Meet Lies Armstrong, 7-Time ex-Tour De France Champion

It must be hard for anyone to finally accept that the kingdom that he once thought he ruled was a farce, and that he was not really a king in the first place.  Except that Lance Armstrong is not just anyone – he is Lance Armstrong: the cancer survivor, cycling icon, philanthropist and founder of Livestrong Foundation that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer awareness.

Everything that he did though was built on a foundation of lies.  He was no super human; he was simply a man who cheated with performance enhancing drugs (PED) to look like one. 

They say repeat a lie often and that lie becomes the truth.  Lance Armstrong used PEDs in his first Tour de France win in 1999.  He must not have been convinced by then that he had to do it six more times, from 2000 to 2005 for an unprecedented 7 consecutive wins of the most prestigious and most grueling cycling race in the world where riders have to cover, inside 21 days, some 3,200 kilometers (Manila to Baguio is roughly 200 kms) of road across plains, valleys, hills and torturous climbs and perilous ascents over the mountains of Alps and the Pyrenees.

By the time Lance Armstrong hoisted his 7^th and last Tour de France trophy in 2005, he had become a legend.

Unfortunately, he believed in his own legend, in his kingdom, and in his invincibility.  The lie has now become his truth.  And he defended it with such ferocity that when one by one, people who have once worked with him, rode with him, and even loved him began telling the truth – that he was a cheat – he raised all legal, real or imagined (mostly imagined)issues to bully them into silence.  Some authorities who may have unearthed irregularities suddenly became silent after suspicious donations from Armstrong’s camp came in.  He called everyone a liar except himself.

But no lie that big can be forever denied.  Armstrong would if he could.  But when all investigations have led to his dirty doorstep, there was no choice but to admit he fucked up.  When all of his Tour De France wins were rescinded, he knew he had nothing left but his pride, which was still considerably high.

Again, trust Armstrong  to be ahhmmm, strong.  In his interview with Oprah, Armstrong admitted using dope but made it sound that he was okay with it and bewildered that the world was not.  He even made cheating sound so noble by claiming that he only did it to level the playing field – implying that everyone else was into it.

He did repeatedly say that he was sorry.  But his steely blue eyes and cold demeanor tell me he is once again lying.  Armstrong may be a great liar just like Gloria, but just like Gloria, he is a poor actor when it comes to telling the truth.

So what happens now?  Tour de France has become a tour de farce, and world class cyclists are now, fairly or unfairly, under the mantle of suspicion as being world class dopists.  I suspect that Lance Armstrong will bounce back, just like he did against cancer.  But whether he is ever going to be humbled?  I doubt.  His kingdom may have crumbled but the man who created the lies has not. 

Growing up too soon, too fast

The Hurried Child Syndrome

An Expository Essay

Written by

Marcial I. Enginco

Submitted to

Grace Koo, PhD

Professor, EDFD 210

Human Development and Learning

University of the Philippines Diliman

College of Education

PROLOGUE

Decades ago, a child barely 5 years old was left to fend for himself for the entire day.  This happened five days a week, and lasted for several months.  When he would wake up in the morning, everyone in their small 3 bedroom house will be already gone.  His father, a soldier would have already reported for duty; his mother, a school teacher would already be at school where she taught and his five elder brothers studied.  He was left at home because he was not yet in school age, and alone because there was no money for househelp who could look after him.

His parents left him ready food for lunch.  And when there was none, he had been taught to cook rice and to use the stove to fry egg, fish or whatever was in the refrigerator.  He entertained himself by drawing human faces and figures in various states of emotion and motion, airplanes with tank rails exchanging bombs and gunfire with large battleships with wings, and animals and insects that found their way on paper and climbed over to the wood panels that comprised their humble home’s walls.   And when the creative drive waned, his active and curious side kicked in – running and jumping to see how fast and high he could go.  He would look for spiders, climb trees, and watch and catch small colorful fish in the canal, depositing them in bowls, believing that someday they will grow into fish that can be served on the table.  He did what he wanted and was not afraid to discover new things.  He was free.  Many individuals wait for a lifetime to find that elusive sense of independence; he simply opened his eyes one morning.

