ARTICLE IN PRESS

Journal of
Adolescence
Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52
www.elsevier.com/locate/jado

Does successful attainment of developmental tasks lead to

happiness and success in later developmental tasks?
A test of Havighurst’s (1948) theses$
Inge Seiffge-Krenke, Tim Gelhaar
Institute of Psychology, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology,
University of Mainz, Staudinger Weg 9, D-55099 Mainz, Germany

Abstract

This study tested Havighurst’s (1948) contention that successful attainment of age-specific developmental
tasks leads to happiness and success in achieving subsequent tasks. A longitudinal study on 146 participants
was carried out to investigate the links between developmental progression in adolescence and young
adulthood and happiness, which was assessed by two indices: high self-esteem and low symptomatology.
The importance individuals place on achieving normative developmental tasks and current developmental
status was assessed six times during adolescence and young adulthood, self-esteem and symptomatology
were assessed five times. Results revealed a shift in the time frames for accomplishing the stage-specific
developmental tasks. Findings with respect to the interrelatedness and progressive attainment partially
supported Havighurst’s contentions. Although remarkable concurrent links between the two indices
of happiness and developmental status were found, developmental outcomes were not predictive for
later happiness.
r 2007 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.

Keywords: Developmental tasks; Self-esteem; Symptomatology

$
Authors’ note: This study was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SE/408/18-1).
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 6131 39 22443; fax: +49 6131 39 23705.
E-mail address: seiffge@uni-mainz.de (I. Seiffge-Krenke).

0140-1971/$30.00 r 2007 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All
rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2007.04.002
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34 I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

Introduction

More than five decades ago, Robert Havighurst (1948) proposed that human development can
be thought of as a process of moving through stages, whereby each stage has its own tasks which
must be solved. According to Havighurst, a developmental task is one ‘‘ywhich arises at or about
a certain period in the life of an individual, successful achievement of which leads to happiness
and to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness in the individualyand difficulty
with later tasks’’ (p. 2). When Havighurst developed his conceptualization of the interrelatedness
and progressive attainment of developmental tasks, the time frame for the adolescent period was
short (from age 12 to 18 years). According to Havighurst, an individual must successfully achieve
the following eight developmental tasks during the adolescent period: accept one’s body, adopt a
masculine or feminine social role, achieve emotional independence from parents, develop close
relationships with peers of the same and opposite gender, prepare for an occupation, prepare for
marriage and family life, establish a personal value or ethical system and achieve socially
responsible behaviour. Havighurst claimed that when adolescent-specific tasks have been
successfully achieved, individuals must tackle the following eight developmental tasks for young
adults (from ages 19 to 30 years): develop a stable partnership, learn to live with the partner,
establish an independent household, establish a family, care for a family, start an occupation or
career, become integrated in a social group and assume civic and social responsibility.
Havighurst’s concept is unique in that it integrates challenges from different domains, stresses
the individual’s activity in integrating these demands and links the developmental tasks of
different life phases. During recent years, however, the time frames for the adolescent period have
been extended (Galambos, Barker, & Tilton-Weaver, 2003), in part due to earlier rates of
maturation (Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Petersen, 1996) and uncertainty about exactly when certain
developmental tasks have to be accomplished, (Galambos, Turner, & Tilton-Weaver, 2005).
According to Arnett (2000), sociocultural factors in modern industrialized societies have changed
considerably over the past 40 years, such that most individuals are increasingly postponing many
of the young adults’ developmental tasks outlined by Havighurst, for example, marriage and
parenthood (Shanahan, 2000), leaving home (Cherlin, Scabini, & Rossi, 1997) and having a
steady, full-time job (LeBlanc & Wolff, 2006).
Taken together, the transition from adolescence to adulthood is still normative but has become
more unclear with respect to the time frame allotted for accomplishing relevant developmental
tasks. In addition, recent research work has identified close links between societal expectations
and the subjective ‘‘timing’’ of solving relevant developmental tasks. The findings that many
adolescents feel immature or even pseudo-mature (Galambos et al., 2003, 2005) and that many
young adults are on the way to adulthood but are not there yet (Arnett, 2003) illustrate that
normative expectations continue to exist. Even more than for adolescents, a mismatch between
societal expectations, the importance individuals place on achieving normative developmental
tasks and the subjective attainment of these tasks is noticeable among young adults nowadays
(Nelson & McNamara Barry, 2005).
Gender differences in the attainment of relevant developmental tasks have been reported by
several researchers, both for the adolescent (Seiffge-Krenke, 1998) and the young adult period
(Heckhausen, 2000), with females showing a higher overall level of developmental progression.
Possibly, this is related to earlier maturation (Graber et al., 1996) and the higher importance
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females assign to several of the developmental tasks pertaining to relationship development

