Spanish version of the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA-S)

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to validate the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) questionnaire in Spain. The IDEA questionnaire is the only validated measure for assessing the characteristics of the emerging adulthood period. A Spanish translation of the IDEA was administered to a sample of 1,435 Spanish undergraduate students. Three confirmatory factor analyses were tested: the six-factor model proposed in the original scale by Reifman, Arnett, and Colwell, a second model with five factors proposed in the initial conception by Arnett, and a third model excluding the instability/negativity dimension. All three were found to have acceptable fit. The results support the validity of the questionnaire in the Spanish context, thus enabling crosscultural comparisons.