He sensed nothing unusual about this, nor did he think that there was another way to spend childhood.  After all, it was his first time to be a boy.

_____

I thought that The Hurried Child Syndrome referred to anyone who grew up, or became an adult, too soon, which is how I would characterize my childhood development.  But a cursory Google search (Farlex) reveals this definition of Hurried Child Syndrome:  “A condition in which parents over-schedule their children's lives, push them hard for academic success, and expect them to behave and react as miniature adults.”  My parents did not over-schedule my life nor pushed me to succeed, as the definition suggests; they simply left me alone to be, in some respects, an adult in a child’s body.

David Elkind, a professional child psychologist formulated the Hurried Child concept as he, in the late 1960s and ‘70s, observed that children of that era were alarmingly being exposed to (Elkind, 1981) instructional and educational approaches that were beyond the developing minds’ grasp; popular media that glamorized and regularized sex, drugs and violence; shifts in social norms where divorce and subsequent and sometimes casual entry of either parent into a new relationship became more common, if not expected, and; the emergence of homosexuality as a third, but increasingly vocal and influential gender.  This confluence of factors became the basis for Elkind’s claim in his 1981 book The Hurried Child: Growing  Up Too Fast Too Soon, that children are forced to take on the physical, psychological and social trappings of adulthood before they are prepared to deal with them.

Elkind observed that this phenomenon was more pronounced in middle class families where parents felt more pressure to prepare their children to become competitive, if not winning adults in an increasingly dog-eats-dog world.  Parents with this inclination placed more premium on the child’s early education and training, further tipping this with an excessive inclusion of enrichment programs and extracurricular activities that practically left the child with no time for play and relaxation.

This forced schedule and driven existence, Elkind claimed, unfairly and unnecessarily exposed the child to the undue stress of attaining success and delivering results, and to its opposite pole – falling short of expectations, and the accompanying stress of handling failure like an adult.  Elkind concluded that a large portion of troubled children who saw clinicians to report experiencing school failure, involvement in delinquency and drugs, and those who are committing suicide are hurried children.  Further, many such children exhibited psychosomatic complaints such as headaches and stomachaches, and generally showed signs of being chronically unhappy, hyperactive, or lethargic and unmotivated.  These were stress symptoms that were normally only found in adults.

So what triggered parents and society in general to rush children into adulthood?  The answer, according to Elkind, is a complex series of events that was instigated by the Russian launching of the Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into outer space.  Only over a decade removed from the Second World War, the two superpowers were in a heated duel to outdo each other in every front possible, and conquering deep space was the ultimate race.  The world knew that the event meant more than just who did it first; but what it really exposed was the gap between communist Russia’s quality of education and technology and that of the leader of the free world, America.  America’s embarrassment led policy-makers to overhaul its educational system to concentrate on a curriculum that unfortunately over-estimated children’s capacity to learn and absorb complex educational concepts and materials.  They believed that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any age of development.

This period of American self-examination was exacerbated by the fury of civil rights movements who deplored the poor performance by disadvantaged children in school; placing the blame on the educational system’s failure to prepare poor children for the rigors of learning.  In response, the government instigated sweeping reforms in the educational system; beginning with the opening of public schools to both black and white, rich and poor students. 

Looking back, it was a bruised national ego rubbed worse by burning social issues that brought about such a radical change in American education.

But that was a generation ago, and the pace by which children those days spent their youths would seem like a walk in the park by today’s standards where cramming activities in a child’s timetable seems to be the norm, rather than the exception in highly developed nations, and increasingly so in countries wishing to be more competitive such as the Philippines where the Department of Education recently added two more years to its basic education program, what it now calls K + 12.  Curiously, the first feature of the revised program (Department of Education, 2012) is to strengthen early childhood education, which is kindergarten.  Add to this one to two years of pre-schooling, and the summer lessons, tutorials, additional enhancement programs that parents regularly enroll their children to and we have a condition very similar to what was being described by Elkind.

.