(Gilligan, 1996). Interestingly, several investigators have noted efforts to reduce discrepancies
between the importance individuals place on several tasks and the achieved developmental status
(Seiffge-Krenke, 2000). In case of currently unattainable tasks, this may result in modifying
the importance assigned to these tasks (Brandtstädter & Rothermund, 2002; Pinquart, Silbereisen,
& Wiesner, 2004).
The present study sets out to test two of Havighurst’s (1948) contentions: (a) whether the
successful completion of developmental tasks leads to success in later tasks, more specifically,
whether the successful completion of adolescent-specific tasks is a necessary prerequisite for
solving adult-specific tasks and (b) whether the successful completion of developmental tasks
leads to happiness. In previous research, a variety of happiness measures (e.g., subjective well-
being, contentment or positive self-esteem) was linked with developmental progression. Already in
1975, Kurz and Wolk (cited in Schneider, 1980) reported a correlation of .52 between the
successful completion of seven developmental tasks and contentment. More recently, Schulen-
berg, Bryant, and O’Malley (2004) found that successful tackling of developmental tasks in a
sample of young adults (aged 18–26) was closely tied to high levels of well-being. In two
longitudinal studies in Germany, a positive relation was found between an adolescent’s progress
in task attainment and later psychological well-being (Brunstein, Schultheiss, & Maier, 1999;
Pinquart et al., 2004). Further, in a US study, declines in developmental status were associated
with lower self-esteem (Davis & Vander Stoep, 1997). A study of Lyubomirsky, King, and Diener
(2005) could further substantiate the bidirectionality of the happiness–success link by showing
that success makes people happy, but happiness also engenders success.
In the present study, two indicators of happiness were considered: high self-esteem and low
symptomatology. Although these constructs are not exactly the same, it has been repeatedly
shown that positive self-esteem is one of the most essential ingredients for human happiness
(Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003; Cheng & Furnham, 2003; Furnham & Cheng,
2000). Happiness is considered to be a feeling of well-being, characterized by the absence of major
disorders and symptoms. Furthermore, several authors reported that symptomatology is highly
negatively correlated with happiness (Argyle, 1999; Baumeister et al., 2003; Byrne, 2000;
Koivumaa-Honkanen et al., 2001). Thus, the rationale for including symptomatology as the other
side of the coin of happiness is based on research substantiating a high negative association
between symptomatology and self-esteem (Farruggia, Chen, Greenberger, & Macek, 2004; Hirsch
& Rapkin, 1987).
Both aspired and achieved developmental progression have been found to be related to
psychological well-being. Salmela-Aro and Nurmi (1997) reported that positive self-esteem in
young adults was related to aspired goals concerning self, achievement and family. In other
studies, however, the relationships between aspired developmental goals and concurrent and later
self-esteem were found to be inconsistent (Pinquart et al., 2004). This may be explained by two
opposing tendencies. On the one hand, discrepancies between desired and achieved developmental
status may serve as a catalyst for developmental progression and thus enhance self-esteem (Pope,
McHale, & Craighead, 1988; Seiffge-Krenke, 2000). On the other hand, when sociocultural
expectations exceed individual resources and developmental goals become unattainable, this may
result in low self-esteem and dissatisfaction (McIntosh & Martin, 1992). Further, some studies
demonstrated that symptomatology in adolescents and young adults may lead to a delayed
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36 I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

developmental progression (Davis & Vander Stoep, 1997). However, much less is known about
the opposite causality, that is, whether developmental progression may lead to a decrease in
symptomatology.
Although a sizeable body of research has been conducted in the field, some palpable limitations
should be noted. First, many investigators have not clearly operationalized the developmental
tasks described by Havighurst, preferring to use related constructs such as personal goals or
mastery motivation (e.g., Bangerter, Grob, & Krings, 2001; Malmberg & Norrgard, 1999; Nurmi,
Poole, & Seginer, 1995; Shiner, Masten, & Tellegen, 2002). Second, only few studies have
addressed the possible discrepancy between the importance individuals place on achieving
developmental tasks (suggesting a fine tuning between own resources and the perception of
societal norms) and her or his attainment of relevant developmental tasks (i.e., the achieved
developmental status). Instead, they have focused either on aspired developmental goals or on
achieved developmental status. Third, most studies have used a cross-sectional research design,
which is inappropriate for testing Havighurst’s contention of the linking of developmental tasks of
different life phases and the long-term outcome of happiness. Further, the impact of subjective
importance of developmental tasks in this process needs to be analysed, especially with respect to
determining whether a discrepancy between developmental status and aspired goal results in
greater efforts to achieve the task.
The present study’s aim was to analyse the relationship between subjective importance and
achieved developmental status with respect to relevant tasks for adolescents and young adults.
Based on a longitudinal data set obtained on a sample of participants from ages 14–23, it explored
the links between the subjective importance for achieving normative developmental tasks and the
attainment of these same tasks. In particular, the study aimed to test the proposition that
developmental tasks from the adolescent period can be considered as precursors to young adults’
developmental tasks. Regarding the interrelatedness and progressive attainment of developmental
tasks, we expected that developmental tasks within one age period would be highly interrelated
and that developmental status in adolescence would be a predictor of the developmental status in
young adulthood. We expected that for most tasks, subjective importance would be higher than
developmental status, both during adolescence and in young adulthood. Finally, the study aimed
to evaluate whether the successful attainment of relevant developmental tasks in one
developmental stage results in higher self-esteem and lower symptomatology in this stage and
thereafter, as suggested by Havighurst.

