It is surprising how little we know about the relationships that matter to emerging adults, and we propose research to bridge that gap. First, we will ask emerging adults to generate a list of the individuals who matter. The list will be submitted via open‐ended text that we will code for relationship type. Our first aim is to gain information about the frequency and diversity of relationships that matter to emerging adults. We hypothesise that participants who list more relationships will have better well‐being and less loneliness. Second, we will use an adapted version of the Mattering Scale to assess how much specific relationships matter to participants by asking them to focus on five common close relationships (i.e., mother figures, father figures, romantic partners, best friends and closest‐in‐age sibling). For each relationship that exists for the participant, how much each relationship matters will be measured. We hypothesise that failing to mention a specific relationship in the open‐ended portion of the study will be related to lower perceived mattering of that relationship when participants report on mattering. Finally, we hypothesise that when specified relationships matter more to an individual, they will have less loneliness and better well‐being.

中文翻译：

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他们是最好的：他人对于初出茅庐的成年人和福祉的重要性


令人惊讶的是，我们对新兴成年人重要的关系知之甚少，我们提出研究来弥合这一差距。首先，我们将要求新兴成年人列出重要的个人名单。该列表将通过开放式文本提交，我们将为关系类型编码。我们的首要目标是获得有关对新兴成年人重要的关系的频率和多样性的信息。我们假设列出更多关系的参与者将拥有更好的幸福感和更少的孤独感。其次，我们将使用重要量表的改编版本，通过要求参与者关注五种常见的亲密关系（即母亲形象、父亲形象、浪漫伴侣、最好的朋友和最亲密的人）来评估特定关系对参与者的重要性。同龄兄弟姐妹）。对于参与者存在的每条关系，将测量每条关系的重要性。我们假设，在研究的开放式部分中未能提及特定关系，将与参与者报告重要性时对该关系的较低感知重要性有关。最后，我们假设，当特定的关系对个人更重要时，他们的孤独感就会减少，幸福感也会更好。