Kenneth Ginsburg, a medical doctor and prominent child psychologist offers several key factors (Ginsburg, 2007) why parents resort to overloading their children’s schedule; most of these, if one would analyze,  point to the adaptive mechanisms employed by parents to current changes in the work environment, technology and the society, altogether.  Some of the reasons why parents overschedule their children’s work and study load include:

The prevalence of homes with either a single parent or two working parents and the lack or absence of an extended family of adults (grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.) to watch over children, is a major reason why modern parents resort to organized after-school activities and academic-enrichment opportunities that are supervised by adults. 

Parents who have attained professional success believe that facilitating future opportunities for their children is the most effective use of their limited time with their children. Parents who employ this tactic measure their parenting style like they would their professional life – in terms of efficiency and productivity.   In what is sometimes referred to as the professionalization of parenthood, some parents believe that the more accomplishments done in the shortest allotted time is the equivalent of excellent parenting.

Media also plays a major role in defining how parents should go about their business of raising children.  Parenting magazines and TV shows bombard parents with messages about how they should, at the earliest opportunity, actively build every skill and aptitude that their children may use in the future; anything less would be, well, bad parenting.

But what is alarming (Ginsburg, 2007) about such parenting behavior is that it robs children of that magical gift that comes only with that particular lifespan: Play.  Ginsburg contends that taking away play from a child’s normal activity also takes away the chance for the child to use and explore his creativity and imagination, and learn and hone physical dexterity, cognitive ability and emotional strength.   He asserts that play-acquired competencies enhance the child’s confidence and resiliency.

However, there is more to this issue than meets the eye.  If it’s true that parents knowingly compromise their child’s play time to give way to the more serious pursuits of adulthood then they, along with authorities and institutions that allow and even support such practice, are liable to being charged with violation of a basic human right of a child – the right to play.  The United Nations Declaration of the Right of the Child (The United Nations, 2010) states that:  The child shall have full opportunity  (underline, mine) for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavour to promote the enjoyment of this right.

But to be realistic, I don’t see any group or institution raising legal charges against parents or schools, or lobbying congress to adopt a bill that protects this right and penalizes those who will violate it.

There are certain quarters however that believe that the Hurried Child Syndrome is not true (Hurried children a myth, Busy children thrive, says researcher, 2008); in fact, the proponents of one study claim the contrary.  Among the more interesting findings (S. Hofferth, 2008) of the study entitled The Hurried Child: Myth or Reality by Sandra Hofferth and company, include: that high level of structured activities does not appear to be emotionally stressful for children; highly active children don’t differ from children with a more balanced set of activities, and; children who are most at risk of being depressed, anxious, alienated and fearful are those with no activities.

The findings of this study strongly debunk Elkind’s assertions that overworked young children are stressed and unhappy.  Either way, I believe that it is the human organisms’ collective adaptive behavior that pushes it to equip young children with the necessary tools and advantages to survive and thrive in the ever shifting world that we live in today; avoiding doing so, to me, would be counter intuitive.

The condition under which Hurried Child Syndrome occurs, or does not occur, is to me simply a product of parenting style – one that is not forced but rather freely assimilated by adults.  Hence, I see no moral or ethical issue against parents who believe that their children should possess all the tools that they could learn and handle.

So do I believe that parents can hurry their child and do so negatively? Certainly.  I see it everyday.  I see adults using children to earn a living in the streets selling, stealing and begging.  I once made a UN-sponsored documentary about child labor and I have seen young bodies subjected to work that even adults would find difficult to do day in and day out.  I open the internet and I come across news about mothers coercing their daughters to join child beauty contests  (Time, 2012) where they are required to wear makeup, bathing suits and adult gowns; another mother (Yahoo News, 2013) waxed her 3-year old daughter’s thick brows, or unibrow as she called it, because it was, to her, unsightly, and; another constantly brings her young daughter to the tanning salon because her skin lacked glow.