Method

Participants

The sample consisted of 146 individuals who were participants in a larger longitudinal research
project. The results presented here refer to the first six points of measurement. The number of
participants and their average ages for each wave were as follows: first wave: 80 girls, 66 boys
(M ¼ 13.9; SD ¼ 1.4), second wave: 73 girls, 58 boys (M ¼ 15.1, SD ¼ 1.3); third wave: 72 girls,
57 boys (M ¼ 16.0, SD ¼ 1.3); fourth wave: 70 girls, 55 boys (M ¼ 17.0, SD ¼ 1.3); fifth wave: 66
women, 51 men (M ¼ 21.0, SD ¼ 1.4); sixth wave: 59 women, 43 men (M ¼ 23.0, SD ¼ 1.5). The
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gender distribution can be considered as balanced, since w2-tests did not reach significance for any
point of measurement. Altogether, the sample size amounted to n ¼ 125 for the four adolescent
waves (ages 14–17) and n ¼ 102 for the young adult’s waves (ages 21–23).
During the first four points of measurement, when all participants were attending school, the
dropout rate was comparatively low (14.4%). In young adulthood (ages 21 and 23), it was not
possible to contact all of the participants, since some of them had married and changed their
names. In addition, many had left their parents’ home and established new places of residence in
Germany or in foreign countries. Therefore, the dropout rate between the first and the sixth wave
of measurement amounted to 30.1%. w2 and t-tests (see Table 1) did not show any evidence that
the dropout rate was selective with respect to major variables such as age, gender, parents’ marital
status, socioeconomic status of the family, number of siblings, father’s educational level or the
type of school the participant had attended. Moreover, t-tests between those who continued
participation (n ¼ 102) and those who dropped out (n ¼ 44) did not reveal any statistical
differences with respect to subjective importance and overall attainment of developmental tasks
both during adolescence and young adulthood and the two indices of happiness, self-esteem
and symptomatology.
Most participants stemmed from intact families (79.5%). Based on the profession of the
participant’s father, 39.0% of the families had high socioeconomic status, 43.2% belonged to the
middle class and 14.4% came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Most of the participants
(89.7% of the sample) were of German descent, while the remaining 10.3% had various ethnic
backgrounds. According to the German Federal Bureau of Statistics (Statistisches Bundesamt,
2003), the sample can be considered as representative of families living in Germany according to
the above-mentioned variables.
At the last point of measurement (23 years), all 102 participants who continued their
participation in the study had completed their secondary schooling. Most of them (53.9%) were
studying at a university or were engaged in full-time employment (31.4%). Six participants were
unemployed, and three were homemakers or caring for their young children. The percentage of
participants who studied or pursued an occupation did not depend on gender or age. At age 23,
30.4% of participants still lived in their parents’ home, whereas 45.1% lived alone or in shared
living arrangements. A total of 19.6% lived in cohabitation with their partner. The majority of
participants (59.8%) had a romantic partner, five were married and four of the five that were
married had children.

Measures

Subjective importance and achieved developmental status during adolescence and young adulthood
The level of developmental progression of the participants was assessed by the Developmental
Task Questionnaire (DTQ; Seiffge-Krenke, 1998). This instrument operationalizes the diverse
developmental tasks for adolescents and young adults. Two versions of the DTQ were
administered. The adolescent version of the Developmental Task Questionnaire (DTQ-A,
Seiffge-Krenke, 1998) included the following nine tasks: (a) integration in the peer group, (b)
acceptance of physical maturity, (c) establishment of an autonomous identity, (d) achievement of
independence from parents, (e) preparation of future family life, (f) achievement of sociopolitical
awareness, (g) preparation for an occupation, (h) having a romantic relationship and (i) formation
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38 I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

Table 1
Percentages for major variables in 102 individuals with continued participation and 44 dropouts

Dependant variablea n ¼ 102 continued participation n ¼ 44 dropout Significance

Age
Average age (M and SD) 14.0 (1.43) 13.7 (1.36) t ¼ 1.27, ns
Gender
Male 42.2% 52.3% w2 ¼ 1.27, ns
Female 57.8% 47.7%
Parents’ marital status
Married 83.0% 78.6% w2 ¼ .39, ns
Divorced 17.0% 21.4%
SES of family
High 42.2% 31.8% w2 ¼ 3.59, ns
Average 43.1% 43.2%
Low 12.7% 18.2%
Siblings
Average number (M and SD) 1.25 (.92) 1.57 (1.15) t ¼ 1.60, ns
Only child 12.1% 9.3% w2 ¼ .24, ns
Has siblings 87.9% 90.7%
Educational level of father
High 52.7% 40.5% w2 ¼ 2.10, ns
Medium 23.7% 26.2%
Low 22.6% 31.0%
Without 1.1% 2.4%
Type of secondary school attendedb
Gymnasium 70.0% 51.2% w2 ¼ 9.01, ns
Realschule 24.0% 29.3%
Hauptschule 2.0% 7.3%
Other 4.0% 12.2%

Note.
a
All data were collected at the first point of measurement.
b
The German school system includes three kinds of secondary schools: Hauptschule (for students with basic academic
potential, graduation after grade 9), Realschule (for students with average academic potential, graduation after grade
10), and Gymnasium (for students with highest academic potential, graduation after grade 13). Graduates of
Gymnasium receive the Abitur, which is required for admittance to university. ns ¼ not significant at a .05 level.

of close friendships. These nine tasks converge with the eight adolescent-specific tasks described
by Havighurst (1948), except that Havighurst’s more global task of establishing close
relationships was divided into two separate tasks, namely, establishing close relationships with
same-sex friends and with romantic partners, respectively. The version of the Developmental Task
Questionnaire for young adults (DTQ-YA, Seiffge-Krenke, 2001) included the following eight
developmental tasks for young adulthood, as suggested by Havighurst (1948): (a) the development
of a firm partnership, (b) living with the partner, (c) establishing an independent household,
(d) establishing a family, (e) caring for a family, (f) starting a career, (g) becoming integrated in a
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social group and (h) taking over responsibility as a citizen. The adolescents’ and young adults’
subjective importance for each task was evaluated on a 3-point scale, ranging from 1 ¼ not
important, to 2 ¼ medium important and 3 ¼ very important. The adolescents and young adults
indicated their current developmental status for each task according to a 3-point scale, ranging
from 1 ¼ not yet, to 2 ¼ just starting and 3 ¼ already developed. By using the same scaling for the
aspired as well as the achieved development, comparable metrics are provided for the subjective
importance and the developmental status. Thus, the scores on the 3-point-scales can be directly
compared. Reliability for the adolescent version was determined by collapsing the nine tasks
(a ¼ .78 for developmental status and a ¼ .82 for the subjective importance). Similarly, reliability
for the young adult version was tested by collapsing the eight tasks (a ¼ .68 for young adult
developmental status and a ¼ .79 for the subjective importance). Earlier studies substantiated
valid links between the reported attainment of diverse tasks and objective markers such as having
a romantic partner, finishing school, starting an occupation or study (Seiffge-Krenke & Gelhaar,
2006) and leaving home (Seiffge-Krenke, 2006). As the purpose of the present study was to
investigate overall development, mean scores of the respective nine and eight developmental tasks
were computed for the subjective importance as well as the developmental status. Thus, both for
adolescence and young adulthood, values ranging between 1 (low) and 3 (high) were obtained,
reflecting two overall indexices of aspired and achieved normative development.

