Abstract
The narrative and dual-cycle approach conceptualize and operationalize adolescents’ identity formation in different ways. While the narrative approach focuses on the construction of an autobiographical life story, the dual-cycle approach focuses on the formation of identity commitments. Although these approaches have different emphases, they are conceptually complementary. Yet, their empirical links and distinctions have only scarcely been investigated. Empirical knowledge on these links in adolescence and across time has been especially lacking. In the present research, it was therefore examined whether key characteristics of adolescents’ narration (autobiographical reasoning and agency) were concurrently and prospectively related to engagement in the dual-cycle processes of commitment making, identification with commitment, exploration in breadth, exploration in depth, and ruminative exploration. The findings from a cross-sectional sample of 1,580 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 14.7 years, 56% female) demonstrated that autobiographical reasoning was significantly positively associated with the commitment and more adaptive exploration processes (i.e., in breadth and in depth). In addition, agency was significantly positively associated with the commitment processes and exploration in depth. Yet, these associations between the narrative characteristics and dual-cycle processes were only weak. Subsequently, the findings from a two-year longitudinal subsample (n = 242, Mage = 14.7 years, 62% female) indicated that on average commitment strength remained stable but exploration increased across middle adolescence. A stronger increase in identification with commitment and adaptive exploration (i.e., in breadth and in depth) was predicted by a higher degree of agency in adolescents’ narratives. Overall, these findings indicate that both approaches to identity formation are associated, but the small size of these associations suggests that they predominantly capture unique aspects of identity formation. Both approaches could thus complement and inform each other.
Highlights
The construction of a personal identity, the primary task of adolescence (Erikson 1950), is captured in quite distinct ways
The findings demonstrated that adolescents who made at least one self-event connection were concurrently more strongly committed and more engaged in the adaptive types of exploration than those who did not make a self-event connection
It is hard to determine what the findings indicate for the three exploration processes separately, because part of the studies focused on a type of exploration that likely consists of exploration in breadth and ruminative exploration (Crocetti et al 2013; Klimstra et al 2010)
Summary
Participants and procedureData for Study 1 were drawn from the first wave of ProjectMe, which took place in 2015 and 2016. Participants were recruited from the second and third year of various secondary schools in the Netherlands. Secondary education in the Netherlands is primarily captured by three main levels: pre-vocational education, higher general secondary education, and preparatory scientific education, hereafter referred to as the relatively lower, medium, and higher educational levels, respectively. Participants of classes from all three educational levels were included in Project-Me. Two weeks before participation, parents received information on the study with information on how to opt their child out of the study. Trained research assistants visited adolescents’ classes to introduce the study, after which adolescents engaged in a process of consent if they wanted to participate. Of all possible adolescents in the targeted classes, 91% participated in the study. Adolescents who did not participate were not present, had no parental consent, or decided not to participate themselves
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