Just the other day, I watched a video being circulated in Facebook showing a group of 7 to 8 young boys and girls, aged 3 to 12 (just my estimate based on how they looked) having a vodka drinking session.   What’s so despicable about this is that while the shot glass was being passed around, the children’s parents and guardians were happily cheering as the kids squirmed at the taste of the alcohol that even I, an adult, find too potent for my liking.  This is what I find alarming more than children being stressed by too many activities that are designed to make them capable and productive citizens in the long run.  When adults place children in situations that traditionally are only intended for adults, or when adults show children how shallow and irresponsible adults can be, it sets a bad precedent that I hope will not be followed and emulated by impressionable children.

This, for me, is the other context of Hurried Child syndrome that is worthier looking into.

_____

EPILOGUE

Young children are incredibly resilient creatures.  In their own little way they can adapt adult concepts and make it appear as if they know what they are doing or comprehend what they are saying, when in fact they are simply mimicking adult roles as part of their child’s play or logic.

Decades ago, I told my parents that it would be best that they brought me to Pangasinan, my mother’s hometown where her brothers and sisters still lived, instead of leaving me alone and unattended in our home inside a military base in Batangas.  It was an innocent request, one I suppose I made because I particularly liked frolicking in the clear stream near my mother’s house.  The next thing I knew I was bundled for Pangasinan the following weekend where I would stay until I was old enough to go to school.  When that episode of my life was being recalled by my mother to anyone who cared to listen, she would always say that I talked and behaved like an adult for me to think of something like that.  Until now I have serious doubts if that were so.  But now I realize it was something that my parents were painfully contemplating doing back then, but they simply couldn’t bring themselves to, until I said so.

When I returned to Lipa, my father’s once occasional drinking had become a nightly habit.  And as the youngest child I slept together with my parents and became witness to their almost nightly fights.  By then, I began to feel that I had the responsibility to become my mother’s defender and my father’s calming presence.  But I was still a child.

When I went to school, I tagged along with my mother especially during lunch time where I ate with her and her co-teachers inside the faculty room.  I became privy to conversations of adults about marital problems, work problems, financial problems and other problems that I have not experienced nor heard of before.  But I was still a child.  And I was one when I was with people my age.  But after a while, I began to look at the world with different eyes.  In many respects, I became an adult in a child’s body sooner than I wanted to.

From Michelangelo to furniture, Museum to aroma

Good things come to those who wait.  But better ones come to those willing to scrape the bottom of the box.  I recently came across two books by accident, and they couldn’t come at a better time.

There’s been a Pick a Book stall inside Benitez Hall ever since the second semester started.  It contains a selection of interesting reading materials -- all pre-owned, ranging from novels by authors like Ayn Rand, John Grisham, Alfred Hitchcock and an assortment of others that I either know, barely know, or never heard of (I admit I’m not a big fan of novels, hence my ignorance), art books, crafts books, personal growth books, outdated techie books, illustrated children’s books, poetry books, and magazines such as National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, and Architect’s Digest, etc.  In short, a little bit of everything.

I was thrilled to spy a rack that was marked P20 so I promptly and happily ran my fingers across the titles.  Take away my bus fare going home and a little snack money; I still had some 200 pesos or so of free money.  So I had literally in my hands, or more accurately – in my pocket – 10 books waiting to be bagged.

As I was rummaging through the covers I realized that 10 books were too many to place inside my bag that was already almost stuffed with reading materials, notebooks, folders, my hoodie, water canister, candy wrappers, and a wad of old bus tickets.  There was only room for two, and I was eyeing The Life and Works of Michelangelo and The New York Metropolitan Museum – two hardbound books that would surely be very difficult to find elsewhere and would make me look like an art aficionado.

When I was about to pay for the books, the vendor said that each costed P150.  I’m never good at Math but my mind readily computed that I was way short of the prospective bill.   I calmly returned the books, muttering that I’d be getting them next time.  I won’t.  I had no plans of doing such.

This failed purchase speaks three things about my buying behavior: 1) My impulse buying budget rarely exceeds P100.  2) The amount of money inside my pocket ensures that number 1 stays true most of the time.  3) When I’m intent on splurging P40 then I would, regardless if I’ve been flustered by the darn P150 price tag on Mike’s book, or not.

So I knew I had to recover my pride and show that vendor that I was ready as hell to plunk down P40 on two good, old books.  Mustering all the pride that I could, I meekly asked him where the P20 books were and he pointed me at a sizeable carton box that was conveniently lying on the floor.