Positive self-esteem during adolescence and young adulthood

As outlined above, self-esteem was assessed as one indication for happiness. A German
adaptation (Seiffge-Krenke, 1990) of the Offer Self Image Questionnaire (OSIQ; Offer, Ostrov, &
Howard, 1982) was administered at all measurement points except age 21. For the purpose of this
study, only the subscale ‘‘Generally content with oneself and the world’’ was analysed. This scale
consisted of nine items which had to be rated on 5-point scales (5 ¼ I completely agree; 1 ¼ I don’t
agree at all). Negatively formulated items were inverted after data collection. The overall
reliability coefficient (Cronbach a) for this subscale was .86.

Symptomatology during adolescence and young adulthood

Based on the assumption that happiness should be linked with low symptomatology, self-
reported problems, were assessed as a further indicator for happiness. The Youth Self-Report
(YSR, Achenbach, 1991) was administered at four measurement points in adolescence and the
Young Adult Self-Report (YASR; Achenbach, 1997) at the sixth point of measurement. The YSR
(112 items) and the YASR (116 items) ask for the presence of diverse symptoms and emotional or
physical disturbances (2 ¼ very often; 1 ¼ sometimes; 0 ¼ never). For the purpose of this study
only the total scores were considered, reflecting an overall level of psychological maladjustment.
The overall reliability coefficients were a ¼ .90 (T1), a ¼ .92 (T2), a ¼ .93 (T3), a ¼ .92 (T4) and
a ¼ .93 (T6).

Procedure

The current study includes data collected annually from the time when the participants were
adolescents (from mean ages 14–17 years) and data collected some years later, when the
participants were in young adulthood, at mean ages 21 and 23 years. At ages 14–17, subjects
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40 I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

completed the DTQ-A (adolescent version), the OSIQ and the YSR. At ages 21 and 23,
participants completed the DTQ-YA (young adult version). In young adulthood, the OSIQ and
the YASR were only administered at age 23.

Plan of analyses

In order to analyse change over time, multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) of

repeated measures, with gender as between-subject factor were conducted for the total scores of
subjective importance and achieved developmental status, positive self-esteem and symptomatol-
ogy, respectively. Separate analyses were conducted for data acquired during adolescence and in
young adulthood. In addition, concurrent and time-spanning correlations between all assessed
variables were determined separately for males and females. Finally, multiple regressions were run
in order to determine the predictive power of earlier subjective importance and achieved
developmental status on later positive self-esteem, later symptomatology and later developmental
status at ages 17 and 23. Therefore, mean values for a set of earlier variables were computed (i.e.,
mean values for ages 14–16 were used for predicting values at age 17, and mean values for ages
14–17 were used for predicting values at age 23). In all analyses, the influence of gender was
controlled. In the MANOVAs and correlation analyses, gender-specific analyses were carried out,
whereas in the multiple regression analyses gender was specified as control variable. Due to the
number of statistical tests in the correlations over time and the regression analyses, the alpha level
was adjusted, and only results with pp.010 are highlighted as significant.

Results

Gender differences

Table 2 provides descriptive information about all variables included in this study for each
point of measurement as well as t-values for concurrent gender differences. Additionally, Fig. 1
illustrates the average developmental status for males and females at six points of measurement.
Separate lines indicate the developmental status for adolescents and for young adults.
As can be seen in Table 2, there were no gender differences concerning the subjective
importance, whereas females reported a higher achieved developmental status at ages 14, 15 and
16 during adolescence and at age 21 in emerging adulthood. Concerning positive self-esteem,
males were characterized by higher values at the first three points of measurement. Females
reported higher symptomatology only at ages 14 and 23, whereas there were no significant
differences in mid- and late adolescence. Due to the number of gender differences, the following
analyses were carried out separately for males and females.

Changes over time

Subjective importance and achieved developmental status during adolescence and young adulthood
In adolescence, a repeated-measures MANOVA, with gender as between-subject factor, did not
reveal significant main effects. However, the interaction gender  time reached significance,
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Table 2
Means and standard deviations for subjective importance, developmental status, positive self-esteem and
symptomatology in adolescence and young adulthood, broken down by gendera

