Gender Differences in Flourishing among Emerging Adults of Kashmir: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

The present study was conducted to examine gender differences in flourishing among emerging adults of Kashmir. Flourishing was operationalized as per Mental Health continuum model by Corey Keyes (2009). According to him there is a widely held misconception that mental health is the opposite of mental illness; while in reality; Mental health is not mere absence of mental health issues but presence of emotional, psychological and social well-being. He called this complete state of mental health as flourishing. Emerging adults are those who are in the age range of 18-25 years, pursuing higher education; yet to be settled in career, still in the phase of exploration and experimentation and dependent on parents. They are the ones who are in prime age and preparing towards adulthood responsibilities. This term was coined by Jeffrey Jenson Arnett, according to him there is a youth bulge and emerging adults are the assets of any nation and the quality of emerging adults raised by any nation determine its progress. It is in this backdrop the present study was conducted to assess flourishing among emerging adults of Kashmir. Another important aim of the study was to explore gender differences in flourishing. Data was collected from 700 emerging adults studying in three universities of Kashmir- IUST, University of Kashmir and Central university of Kashmir. Data was collected by using 14 item MHC-SF (mental health continuum, short form) by Corey Keyes, 2009. Data was analyzed by using SPSS 26.0. In order to realize the objectives, descriptive statistics were analyzed followed by t test. Descriptive analysis revealed that 18.1% emerging adults of Kashmir fall under low, 65.55% fall under average and 16.1% fall under high category in terms of flourishing. Low flourishing is the red signal, it indicates presence of symptoms of depression and if left un-intervened can turn into clinical diagnosis. Regarding gender differences in flourishing, males were found to score higher than females in two dimensions: emotional and social well-being, while as no significant mean difference was found in psychological well-being. Results have implications for researchers, clinicians, parents and teachers that flourishing of emerging adults be prioritized and gender gap in mental health be addressed with proper interventions like equal opportunities, harassment free environments and autonomy support. Future researchers should work on developing interventions that can boost flourishing and study various risk and protective factors that could influence flourishing.