Darn.  I was standing when I found Mike.  Now I had to bend my knees to search for God-knows-what.

But like I told you I am a proud man; so I stooped down to the level of the box.  I tried to look like I was enjoying myself as I leafed through titles like The Breakthrough Wonders of Pentium II, Overcoming Impotence, and The Life Cycle of a Snail.

Then I really got excited. 

I found two books that I was willing to pay P150 each. Okay, more like two at P150, if I could haggle it.  I was sure that others would scuffle with me if I showed them that I discovered The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy (published in 1991) and The Build-It-Yourself Furniture Catalog (from 1976), so I discreetly covered the titles with my large hands and whispered to the vendor, “Sir, kukunin ko mga ‘to.”  I proudly handed him a soggy P100 bill, not folded by the way, to assure him that I have the money to cover the purchase, plus three more books if I wanted more.

I did not place the books in my bag as I had planned.  Instead I hand carried them towards a tree facing the Sunken Garden where I initially intended to read my notes on Emerging Adults.  There I opened the furniture book with trembling hands as if I was a recovering alcoholic secretly opening a bottle of Emperador brandy under a tree facing the Sunken Garden.  My eyes were alert, always glancing behind my back.  I was half expecting envious people, who have learned that I found the two most exciting books in the world, to make a violent grab at my loot.

But the more I scanned the pages, the more I was lost in my own world, already imagining the fine wood work that I would be producing with my very own hands.  Some of the pages, I noticed, were literally earmarked by the previous owner.  And as I lovingly straightened out the page corners, I realized that I was touching the hands of a man who loved this book once, and who created wonderful pieces that gave him the same tremendous fulfillment that I will also soon be feeling when I have made mine.

By far, this is the best P40 I have ever spent.

I have always been proud of what I can do with my hands.  I find carpentry very interesting and it has been my goal for some time to make my own furniture pieces.  Before finding the book, I have been honing my carpentry skills making homes for my honeybees, and simple fixtures such as tables and benches.  With the help of this book, I am planning to make my own center table, cabinet and book shelves.

The Aromatherapy book will greatly help me in my experiments with my handmade soap projects.  I’m also planning to create my own body lotion, body wash and other honey-enriched cosmetic recipes.  As I continually skim the book, I am realizing that it will also enhance and even deepen my commitment to healthy living.

So let me write again

A few hours after Nanay passed away late October of last year, I began tapping on the laptop, wanting to capture my thoughts and emotions in a story that I planned to share here in my blog.  But I couldn’t write.  And ever since that fateful day, I stayed away from writing about what I was feeling or thinking (except for the 2 required graduate school papers that I decided to post).  I was devoid of the drive to share what I was going through.  There are things that I wanted to keep for myself.

I’ve always thought that something dramatic would happen and I would be inspired and spurred to write again.  And that the first article I would do would be about Nanay. 

This isn’t.

It’s not that life has stopped moving, or that I don’t have anything interesting to write about.  In fact, I had a lot of materials that I could have easily developed into interesting reads had I been in my element.

I had my first day of graduate school 5 days after we buried Nanay.  I was in an emotional rollercoaster that day – happy, sad, proud, dismayed, excited, and forlorn – but I still couldn’t write.

We had Nanay’s Siyaman and Padasal and I was moved to tears because more stories of Nanay’s unselfishness and life were shared by her friends.  That was not enough to make me write.

I shared a jeepney ride with a very pretty colegiala who was casually dressed in a simple shirt and denim pants, with her hair gathered in a ponytail.  She was not wearing makeup but I could tell from her skin, poise and bearing that she was from a well-to-do family:  “Na aircon-an at napainom ng vitamins nung bata,” as I would like to describe such individuals.  When she was about to alight at Ateneo, I noticed that she was wearing a pair of slippers with the word “Havana” clearly embossed on its straps.  I found another shining example of how simplicity is beautiful.  But still I couldn’t write.