Males Females

M (SD) M (SD) tb p

Subjective importancec
14 years 2.33 .38 2.42 .33 1.50 ns
15 years 2.35 .32 2.43 .27 1.04 ns
16 years 2.40 .29 2.34 .34 .0.94 ns
17 years 2.34 .37 2.33 .37 0.22 ns
21 years 2.19 .40 2.27 .40 0.99 ns
23 years 2.34 .36 2.32 .38 0.25 ns
Developmental statusc
14 years 2.03 .36 2.16 .33 2.15 .033
15 years 2.18 .30 2.31 .30 2.53 .013
16 years 2.19 .31 2.30 .26 2.21 .029
17 years 2.30 .31 2.37 .32 1.32 ns
21 years 1.62 .32 1.74 .37 1.83+ .070
23 years 1.71 .38 1.79 .36 1.13 ns
Positive self-esteemd
14 years 35.68 4.80 33.78 5.83 2.15 .033
15 years 33.52 4.37 30.86 5.11 3.20 .002
16 years 33.07 4.39 31.04 5.22 2.40 .018
17 years 31.96 4.57 31.94 4.60 0.25 ns
23 years 37.65 4.39 35.94 6.06 1.67 ns
Symptomatologye
14 years 36.95 16.14 44.97 20.96 2.61 .010
15 years 36.33 16.45 42.17 23.70 1.61 ns
16 years 34.97 17.80 41.17 23.31 1.72 ns
17 years 34.04 16.46 39.01 22.91 1.37 ns
23 years 53.31 14.09 61.76 24.17 1.91 .035

Note:
a
Gender was coded 1 ¼ female, 2 ¼ male.
b
Positive t-values indicate higher values in the dependent variable for females and negative t-values higher values for
males, respectively.
c
Range: 1 (low)—3 (high).
d
Range: 9 (low)—45 (high).
e
Range: 0 (low)—224/232 (high).
 po.01,
 po.05,
+
po.10, ns ¼ not significant at .05 level.

F(1, 117) ¼ 4.62, p ¼ .034, confirming a slight decrease in subjective importance for females but
not for males. As expected, the subjective importance was higher than the achieved developmental
status, although the overall levels in developmental status compared to the possible ranges were
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42 I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

2.5

1.5

1
13.9 years 15.1 years 16.0 years 17.0 years 21.0 years 23.0 years

developmental tasks in adolescence - girls

developmental tasks in adolescence - boys
developmental tasks in young adulthood - women
developmental tasks in young adulthood - men

Fig. 1. Mean level of developmental status during adolescence and young adulthood for males and females.

quite high. A MANOVA revealed a linear increase in developmental status between ages 14 and
17, F(1, 117) ¼ 42.77, po.001. No interaction between gender and time was found. Follow-up
t-tests for dependent samples revealed that the overall main effect of time was due to significant
increases for males between the ages of 14 and 15, t(57) ¼ 4.18, po.001, and between 16 and 17,
respectively, t(54) ¼ 2.70, p ¼ .009. For females the main effect of time was due to significant
increases between the ages of 14 and 15, t(70) ¼ 4.19, po.001.
In young adulthood, the participants showed overall low levels of subjective importance and
achieved developmental status. Similar to the findings in adolescence, the level of subjective
importance during emerging adulthood was higher than the achieved developmental status.
MANOVAs revealed a main effect of time between ages 21 and 23 for subjective importance,
F(1, 102) ¼ 5.63, p ¼ .020, but no increase in developmental status was found. As well, no
interaction between gender and time was revealed.

Happiness during adolescence and young adulthood.

A repeated measures MANOVA was carried out for all five points of measurement of positive
self-esteem during adolescence and young adulthood. A strong main effect of time was revealed
for this collapsed index of emotional and physical disturbances, F(4, 100) ¼ 128.69, po.001.
Follow-up t-tests substantiated a significant decrease in boys, t(58) ¼ 3.83, po.001, and girls,
t(72) ¼ 6.03, po.001, between ages 14 and 15 and a significant increase in males, t(43) ¼ 8.59,
po.001 and females, t(59) ¼ 5.62, po.001, between ages 17 and 23. No interaction was found.
A further repeated-measures MANOVA was carried out for all five points of measurement of
emotional/behavioural symptomatology during adolescence and young adulthood. A strong main
effect of time was revealed, F(4, 93) ¼ 64.28, po.001. Follow-up t-tests substantiated that mean
scores on the YASR administered at 23 years were higher than scores on the YSR administered in
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adolescence, in both males, t(35) ¼ 9.12, po.001, and females, t(57) ¼ 10.76, po.001. No
interaction between gender and emotional/behavioural symptomatology was found.

Correlation analyses

Concurrent correlations between subjective importance, achieved developmental status and measures
of happiness
Concurrent correlations between the two developmental measures, positive self-esteem and
symptomatology were carried out separately for males and females during adolescence and young
adulthood, respectively. All reported correlations were significant at po.01, if not otherwise
indicated.
For adolescence, mean values across the measurements points 1–4 (ages 14–17) were computed
for all the variables mentioned above. The results showed that the total scores of subjective
importance and achieved developmental status were hardly correlated (.23 for females, p ¼ .043;
no correlation for males). Whereas the subjective importance was not associated with positive self-
esteem, developmental status was significantly correlated with positive self-esteem for both
genders (.51 for males, .29 for females). Concerning emotional/behavioural symptomatology,
again no correlations were found for subjective importance. With respect to the developmental
status, a negative correlation was found only for females (.29). Further, a strong negative
correlation was found between self-esteem and symptomatology for both genders (.58 for males,
.78 for females).
In young adulthood, concurrent correlations at age 23 were calculated with the same variables.
This time, subjective importance and developmental status were highly correlated for males (.52)
and moderately correlated for females (.26, p ¼ .048). The correlations between positive self-
esteem and subjective importance were not significant. Developmental status correlated with
positive self-esteem only for males (.32; p ¼ .037). Emotional/behavioural symptomatology was
neither correlated with subjective importance nor with developmental status. Strong negative
associations between positive self-esteem and symptomatology were confirmed for young
adulthood as well (.54 for males, .67 for females).

