Emerging Adulthood

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Pages: 3

After I graduated from high school, I moved away from home to attend college. The young adulthood years, the emerging adulthood period, are young adults that are "roughly between ages 18 and 25 (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015, p. 410). "Young adults are in the achieving stage of cognitive development, when an individual must apply her intellectual skills to the achievement of long-term goals" (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015, p. 418). I did well in college but left after a short period of time. My mother's health was deteriorating, I made the decision to leave college, and move back home to take care of my mother. It is a decision that I do not regret.
It was during my young adulthood years that I meet a man and got married. I met my former spouse
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It was during this period that I experienced feelings of anger. I felt that my ex-husband hid his true self and that I had married a stranger. I was raised in an environment of communicating to resolve conflict, not violence. I quickly moved forward to ensure that I gave my children the quality of life that they deserved. With time, I was able to forgive my ex-husband. This was important to me because I believe that forgiving contributes to better quality of life. From the time I left my abusive ex-spouse, he used the court system to continue his abuse toward me. This continued until my oldest son was 16 years old. My concern was the well-being of my sons, I took my sons and myself for counseling, and I gave them a good home life. According to Swick, Knopf, Williams, and Fields (2013), children that experience traumatic events often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for years. I am thankful my children do not experience PTSD. According to Gostecnik, Slavic, Lukek, and Cvetek (2014), the "mother's availability and her capacity to affectively attune to her child" plays an important role in children having the ability to develop well after experiencing traumatic events (p. 700). According to Mills, Alati, Strathearn, and Najman (2014), experiencing traumatic events early in life can lead to increased use of