I had an epic wipeout on my bike and I had a partially dislocated shoulder, bruised rib cage, bloodied knees and elbows, and hematoma and scratches all over my back.  And this happened on my Nanay’s 40^th day, which coincided with my wife’s birthday.  Though she was visibly shaken and angry upon seeing me, I did not get a dressing down.  She only spoke a few words as she cleaned my wounds and tended to my battered body.   She never told me to give up biking, as I feared.  It showed how much she loved and understood me.  It was such a poignant moment, worthy of an MMK episode.  But it was not dramatic enough to make me write.

We watched Sting live and I was in a sublime state of euphoria; he is after all one of the few performers that I consider as a true artist, whose music and voice is distinctly his.  But no amount of a-do-do and a-da-da could make me write.

The cold season came and along with it the onset of local honey bee’s annual swarming activities where colonies hatch new queens to start a new family somewhere.  I caught the first bee swarm of the season and I once again experienced the thrill and excitement of catching a swarm, the sense of fulfillment of providing thousands of homeless bees a new home, and not to mention that sense of danger that clambering up high in a tree can bring (My biking injuries did not help). I have a new addition to my growing “bee farm” but still I wouldn’t write about it.

My very first graduate school paper was adjudged best in class and it was a rather surprising and somewhat embarrassing moment for me because my name and academic excellence were rarely mentioned in the same sentence before.  If they have been, I’m pretty sure “not” was used to qualify the connection.  And yet still I couldn’t write.

Amidst the revelry of the UP Lantern Parade, I was moved to tears by a group of peasants and farmers from Casiguran, Quezon who were asking that their land, the same one that they and their ancestors have lived in and tilled for generations, be awarded to them and not signed over to a group of rich investors.  I was not moved enough to write.

My blog hit its first anniversary and it should have been a big deal; after all I have posted 80 articles, resulting into 16,000 page views (The hits over the last few months though were slow because of my inactivity).  Instead that special date, just like a special day for someone that I don’t personally know, passed by unnoticed and uncelebrated.  I couldn’t write about something that I didn’t know was happening.

We spent Christmas in Pangasinan, the first in at least two decades, and the first ever without Nanay.  It was happy and sad, and memorable and different.  The more I did not want to write.

But now I am writing.  Again.

What happened you may ask.  Nothing.  No dramatic moments and eye-openers.  No epiphanies or miraculous floating on air stuff.  I just want to write again.  I am not sure though if I can write about Nanay.  I would when I’m good and ready.  But for now, I will write again.  I am just following the advice of NBA coaches when good shooters are stuck in a shooting funk:  Keep shooting until you see your shot go in.  So I’m writing again, till I see what I am not looking for – which would be a good material for this blog.  Hopefully, I’ll be back in my groove.

Thank you for reading.  Again.

How adults become adults in a developed country

A REACTION PAPER ON A STUDY ENTITLED

Employment, Sense of Coherence, and Identity Formation: Contextual and Psychological Processes on

the Pathway to Sense of Adulthood

By Koen Luyckx, Seth J. Shwartz, Luc Goossens and Sophie Pollock

Written by

Marcial I. Enginco

Submitted to

Grace Koo, PhD

Professor, EDFD 210

Human Development and Learning

University of the Philippines Diliman

College of Education

SUMMARY

Emerging adulthood is a human developmental stage that Jeffrey Arnett suggests exists between the teenage years and adulthood, from 18 – 30 years of age.  This period, according to Arnett, became prominent only in the last 50 years as a consequence of the rapid development in western countries characterized by a boom in education, rapid advancements in technology and the subsequent flourishing of new industries.  These factors resulted into a limitless array of new opportunities and possibilities for young adults, on top of the traditional roles and careers that were already available to them.  Arnett thus aptly describes this stage as an age of exploration, instability and possibilities.

This study conducted by Luyckx, et al seeks to explain how key contextual conditions and psychological processes relate to an emerging adult’s transition to adulthood.  Luyckx and company gathered a total of 317 respondents aged 18 to 30, 143 of which are college students, and 174 are already part of the workforce.  They were made to answer a questionnaire that measured, among others, how: they classified themselves as adults, identified with commitment, and explored their environment for potential commitments.

