Table 1.
Demographics and clinical characteristics (n=61)
| Characteristic | N | % |
| Sex | ||
| Male | 6 | 9.8 |
| Female | 55 | 90.2 |
| Marital Status | ||
| Single | 47 | 77.1 |
| Married/domestic partnership | 14 | 22.9 |
| Employment Status | ||
| Full-time employed | 30 | 49.2 |
| Part-time employed | 10 | 16.4 |
| Unemployed or student | 21 | 34.4 |
| Education | ||
| High school or less | 10 | 16.4 |
| Some college | 16 | 26.2 |
| Completed college | 22 | 36.1 |
| Graduate or professional degree | 13 | 21.3 |
| Type of IBD | ||
| Ulcerative Colitis | 22 | 36.1 |
| Crohn’s disease | 39 | 63.9 |
| Medication type | ||
| Aminosalicylates | 22 | 36.1 |
| Biologics | 37 | 60.7 |
| Corticosteroids | 11 | 18.0 |
| Immunomodulators | 16 | 26.2 |
| Mean (SD) | Potential range | |
| Age (years) | 24.7 (2.9) | 18 – 29 |
| Time since diagnosis (years) | 6.4 (4.8) | 0 – 29 |
| Number of previous surgeries | 0.6 (1.4) | 0 – 8 |
| Symptoms | ||
| Symptom prevalence (average number of symptoms experienced) | 5.9 (3.1) | 0 – 15 |
| Mean symptom severity | 1.8 (1.3) | 0 – 9 |
| Mean symptom interference | 1.1 (0.9) | 0 – 9 |
| Emerging adulthood factorsa | ||
| Possibilities/optimism | 6.8 (1.4) | 2 – 8 |
| Instability | 6.9 (1.3) | 2 – 8 |
| Identity exploration | 6.7 (1.4) | 2 – 8 |
| Feeling in-between | 6.5 (1.5) | 2 – 8 |
| Total received social supportb | 2.5 (0.7) | 1 – 5 |
| Informational received social support | 2.4 (0.9) | 1 – 5 |
| Emotional received social support | 3.2 (1.0) | 1 – 5 |
| Tangible received social support | 1.8 (0.6) | 1 – 5 |
Emerging adults indicated their agreement with experiencing the features associated with emerging adulthood by responding to a 4 level Likert item with options from strongly disagree, somewhat disagree, somewhat agree, and strongly agree. A higher score indicates experiencing more of the dimensions associated with emerging adulthood.
Emerging adults indicated how often they received social support within the past month. Responses were on a 5-point Likert scale an included: not at all (=1), once or twice in the past month (=2), about once a week (=3), several times a week (=4), or about every day (=5). A higher score indicates that emerging adults received social support more often. Sum scores were used in linear regression analysis: total received social support (M = 99.4, SD = 29.7), informational received social support (M = 33.0, SD = 12.4), emotional received social support (M = 45.3, SD = 14.3), and tangible received social support (M = 21.1, SD = 6.9).