currently, his research agenda is focused on refining measures of personal and cultural identity, understanding the processes that govern how ethnic/racial minority navigate their cultural environment, and identifying ways we can support youth experiencing cultural stressors such as discrimination, bicultural stress, and negative context of reception.
Eileen Delzell, PhD is a Forensic Psychologist and Board-Certified Vocational Expert in private practice. With a 25-year work history in vocational rehabilitation and counseling, she began contracting with emotional growth boarding schools in 1997, and became certified as a vocational expert in 2007. Earning a PhD in Forensic Psychology from Walden University in 2019, Dr. Delzell rekindled her interest in the role of vocational identity in emerging adults’ successful transition to adulthood by exploring the relationship between vocational identity, substance use, and crime among emerging adults. Research interests include addiction recovery and maintenance, transitional elements for at-risk emerging adults, and personality considerations in vocational role development.
Emerging adulthood is often characterized as a period of opportunity and growth, when young people gain independence and explore new roles and possibilities available to them. However, for many youth, the transition from adolescence to adulthood is marked by instability and feeling “in-between” as they question who they are and what they want to become. This key task of forming a stable identity may be especially challenging for emerging adults who are in recovery from substance use disorder (SUD). SUD recovery is an ongoing process of change that involves not only observable changes in behavior, such as abstaining from or reducing substance use, but also experiential processes, such as changes in identity, resiliency, and hope. Likewise, research suggests that as individuals progress through recovery, “recovery capital” (i.e., internal and external resources that aid recovery) accumulates and increases the likelihood of ongoing SUD remission. However, there is also evidence that barriers to sustained recovery may be exacerbated by the challenges of emerging adulthood, particularly due to residential and financial instability and insecurity about fulfilling the responsibilities of adulthood. This General Discussion Session will first provide an overview of each of these two strands of research (recovery capital, identity development). Discussion will then focus on integrating the concepts. Topics for discussion may include how the accumulation of recovery capital may coincide with identity development and how intersectionality among multiple identities may have an additive impact on the recovery needs of emerging adults.
Publishing on Emerging Adulthood
Presenters: Elizabeth Morgan, Christine Ohannessian,
and Seth Schwartz
The goals of this interactive session are to engage in conversation about various aspects of the publishing process and help both novice and seasoned writers examine their practices to identify strengths and areas of improvement. We plan to share a few tips about writing for publication in general, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and alternative publishing modalities, such as authored and edited books. We hope to engage the participants in conversation about these topics and answer questions about the publication process. This session is designed for emerging scholars and established scholars alike.
Speaker Bios:
Elizabeth
Morgan, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Chair
of the Psychology Department at Springfield College.
Dr. Morgan’s research focuses on sexual and romantic
relationship development during emerging adulthood,
with a specific focus on sexual orientation identity
development. She is the outgoing past-President of
SSEA and is the ad hoc editor of Emerging Adulthood
and serves on the Editorial Boards for Sex Roles,
Journal of Sex Research, and Psychology of Women
Quarterly. She recently co-edited the book Sexuality
in Emerging Adulthood for the Oxford University
Press book series on Emerging Adulthood.
Christine McCauley Ohannessian, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Florida State University. Dr. Ohannessian’s research interests focus on the family and adolescent and emerging adulthood psychological health. She is especially interested in internalizing problems, substance abuse, and social media use. Currently, Dr. Ohannessian is the Editor of Emerging Adulthood. She also has served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Early Adolescence, and as Field Editor for the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In addition, she serves on the Editorial Boards for Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Adolescent Research Review, and Journal of Marriage and Family.
Seth Schwatz, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Schwartz‘s research centers on issues of identity, acculturation, cultural stress, crisis migration, adolescent development, family functioning, substance use, mental health and well-being. He is the author or editor of three scholarly books (Handbook of Identity Theory and Research, Oxford Handbook of Acculturation and Health, and Writing for Publication in the Social and Health Sciences) and the current Editor of the International Journal of Intercultural Relations.
