Proactive personality, Social well-being and civic participation in emerging adulthood

Manuela Zambianchi

Accepted December 29, 2023

First published May 4, 2024

Abstract

The phase of emerging adulthood is defined as a new life stage from late teens to early adulthood
(Arnett, 2004). It is considered, by developmental research, a critical life-phase, whose positive outcome is related to the
presence of resources such as social capital, civic engagement and civic participation (Masten et al., 2004; Hawkins et
al., 2009). The study has analyzed the role of proactive personality, a stable disposition toward an agentic intervention
in the environment and persevere until the individual is able bring about meaningful change, on two facets of positive
development, namely Social well-being and civic participation in the stage of emerging adulthood. 388 undergraduates
of University Campus of Rimini (mean age = 20.08; SD = 1.72, range 18-31; 19% males and 81% females) participated
in the study. They filled in three self-report questionnaire, the Proactive Personality Scale (Bateman & Crant, 1993), the
Civic Participation Questionnaire (Albanesi et al., 2007), the Social Well-being Questionnaire (Keyes, 1998). We found
positive correlations between proactive personality, civic engagement and Social well-being. Hierarchical regression
models highlighted that the two dimensions of proactive personality, proactive persistence in front of obstacles and
proactive constructive environmental agency constitute the most important predictors of overall Social well-being, Social
integration, Social contribution as its sub-components. They also give an important contribution to civic engagement
after controlling for structural variables age, gender and degree course.

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Zambianchi Manuela . Proactive personality, Social well-being and civic participation in emerging adulthood. BPA Applied Psychology Bulletin. 1970;(1):3-18.

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Zambianchi Manuela . Proactive personality, Social well-being and civic participation in emerging adulthood. BPA Applied Psychology Bulletin. 1970;(1):3-18.