Navigating Growth and Challenges Across Adulthood: A Cross-Cultural Mixed-Method Study on Resilience, Wellbeing, and Meaning-Making.

Adult development has been gaining significant momentum in research recently. Several stages of adult’s life have been conceptualized to help us understand the nature of development and transitions during this period. These transitional phases can later escalate into developmental crisis, which are intense moments characterized by strong emotional and behavioral changes. Although these changes can be positive as they can promote self-reflection and increase personal strength, they can intensify into a dysfunction and impact wellbeing and meaning in life if not addressed effectively. Since transitional moments can be critical to adult psychosocial development, it is essential to examine the protective factors such as resilience and presence of meaning in life within this relationship. For this reason, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of developmental crisis experiences on wellbeing and meaning in life. In addition, the study also examined the potential protective role of resilience and the moderating role of meaning in life in this relationship. Furthermore, seeing as research on adult development is fairly recent, there has been a lack of studies within non-western population, which limits the generalizability of the emerging theories and frameworks. Thus, this study also aimed to explore the differences in perceived developmental processes as well as the impact they can have on wellbeing across Lebanon and Italy. This research used a mixed method design that combined quantitative and qualitative elements, which allowed for deeper interpretations of the results. The findings emphasized the need to take the sociocultural context into consideration when discussing adult development. It also highlighted the importance of promoting meaning in life as it was shown to enhance wellbeing and moderate specific dimensions of developmental crisis. In conclusion, this study contributes to better understanding adult development across diverse cultural and social environments as well as highlighting the psychosocial implications of development crisis in such contexts.