How do Italian emerging adults think about their future? A network analysis of emotion regulation, attachment, and life satisfaction

This study examined the associations between emotion regulation, attachment orientations, life satisfaction, emerging adulthood (EA) dimensions, and future thinking styles among 820 Italian emerging adults (ages 18–29). A network analytical approach was adopted to model seventeen psychological variables as interconnected nodes, estimating regularized partial correlations via EBICglasso. Negative future thinking emerged as the most central node in the network, closely linked to emotional dysregulation and anxious attachment dimensions, including need for approval and preoccupation with relationships. Positive future thinking, in contrast, was embedded in an adaptive subsystem involving secure attachment, cognitive reappraisal, and life satisfaction, reflecting the protective role of adaptive emotional and relational functioning. Clustering indices revealed a defensive configuration linking expressive suppression, relational detachment, and avoidant future thinking. Contrary to expectations, EA dimensions occupied peripheral positions in the network in terms of strength centrality. A notable exception was identity exploration, which showed the highest positive expected influence of all nodes, suggesting a selective rather than broad facilitative role within the adaptive subsystem. Life satisfaction functioned as a bridging node rather than a central hub, connecting emotional and motivational components of the network. Overall, the findings suggest that future thinking in emerging adulthood operates as an emergent property of a broader psychological system rather than as an isolated cognitive function. These results carry implications for integrative developmental theory and for interventions aimed at fostering adaptive and hopeful orientations toward the future in young people.