Late emerging adulthood is pivotal for identity exploration and development and is interrelated with life satisfaction. In the development of identity and life satisfaction, it is important to have a stable employment status that supports the foundation of life. However, the interrelationships among identity, life satisfaction, and employment status in late emerging adulthood are unclear. Using a two-wave longitudinal survey, this study examined identity development and whether the relationship between identity and life satisfaction varies by employment status. Participants included 875 Japanese emerging adults (65.5% women, M_age = 24.74, SD_age = 0.44). Multivariate analysis of variance showed that identity synthesis decreased for those who lost their jobs or those who changed from being full-time to part-time employment. Additionally, individuals with full-time employment had higher identity synthesis and lower confusion than those with part-time or no employment. Multi-group path analysis indicated that identity synthesis was positively associated with life satisfaction and confusion was negatively associated, and these relationships did not differ by employment status. These findings suggest that identity development in late emerging adulthood varies by employment status and that the association between identity and life satisfaction may not be moderated by employment status. Overall, this study contributes to elucidating the characteristics of identity development along employment status and its relationship to life satisfaction in late emerging adulthood.

成年晚期对于身份探索和发展至关重要，并且与生活满意度相关。在身份认同和生活满意度的发展中，拥有支撑生活基础的稳定就业状况非常重要。然而，成年晚期的身份、生活满意度和就业状况之间的相互关系尚不清楚。本研究采用两波纵向调查，研究了身份发展以及身份与生活满意度之间的关系是否因就业状况而异。参与者包括 875 名日本新生成年人（65.5% 为女性，M_年龄 = 24.74，SD_年龄 = 0.44）。多变量方差分析表明，失业者或从全职转为兼职的人的身份合成有所下降。此外，与兼职或无工作的人相比，全职工作的人具有更高的身份综合性和更低的困惑度。多组路径分析表明，身份综合与生活满意度呈正相关，而困惑则呈负相关，并且这些关系并不因就业状况而异。这些发现表明，成年晚期的身份发展因就业状况而异，并且身份与生活满意度之间的关联可能不受就业状况的调节。总体而言，这项研究有助于阐明随着就业状况的身份发展特征及其与成年晚期生活满意度的关系。