Correlations over time between subjective importance, achieved developmental status and measures
of happiness
A series of bivariate Pearson correlations were conducted to determine the link between
subjective importance and developmental status during adolescence and young adulthood and
later positive self-esteem. The results of these correlations across six points of measurement are
displayed in Table 3. Due to the number of statistical tests, only those correlations with an a-level
of pp.010 are highlighted.
Only a few significant correlations were found to exist for the link between subjective
importance and later positive self-esteem, both during adolescence and young adulthood. More
specifically, whereas in adolescence positive self-esteem was correlated with earlier subjective
importance especially for males, positive self-esteem at age 23 was correlated with earlier
subjective importance only for females. More substantial correlations were found to exist between
developmental status in early and mid-adolescence (ages 14, 15 and 16) and concurrent and later
positive self-esteem. In addition, significant correlations were found between the diverse
 44
Table 3
Bivariate Pearson correlations of subjective importance and developmental status with concurrent and later positive self-esteem, symptomatology
and developmental status

Positive self-esteem (years) Symptomatology (years) Developmental status (years)

I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

14 15 16 17 23 14 15 16 17 23 14 15 16 17 21 23

Subjective importance (years)

14 .344 .163 .314 .370 .282 .036 .070 .023 .035 .246 .382 .077 .184 .196 .150 .434
.037 .006 .039 214 .017 .126 .031 .023 .000 .046 .477 .226 .056 .007 .011 .129
15 .068 .125 .277* .080 .040 .047 .018 .076 .128 .244 .212 .227 .176
.076 .064 .215 .345 .009 .004 .070 .317 .253 .021 .003 .017 .035
16 .133 .292 .185 .019 .064 .100 .351 .216 .285 .375

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.012 .293 .291 .051 .004 .087 .022 .208 .250 .112
17 .013 .141 .106 .005 .288* .141 .318
.146 .101 .216 .083 .157 .152 .309
21 .058 .085 .338 .386
.126 .107 .355 .263
23 .163 .144 .520
.198 .155 .256
Developmental status (years)
14 .345 .379 .353 .161 .345 .118 .039 .077 .045 .105 .602 .514 .498 .032 .451
.045 .028 .066 .276 .104 .019 .127 .127 .232 .114 .573 .431 .235 .126 .041
15 .540 .454 .301 .359 .295 .238 .299 .313 .605 .563 .048 .222
.225 .177 .244 .066 .179 .298 .307 .150 .558 .301 .319 .169
16 .556 .396 .445 .366 .333 .240 .571 .223 .480
.351 .156 .139 .311 .285 .120 .216 .171 .043
17 .221 .620  .087 .254 .104 .412
.259 .014 .196 .041 .055 .210
21 .143.235 .015 .338
.033 .620
23 .315 .098
.083 .040

Note: Correlations for males in upper lines (in roman) and correlations for females in lower lines (in italics).
 po.01.
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I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52 45

developmental levels at ages 14–17 and positive self-esteem in young adulthood, yet only
for males.
Correlations between emotional/behavioural symptomatology and the developmental measures
revealed that subjective importance was not at all correlated with later symptomatology. In
contrast, the developmental status in early and mid-adolescence turned out to be negatively
correlated with later symptomatology at the end of adolescence. However, no correlations were
found between developmental status in adolescence and symptomatology in young adulthood.
Only small and inconsistent correlations were found for the association between the subjective
importance and later developmental status (see Table 3). But substantial correlations emerged
between current and later developmental status; all levels of developmental status were positively
correlated within the four measurement points of adolescence. However, life-phase-spanning
correlations between developmental status in adolescence and young adulthood were only found
for developmental status at age 23 and only for males.

Regression analyses

A set of multivariate hierarchical regression analyses was carried out in order to analyse the
predictive power of developmental measures, self-esteem and symptomatology on later states of
happiness (high self-esteem and low emotional/behavioural symptomatology). Further, it was tested
whether the developmental status itself can be predicted by these measures. In order to test whether
the prediction may be limited to adolescence or occurs over the life span, indices at age 17 as well at
age 23 were considered as criteria. Predictors for developmental status, self-esteem and
symptomatology at age 17 were based on mean values of three earlier points of measurement
(14–16 years). Adolescent predictors for age 23 were based on mean values of four earlier points of
measurement in adolescence (14–17 years). In the regressions for late adolescence (age 17), gender
(step 1), earlier self-esteem and earlier symptomatology (step 2) as well as earlier subjective
importance and earlier developmental status (step 3) were considered as predictors. In the
regressions for young adulthood (age 23), variables from adolescence (mean values ages 14–17) and
from an earlier point of measurement in young adulthood (age 21) were included in the same steps.

Prediction of ‘‘success’’ in later developmental tasks

Two multiple stepwise regressions were conducted with the criteria of developmental status at
ages 17 and 23, respectively. In each analysis, earlier subjective importance, earlier achieved
status, earlier self-esteem and earlier symptomatology were included as predictors. As can be seen
in Table 4, earlier developmental status during adolescence predicted 16.7% of the variance of
developmental status at age 17. Earlier subjective importance was not predictive, but
symptomatology explained another 5.7%. Similarly, earlier developmental status at age 21
predicted 27.0% of the variance of developmental status at age 23. Interestingly, the mean
developmental status of adolescence was not predictive for the developmental status at age 23.
Again, earlier subjective importance was not predictive.