Elisabetta
Crocetti, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Social
Psychology at the Department of Psychology of the
University of Bologna, Italy. She is the PI of the
ERC-Consolidator project IDENTITIES “Managing
Identities in Diverse Societies: A Developmental
Intergroup Perspective with Adolescents” and
Secretary of the European Association of Research on
Adolescence (EARA). Currently, she is the
Editor-in-chief of Identity: An International
Journal of Theory and Research and she serves as
Associate Editor of European Journal of Personality
and New Directions for Child and Adolescent
Development. In addition, she is a Consulting editor
for Journal of Research on Adolescence and she is a
member of the Editorial Boards of Journal of Youth
and Adolescence and Adolescent Research.
Preconference Program:
Topic Networks are invited to submit preconference sessions in line with the conference's general theme. These 3-hour sessions will be live online and will allow for interactive participation from delegates. The preconference program could include speakers, discussions, professional development workshops, workshops focused on teaching and learning, networking opportunities, or workshops. However, all possible formats will be considered. To be considered for any of these sessions, proposals must demonstrate the session's interactive/engaging nature. These sessions will be able to accommodate up to 50 participants.
General Program:
While we will consider all submissions, we
encourage members to submit symposia. We are working
on facilitating opportunities to make contact with
potential symposia members.
Single Paper Submissions
1. Standard Paper Sessions (10 min prerecorded
presentation, 5 min live Q/A)
2. Data Blitz (5 min prerecorded presentation, 4 min
live Q/A)
3. Poster Submissions (Asynchronous – 5 min
prerecorded presentation with each poster, Q/A
through chat)
Symposia Submissions
4. Standard Symposia Sessions (3 x 10 min prerecorded
presentations, 15 min live Q/A)
5. Double Symposia Sessions (7 x 10 min prerecorded
presentations, 20 min live Q/A)
6. Panel Symposia Sessions (Live interactive
discussion between 2 to 4 panelists)
Special Program:
These sessions occur live and are interactive.
Below, we propose two types of sessions. We allot 45
min for a single session or 90 min for double
sessions. Participants pre-register for these
sessions.
General Innovative
sessions (15 - 40 participants)
1. General Discussion forums: Stimulating
participant discussion/conversation which relates
specific topics to the conference theme.
2. Master tutorials: A session in which presenters
engage in active knowledge transfer (e.g.,
Networking skills, Managing collaborations).
3. Critical debate sessions: Facilitating an open
discussion on either Social Justice or the Covid-19
pandemic.
Small-Group Innovation
Sessions (8 - 12 participants)
1. Workshops: Guided instruction and training by
experienced mentors on a specific topic
2. Hack-a-thons: Hands-on project with a clear end
goal
3. Unconferences: "Unstructured" session to pitch &
discuss ideas
We will consider proposals by individuals, research
groups, or organizations. To be considered for any
of the above sessions, proposals must demonstrate
the session's interactive/engaging nature.
Networking/Social Program:
As a means to facilitate one-on-one interactions
during the virtual conference, we are working on
several strategies. These include, but are not
limited to, the following:
1. Meet the speaker sessions: Speakers make
themselves available for small group discussions
after sessions
2. Informal coffee rooms and meet and greets: Bring
your coffee, join a networking group
3. Small group mentoring sessions: Senior academics
engage informally with emerging scholars
4. Drinks and Social Activities: Some of which may
carry an additional cost
We are confident that this temporary format will
provide us with the opportunity to reach even more
delegates who may not have been able to attend in
person. Therefore, we are aware that we cannot do
this independently. We rely heavily on you, our
members, to make this conference another memorable
event. In particular, we know that members have
attended various online conferences over the last
year. This experience is valuable, as we can learn
from these experiences. Please share with us how we
can ensure that our conference provides ample
socializing, networking, and engagement
opportunities online. We would like to hear from you
cea.committee@ssea.org