The objective of the study was to test the following hypotheses:

A.      That being employed, as contrasted with attending college, and scoring high on Sense of Coherence (SOC) would positively relate to achieving a sense of adulthood;

B.      That being employed, as contrasted with attending college, would positively relate to commitment making and negatively to exploration dimensions;

C.      That those who perceived themselves as adults would score higher than those who did not perceive themselves as such in commitment making and identification with commitment, and those who did not perceive themselves as full-fledged adults would score higher than those who did on exploration dimensions, and that enactment of identity commitments would be the most important identity process mediating the pathway from both independent variables to sense of adulthood, and;

D.      That the original direct paths from college versus employment and from SOC to sense of adulthood would be substantially reduced when including identity dimensions as mediating variables.

The study revealed that college-attending emerging adults scored higher on the exploration dimensions and lower on commitment making and sense of adulthood than working emerging adults.  Likewise, respondents who classified themselves as adults scored higher on SOC and identification commitment but lower on ruminative exploration than those who did not.  In the area of commitment making and sense of adulthood, those who say they are adults scored significantly higher those who stated that they had reached adulthood in some respects but not in others.  The latter in turn had significantly higher scores than those who claimed they had not reached adulthood at all.

The study has also affirmed, as previous studies did, that commitment making and commitment identification are interrelated.  These dimensions are also positively related to exploration in breadth and depth but negatively related to ruminative exploration.  The SOC was positively related to both commitment dimensions and negatively to ruminative exploration.  Meanwhile, sense of adulthood was positively related to SOC and to the commitment dimensions, but negatively to ruminative exploration.

NEW LEARNINGS

Adulthood is a destination that every normal and capable individual must reach at some point in his life.  However, there exists no standard procedure or timetable to activate and actualize such progression.  Those who are thrust into adult roles (through pregnancy, marriage, death of head/s of a family) early in their lives get to it – albeit forced -- faster, while some are mired or, should I say, processed by circumstances, events and situations that result in the delayed onset of adulthood.  On the other hand, an unfortunate few are, for some reason, not inclined to get there at all.

In many societies the commonly accepted legal age, and what many subscribe to as the marker for adulthood, is pegged at 18.  At this age one may already vote, get a valid driver’s license, go to movies with sensitive content, and is expected to generally behave like an adult who can and will arrive at sound decisions especially where important life-matters are concerned; failure to do so would mean that the person is either immature, irresponsible, or both.   While turning 18 does open the gate for many adult activities, responsibilities and privileges, expecting the emerging adult to behave accordingly is rather unfair and unrealistic as the results of this study clearly show that it is not the individual’s age but rather his willingness to commit to traditional adult roles (marriage, child rearing, financial independence) that gives him a firm sense of coherence about his adulthood.

The study also underscores the role of the socio-economic environment in determining the rate by which an emerging adult will develop into a mature individual.  Arnett observed that the emerging adulthood stage is more pronounced in more advanced environments.  Hence, highly industrialized countries such as Belgium offer emerging adults with a host of opportunities and options in terms of professional and personal growth that may not necessarily be available to their counterparts in lesser developed countries such as the Philippines where adult commitments such as marriage, choice of career or family stewardship often become a matter of course, not of choice.   Thus, emerging adults in wealthier countries tend to enjoy a longer maturation period, helped along by a society that leaves more room for the hesitation and exploration that characterize this period of identity formation.  It is no wonder then that a significant number of respondents who considered themselves as adults are already into their late 20s and early 30s; most of them have securely committed themselves to marriage and/or a parent role, and have a steady source of employment that leads to financial independence. 

This finding, I suspect, will be met with incredulity, and perhaps a tinge of sarcasm by Filipinos whose average marrying age is between 22 – 25 (as compared to 32 – 35 for Belgians), and who are accustomed to pushing children to assume adult roles as early as possible (e.g., elder children are trained to act as second parents and providers, constant use of elder tags such as Kuya, Ate, Ninong, Ninang, etc). However, as the country continues to make strides in the economic front and with more young adults being exposed to better education and, ergo – opportunities, I believe that it won’t be long before the onset of adulthood and the need to make identity-related commitments, especially marriage, will be set back several years – then, perhaps the concept of emerging adulthood stage may be generally assimilated by Filipinos in their understanding of the maturation process.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

The researchers ably built their investigation on the headways made by other psychologists such as J. Arnett who introduced the concept of emerging adulthood, L.J. Nelson and C. M. Barry who used self-classification to identify the distinguishing features of emerging adults, and E. Erikson who as far back as 1968, laid down the framework for identity development. 

