Emerging adults (i.e., individuals from 18 to 29 years old) are at a unique stage in their development and are repeatedly presented with decisions that have important consequences that unfold over time (i.e., intertemporal decisions). Chapter 1 of this dissertation provides a brief overview of emerging adulthood as a developmental stage and presents a rationale for the importance of understanding the relationship between temporal self-perceptions and longitudinal outcomes in emerging adults. Then, in four articles (Chapters 2-5), this dissertation provides evidence for the connection between temporal self-perceptions and positive downstream consequences in college students (i.e., a subsample of emerging adults). Specifically, Chapter 2, examines longitudinal changes in perception of the future self through the first two years of college, how those changes predict downstream academic success, and identifies sex differences in those relationships. Chapters 3 and 4 then extend the research on longitudinal outcomes of future self-perception to downstream outcomes during a global crisis (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic). Chapter 3 explores the role of perception of the future self as a potential protective and promotive factor for longitudinal mental health during the pandemic. Chapter 4 presents a study during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic that investigates a vivid view of the future self at the start of college as a resource to support downstream resilience for graduating college students—especially for students who are already at an economic disadvantage (i.e., low socioeconomic status). Chapter 5 then broadens the understanding of these relationships by testing the relationship between continuity between temporal selves (i.e., past-to-future) and psychological well-being. Finally, Chapter 6 incorporates the reported findings into a theoretical model, reviews the literature on the constructs to extend the model beyond college students to emerging adults as a developmental group, and discusses avenues for future research.

Perception of the future self (i.e., future self-identification) is an important indicator of outcomes over time and during different life-stages (e.g., adolescence, emerging adulthood, retirement). Although recent research established that future self-identification is comprised of three distinct but interrelated factors (i.e., relatedness, positivity, and vividness of the future self), the current research was the first to consider the stability of that factor structure (i.e., factorial invariance) over extended time and over the course of a major life-stage transition. Using a longitudinal design, this research investigated (1) longitudinal factorial invariance as young adults transitioned into, and became established in, their college education and (2) explored differences in factor stability across demographic groups (i.e., sex; college generation status). Results indicated that as students progressed through their first three semesters of college, future self-identification had a stable factor structure over the short-term. However, from the first week of college to when students were established in college, strong factorial invariance (i.e., invariance of the item intercepts) did not hold. In general, there were not differences in future self-identification factor structure by sex. However, from the first year of college to the second year, strict invariance was not supported (i.e., the item residual variances were not invariant between men and women). This sex difference appeared during the first stage of the transition into college and diminished as students became established in their college career. Finally, complete factorial invariance was established between first-generation and continuing-generation college students suggesting that the future self-identification factor structure did not differ based on college generation status. Findings provide crucial information regarding the validity of mean comparisons of future self-identification across a transition into a life-stage and across demographic groups. Future research may build on this foundation to better understand the sources of factorial non-invariance.