ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 presents the study’s quantitative and qualitative findings that revealing how diverse young adults engaged their postsecondary trajectories across the Great Recession and COVID-19 global pandemic. Common postsecondary experiences during the two shocks emerge to illuminate novel insights regarding the effects of shocks on meaning making processes linked to the pursuit of identity-building tasks. In the quantitative component, analyses of PSID-TA show increased enrollment at the peak of the Great Recession shock and adaptations made to planning (e.g., changed major) to sustain engagement with education pursuits among enrolled young adults. The qualitative component delves deeper to investigate how diverse young adults enrolled during the COVID-19 shock explain what a postsecondary education means to them and their identity development; how they assessed shock-linked risks and challenges; and perceptions and engagement of supportive resources to mitigate risk to support coping facilitating postsecondary advancement. The significant common finding from the Great Recession and COVID-19 shocks of continued fidelity to postsecondary education highlights the stabilizing character of the pursuit in shock period. From this, the novel Dynamic Ecological Systems Theory of Identity emerges as a useful framework for understanding the interactive components of system shocks and diverse young adult identity development processes.
