The experience of wellness in early adulthood: a multicultural perspective

Afrikaans: Young adults experience a considerable amount of strain from the tasks that present themselves during this stage of development. At the same time, contemporary studies fail to incorporate the effect of this strain on the young adult's sense of psychological wellness. While the nature of psychological wellness remains controversial to define, certain core dimensions exist. Ryff (1989) articulated six dimensions under the umbrella of the structure of wellness, namely self-acceptance, positive relations with others, self-determination, environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth. Studies on young adults' interaction with the developmental tasks that present themselves during this stage of development and the ultimate influence on these adults' wellness in the South African context have, as yet, received little attention. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which the roles of intimacy, a sense of belonging and occupation influence the experience of wellness in early adulthood. Differences between race and gender were also investigated. A sample of 150 working adults from different ethnic groups was included in this study (non experimental prospective design). Further criteria included that the adults had to be between the ages of 22 and 33 with a minimum educational level of grade 11. The Multidimensional Wellness Scale (Ryff & Keyes, 1995) was used to measure wellness as the criterion variable while the Hope Scale (Snyder et al, 1991), Fortitude Scale (Pretorius, 1997), Work and Life Experience Questionnaire (Van Zyl & Van der Walt, 1991) and Self-efficacy Scale (Sherer et al., 1982) were used to measure the predictor variables. A self compiled biographical questionnaire was used to obtain biographical information. From the hierarchical regression analysis, statistically and practically significant results were obtained for the entire group. The predictor variables explained between 72.52% and 79.57% of the variance in the levels of wellness for the total group. Furthermore, the predictor variables explain 79.57% of the variance in the levels of wellness of young black adults, 72.52% of young white adults, 77.28% of young female adults and 72.66% of young male adults. A sense of hope was found to be a consistently significant contributing factor in the experience of wellness for all groups. While hope was found to be the strongest predictor of the level of wellness of the participants, stressors outside the work situation, stressors within the work situation as well as general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy also made significant contributions. Furthermore, significant differences in the experience of psychological wellness were found between both races as well as between the two genders.