The self potential of emerging adults

Using internet as 'place' in which to build own social relational system is an increasingly widespread phenomenon in the last decade. This involves not only the very young people (pre-adolescents and adolescents), but also the category of young adults (emerging adults, Arnett, 2001) for which the dimensions of identity exploration often seemed to constitute areas of uncertainty and risk (Aleni Sestito, Sica, in press). For emerging adults the process of identity building, traditionally regarded as peculiar to adolescence (Palmonari, 2001), seems not yet concluded, but often is extended into a new stage of moratorium (Luyckx, 2005) that carries the risk of a not finalized and ruminative exploration, associated with maladjustment and depressive related (Luyckx, 2007). It was demonstrated (Goldberg, 1995) that the use of virtual identities on Internet and / or the use of social networks for continuous and sustained periods can lead to a real Internet Addiction (Internet Addiction Disorder), which directly affects on self definition processes (Bauer & Bonanno, 2001a, 2001b, King et al., 2000). AIMS to explore identity construction processes of emerging adults which use constantly virtual places and identities; to investigate the characteristics and dimensions of risk also by gender.