Prediction of later happiness

For the two different indices of happiness, separate regression analyses were carried out. In
predicting positive self-esteem, earlier self-esteem was identified as the strongest predictor which
 46
Table 4

I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

Hierarchical regression analyses for predicting developmental status, self-esteem and symptomatology at ages 17 and 23

Predictors Developmental Developmental Positive self-esteem Positive Symptomatology Symptomatology

status (17 years) status (23 years) (17 years) self-esteem (17 years) (23 years)
(23 years)

b DR2 b DR2 b DR2 b DR2 b DR2 b DR2

Step 1

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Gender
Step 2
Positive self-esteem (A) .532 .324 .585 .342
Symptomatology (A) .134 .057 .736 .542 .632 .400
Step3
Subjective importance (A) .227 .050
Subjective importance (YA)
Developmental status (A) .422 .167
Developmental status (YA) .519 .270
2
Total R .224 .270 .374 .342 .542 .400
F 17.65 37.66 36.47 52.97 149.04 61.32
df 1,124 1,102 2,124 1,102 1,127 1,93

Note: A ¼ adolescence (14–17 years); YA ¼ young adulthood (21 years).

 po.001.
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I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52 47

accounted for 32.4% (age 17) and 34.2% (age 23) of the variance explained. Earlier subjective
importance explained 5.0% of the variance, but only in the adolescent model. In contrast, earlier
developmental status did not turn out to be predictive for later self-esteem. Concerning later
symptomatology, for age 17 as well as age 23 the regression analyses identified one-factor models
with earlier symptomatology as the only predictor of later symptomatology. Within adolescence,
54.2% of the variance was explained; in the life-phase-spanning perspective, 40.0% of the
variance was explained by earlier symptomatology. Neither subjective importance nor achieved
developmental status contributed additionally to the prediction.

Discussion

The theoretical premises laid down in Havighurst’s (1948) theory formed the basis for our
investigation. In a longitudinal study, we analysed if and how subjective importance and attained
developmental status from adolescence to young adulthood were related to two indices of
happiness: high self-esteem and low symptomatology. Both measures were highly negatively
correlated (.68), thus supporting the idea that they are two opposing aspects of the same
construct.
The findings from our study show that although the developmental tasks suggested by
Havighurst to be typical for the adolescent and young adult periods are still salient, there were
considerable variations in the time frames for accomplishing tasks between the adolescent and the
young adult periods. The subjective importance reached a remarkably high level in our sample
throughout adolescence. This suggests that the diverse developmental tasks which Havighurst
described for the years between 12 and 18 were important goals already at the first point of
measurement (age 14). In addition, the data showed that the adolescents in our sample had
already accomplished most of these tasks, since the average developmental status at each
measurement point during adolescence was only slightly lower than the corresponding aspired
developmental goal. In line with findings from recent research (e.g., Galambos et al., 2003),
already at the age of 14, the majority of developmental tasks had been tackled or even
accomplished. The higher attainment of relevant tasks in adolescent females between age 14 and
16 may reflect the effects of earlier maturation in adolescent girls (Graber et al., 1996). With
increasing age, this effect declined, and so hardly any gender differences were found in the
emerging adult period of our sample. In contrast to the high developmental progression in
adolescence, only low values for subjective importance were found for both male and female
young adults, indicating that many of the age-specific tasks had not even been aspired.
Consequently, the majority of the developmental tasks for young adulthood were neither tackled
nor accomplished by the ages of 21 or 23 years, which may illustrate the young adults’ feeling of
not being mature enough to tackle these developmental tasks. Taken together, this shows that
young adults are neither ‘‘still stuck in adolescence’’ nor already ‘‘ahead of young adulthood’’. It
is rather an ‘‘in-between’’ situation (Arnett, 2003).
In acknowledging Arnett’s (2000) contention that the time frame for young adulthood has
expanded over the recent years, it may be speculated that nowadays there is less pressure on young
adults to strive for the fulfilment of these tasks as more time is allowed to approach the variety of
tasks. This is corroborated by a number of findings showing that many developmental tasks
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48 I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52

specific to young adulthood are postponed, for example, establishing residential independence
(Grigsby, 1989; Seiffge-Krenke, 2006), beginning a career (Bynner, 2000) or getting married and
having children (Nelson & McNamara Barry, 2005; Shanahan, 2000). Nevertheless, these tasks
became more important for the participants in our study, as the increases in subjective importance
across 2 years demonstrate. Interestingly, reaching a more mature status is a desirable goal for
both genders, a development which started around the age of 16 and continued till the age of 23.
One important contention of Havighurst (1948) to be tested in our study was the link between
successful tackling of relevant developmental tasks and happiness, which we assessed using
measures of positive self-esteem and low symptomatology. In general, positive self-esteem
decreased during adolescence until the age of 17. Thereafter, positive self-esteem increased up to
age 23. This is in line with findings described by other investigators (Aseltine & Gore, 1993;
Lindfors, Elovainio, Sinkkonen, Aalberg, & Vuorinen, 2005; Schulenberg et al., 2004). Further,
emotional/behavioural symptomatology increased up to age 23, pointing to the challenges of the
emerging adulthood period (Arnett, 2003). This finding is further supported by the fact that a high
developmental status and low symptomatology are associated, concurrently and longitudinally.
Similarly, our data revealed a moderate positive association between developmental status and
positive self-esteem in adolescence for both genders. However, and in contrast to the results of
Schulenberg et al. (2004), no significant correlations emerged between self-esteem in young
adulthood and concurrent or later accomplishment of developmental tasks, perhaps because the
achieved status was quite low during this phase. Generally, subjective importance was only
unsystematically or insignificantly associated with positive self-esteem and emotional/behavioural
symptomatology during adolescence and young adulthood. Obviously, happiness is more closely
related to tasks which are actually tackled or fulfilled than to aspired tasks. Future studies
of the emerging adult period should endeavour to make a clear differentiation between attainable
and unattainable goals, as only the latter is negatively related with happiness (McIntosh &
Martin, 1992).
Concerning the life-phase-spanning links between developmental progression in adolescence
and happiness in young adulthood, positive associations were much smaller than within the
different points of measurement in adolescence. Thus, although developmental progression in
adolescence is positively related to happiness, as Havighurst postulated, the attainment of
developmental tasks predominantly leads to concurrent happiness or at least within the same
developmental stage. However, the role of gender must not be neglected: the link between
developmental status and later positive self-esteem was much stronger for males than for females.
This was especially obvious for the link between adolescent developmental status and positive self-
esteem in young adulthood that could only be proven for males.
Although the results undoubtedly reveal an association between developmental status and
happiness, it must be pointed out that the regression analyses further confirmed the high predictive
power of earlier positive self-esteem on later positive self-esteem. Thus, it can be concluded that
although positive self-esteem is correlated with developmental tasks, it is best predicted by earlier
states of the same construct. The high stability of self-esteem points to the existence of an enduring
personality trait, as has been suggested by several authors (Brebner, 1998; Cheng & Furnham,
2003; Neto, 2001). Likewise, symptomatology in late adolescence and young adulthood was only
predicted by earlier measures of symptomatology and not by developmental tasks, although
substantial correlations between symptomatology and developmental status were revealed. Finally,
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I. Seiffge-Krenke, T. Gelhaar / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 33–52 49

