Claudia López Madrigal, doctoral candidate at group 'Youth in transition' of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra, has completed a research stay at Brigham Young University (USA) between May and July 2022 with a financial aid of mobility for the accredited specialization "International Doctor" offered by the University of Navarra.

Thanks to this stay, López Madrigal has been able to complement the training received at ICS, has learned new methods and tools of quantitative research and has had the opportunity to meet other groups of research and experience different ways of approaching problems. "This learning will have an important impact on my work at ICS, especially when it comes to integrating theory with researchdesigns," he said.

In the United States, the researcher has worked with Brian Willoughby, an expert on emerging adulthood and couple relationships in young people, and his team at the School of Family Life, with whom she hopes to establish a long-term partnership deadline . She was also able to collaborate with Seth Schwartz, an international expert on development identity in emerging adulthood from Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas.

Using the data collected by the group 'Youth in transition' on emerging adults, López Madrigal has worked on some publications with these researchers. As a result of this period of work, López Madrigal will jointly publish a book chapter and three articles in research. The goal of this stay was "totake advantage of the richness of our data and explore them with new methodologies and designs to respond to the hypotheses raised," he said.

The researcher highlighted the possibility of getting to know other ways of working, other projects and another way of producing science. "The opportunity to meet and work with experts in emerging adulthood and identity is the greatest learning experience," she added. In addition to the new dynamics of group and ways of working, at staff, López Madrigal has kept the possibility of interacting with people from other cultures and language: "It has given me a flexibility that I will try to put it in internship with the rest of the team".