The researchers may also be lauded for their meticulous selection of subjects that comprised a balanced dichotomy of points of view between emerging adults in college and those who are from the labor force, culled from a wide cross-section of industries.  Along this line, the researchers even excluded 28 prospective respondents belonging to the workforce sample as they have obtained college degrees, which make them too similar to the college student sample.

But while it is understandable that emerging adults who are neither schooling nor working were excluded from the study, it would be interesting if a parallel study specifically directed at this group was conducted to ascertain their capacity to become full-fledged adults, and the barriers and challenges that they may encounter as they travel their unique path towards adulthood.  I suppose valuable information may be obtained to help integrate this segment to the mainstream of productive society.

Though there is a discrepancy in the economic standing of Belgium and our country, the Philippines, I can observe similarities between the societal makeup of Belgians and Filipinos that should make the findings of the study somewhat applicable and relevant to a Philippine setting, particularly to  the sectors of the society that have been exposed to tertiary education and/or industrial and corporate environments.  According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) there is a wide gap in the distribution of wealth among Belgians with the top 20% of the population enjoying income that is 4 times higher than those in the bottom 20% of the social strata.  Further, a large number of emerging Belgian adults still rely on their parents for financial assistance.  In addition, compared with other western countries where emerging adults are expected to move out of their parents’ house once they leave for college, 4 out 5 Belgians under the age of 24 still stay with their parents.  This family orientation I believe plays an integral role in the identity formation of the respondents which reflected in their response to the survey questions.

IMPLICATIONS

It is interesting to note that teenagers announce their transition into early adulthood by fiercely demanding for their independence; insisting that parents or caregivers stay away from their choice of friends, clothes, activities and pursuits.  In their young mind they are doing what they think adults do without realizing that their very act of tentative exploration into the adult world is at the very core of why they are called minors, in age, action and psychological profile.  But as they enter their college years, emerging adults can be caught silly by an overwhelming array of choices, some of which will ultimately define who they are as adults. It is in this critical period of early identity formation that the findings of this study may be used by educators and parents to guide emerging adults as they explore in breadth future directions and, should they find paths that they can identify with, provide support, encouragement and direction until sufficient commitment can be engaged.

Further, the results of this study can help parents better understand the psychological and emotional framework of emerging adults; allowing them to adjust their parenting approach to include motivation, guidance and reasonable tolerance for mistakes and missteps.  And along this line, parents and elders will be better served if they temper their expectations about their child’s seeming lack of maturity and focus despite having turned 18, saving both parties bouts of frustration and frayed nerves.

I am intrigued by the study’s finding that it is committed relationship/s and steady source of income, not acquiring college education, that correlate best with a firm sense of adulthood. This argues that despite mankind’s advancement in technology and societal sophistication, it is still the primal need for man to have the ability to sustain life (to provide and propagate) which makes man and woman feel like an adult.  Having said that, I think, perhaps ambitiously and controversially, that the Philippines’ economic managers with the help of local government units may look into the possibility of using such information to formulate economic policies that promote job generation over standard education in certain areas of the country (such as war torn regions, land designated for indigenous people, and resource-rich but remotely located areas) where instituting and sustaining a high level of education is logistically and financially not feasible.  In which case, I think that rather than using the country’s meager financial resource to build and maintain school facilities that will offer standardized curriculum geared towards college education, it would be more prudent to develop products and/or services that harness the resources and potential of a specific area, supplemented by education focused on functional learning and trainings that will allow the target individuals to become capable and essential players in the growth of their district’s business.  Essentially, what this strategy brings is a steady source of income for individuals to provide for their families.  They may not have acquired high education, but they can sure claim to be adults.