Unexpected, non-normative events are key influences on life-span human development. Despite this importance, little is known about how an individual may capitalize on these events by transforming them into opportunities for sustained positive development. In this research, I introduce the concept of serendipitous relations – mutually beneficial, adaptive developmental regulations brought about by the time-extended coaction of intentional self-regulatory actions and unexpected non-normative life events. In turn, I hypothesize that use of specific serendipitous actions (for instance, identifying an unexpected events as potential opportunities for positive development, or disengaging from prior goals when new goals that derive from unexpected events show promise) leads to such serendipitous relations, which may be especially important sources of positive development during periods of life transition. Using data from one sample of American high-school students and two samples of American students enrolled in post-secondary educational institutions, results from a series of latent variable analyses supported these hypotheses: higher levels of serendipitous actions predicted within-time adaptive development, and interindividual variability in rank order of serendipitous actions predicted interindividual variability in rank order of adaptive development (as indexed by a measure of Positive Youth Development) from the final year of high school into post-secondary educational enrollment. Interpreting these results as preliminary support for the future study of serendipitous relations, I offer suggestions for future research to more fully explicate potential underlying developmental processes and provide ideas for applying this research to domestic and international interventions.
展开▼
