La construcción de la concepción de adultez en jóvenes de 18-28 años de un hospital pediátrico de Guayaquil.

Abstract

This study analyzed the construction of the concept of adulthood among young adults aged 18 to 28 who are engaged in educational and work-related activities at a pediatric hospital in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador; motivated by the limited attention given to the phenomenon of adulthood in the Ecuadorian context, as well as by the unique position of this population, which is navigating its own transition to adulthood while fulfilling professional roles that position them institutionally as adults in a highly emotionally demanding environment. The overall objective of this research was to analyze the conception of adulthood constructed by these young people, identifying the subjective, objective, and contextual elements that shape this life transition in the contemporary Ecuadorian context; using a concurrent mixed-methods approach grounded in a pragmatic paradigm, a non-experimental cross-sectional design, and a descriptive-analytical method. For data collection, the Transition to Adulthood Scale was used—a Spanish adaptation of Arnett’s (2001) scale validated by Guerra-Santana (2022)—supplemented by seven open-ended questions designed to explore the participants’ subjective meanings. The survey was administered digitally via Google Forms, and a literature review supported the theoretical framework from a psychodynamic perspective. For their part, the results show that part of the surveyed population defines adulthood by prioritizing subjective psychological maturity (responsibility, autonomy, and decision-making). However, economic independence remains an indispensable objective requirement amid a transition that is accelerated by the high demands of the environment.