Abstract
According to identity theory, short-term day-to-day identity exploration and commitment processes are the building blocks for long-term development of stable commitments in emerging adulthood. This key assumption was tested in a longitudinal study including 494 individuals (43% girls, Mage T1 = 13.31 years, range 11.01–14.86 years) who were followed from adolescence into emerging adulthood, covering ages 13 to 24 years. In the first five years, adolescents reported on their daily identity processes (i.e., commitment, reconsideration and in-depth exploration) across 75 assessment days. Subsequently, they reported on their identity across four (bi-) annual waves in emerging adulthood. Findings confirmed the existence of a dual-cycle process model of identity formation and identity maintenance that operated at the within-person level across days during adolescence. Moreover, individual differences in these short-term identity processes in adolescence predicted individual differences in identity development in emerging adulthood. Specifically, those adolescents with low daily commitment levels, and high levels of identity reconsideration were more likely to maintain weak identity commitments and high identity uncertainty in emerging adulthood. Also, those adolescents characterized by stronger daily changes in identity commitments and continuing day-to-day identity uncertainty maintained the highest identity uncertainty in emerging adulthood. These results support the view of continuity in identity development from short-term daily identity dynamics in adolescence to long-term identity development in emerging adulthood.
Highlights
Establishing a strong set of identity commitments is a crucial task both in adolescence and emerging adulthood (Erikson 1968; Schwartz et al 2005)
Adding a 4th class further lowered the Sample Size Adjusted Bayesian Information Criterion (SSABIC) (7068.18) and included a significant bootstrapped likelihood ratio test (BLRT), p < 0.001, the fourth class closely resembled a class already captured with the 3-class solution
Does the development of stable identity commitments in emerging adulthood emerge from short-term micro-level identity exploration and commitment processes in adolescence? While a large part of longitudinal studies has documented identity maturation across adolescence, little is known about how daily identity formation processes take place within-persons, and the type of daily identity formation processes that predict long-term identity development in emerging adulthood
Summary
Establishing a strong set of identity commitments is a crucial task both in adolescence and emerging adulthood (Erikson 1968; Schwartz et al 2005). Whereas daily identity formation processes are considered highly personal and dynamic (Lichtwarck-Aschoff et al 2008), surprisingly little is known about how these daily exploration and commitment processes affect each other at the withinperson level To answer these questions, the present study examined how adolescents’ identity processes affect each other across days and shape the development of stable commitments in emerging adulthood. Whether and individual differences in explorationcommitment dynamics predict later identity development remains unknown Based on both the theoretical notion of sameness and continuity over time (Erikson 1968) as well as limited empirical evidence, it is expected that those adolescents with relatively high commitment levels that are stable across days (i.e., indicating a high sense of sameness and continuity across days), are likely to maintain strong commitments when they develop into emerging adulthood. Consistent with the notion of sameness and continuity (Erikson 1968), it is hypothesized that those adolescents with relatively high commitment levels that are relatively stable across days, were more likely to develop and maintain a strong identity in emerging adulthood as well
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