it should be pointed out that positive self-esteem and symptomatology were highly negatively
correlated in our sample. However, symptomatology did not provide any additional predictive
power for later positive self-esteem, and positive self-esteem did not predict later symptomatol-
ogy.
While our findings were mixed with respect to the testing of Havighurst’s contention that
successful attainment of developmental tasks leads to later happiness, other findings could—at
least in part—support Havighurst’s theory of the interrelatedness and successful attainment of
developmental tasks. Strong correlations were found for the developmental status within
adolescence. Additionally, the regression analyses revealed that almost 17% of the variance in the
developmental status at age 17 was explained by the earlier developmental level at ages 14, 15 and
16. In contrast, the developmental status in adolescence did not have any predictive power for the
developmental status at age 23, which was only predicted by the earlier developmental status in
young adulthood (age 21; 27%). Accordingly, the correlations between developmental status in
adolescence and young adulthood were less strong and could be shown only for males. While our
data strongly support Havighurst’s contention for the measurement points within adolescence and
within young adulthood, this link cannot be maintained across different life stages.
To conclude, this study provides mixed support for Havighurst’s thesis that successful
achievement of developmental tasks leads to happiness and success with later developmental
tasks. The findings show that although the tasks outlined by Havighurst are still perceived as
being salient, the time frames of their accomplishment have shifted. Whereas most of the
adolescence-specific tasks were attained already in early adolescence, the developmental status of
most young adults in this longitudinal study was low, supporting Arnett’s (2003) suggestions that
role transitions are currently less important and occur at later ages than decades ago. However,
the increases in subjective importance over time illustrate that reaching an adult status comes
more and more into focus. Thus, in the light of our findings, Havighurst’s (1948) theory has to be
revised by employing the adequate time frames. Further, the importance of certain tasks,
particularly those of young adulthood, as seen by Havighurst, has to be corrected. These
traditional markers no longer follow a standard sequence, are becoming less absolute and are
occurring at later ages, as our findings show. Linked to altered time frames and goals, progressive
attainment and interrelatedness of the tasks is less fixed than Havighurst (1948) suggested.
Finally, our findings suggest that Havighurst’s thesis of a link between developmental progression
and later happiness needs revision, too, as these associations emerged concurrently, but not
longitudinally. Possibly, different developmental trajectories which are more typical for emerging
adulthood than for adolescence (see, for example, Masten et al., 2004) are responsible for this
finding.
Potential limitations of this study should be noted. One limitation is that all measures were
assessed by self-reports, which are prone to social desirability bias. Future studies might benefit by
complementing self-report data about the accomplishment of developmental tasks with
information about developmental markers derived from other sources, for example, teachers,
parents and partners. A related issue to be resolved is that efforts to achieve relevant
developmental tasks may have its costs. In this study, the relatively low developmental status in
young adulthood is accompanied by quite high levels of symptomatology. Further studies on a
larger sample should explore this issue. In order to analyse interindividual variability, a
replication on a larger longitudinal research sample is clearly necessary. Moreover, conceptions of
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adolescence and adulthood are different in different cultures (Arnett & Galambos, 2003). This
study was based on a sample of German participants prevailing from middle-class family
backgrounds. Thus, some caution is warranted in generalizing the findings of this study to
adolescents and young adults from other ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Finally, the
results of these studies were based on an overall index of developmental progression. However,
the differentiation between single developmental tasks may further contribute to reveal the link
between developmental progression and happiness. There is some incidence that developmental
progression is not in any case associated with lower symptomatology. For example, in adolescence
a high developmental status in establishing romantic relations is associated with higher levels of
symptomatology (Daley & Hammen, 2002). However, this effect is limited to certain age frames,
as in emerging adulthood those who are engaged in romantic relations report less
symptomatology (Meeus, Branje, van der Valk, & de Wied, submitted). Concerning happiness,
Roisman, Masten, Coatsworth, and Tellegen (2004) showed on a more differentiated level of
analysis that only salient developmental tasks (friendship, academic and conduct) are predictive
for later success, but not emerging tasks (work, romantic).

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Further Reading

Settersten, R. A., & Hägestad, G. O. (1996). What’s the latest? Cultural age deadlines for family transitions. The
Gerontologist, 36, 178–188.