EGO IDENTITY AND SPIRITUAL IDENTITY IN RELIGIOUSLY OBSERVANT ADOLESCENTS IN ISRAEL

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between spiritual identity and ego identity among religiously observant adolescents in Israel. Seventy-eight religious tenth graders studying in yeshivot (boys) and ulpanot (girls)1 were tested. The Ego Identity Scale for Adolescents and a Questionnaire of Religious Beliefs were administered to them. Throughout the entire sample, there was a significant and positive correlation between belief and general ego identity and between belief and the identity dimensions: solidity and continuity, meaningfulness versus alienation, genuineness and truthfulness, and physical identity. Among the girls, there was a significant and positive relationship between belief, general ego identity, and the dimensions: social recognition, commitment, and purposefulness, meaningfulness versus alienation, solidity and continuity, and genuineness and truthfulness. Among the boys, there was a significant and positive relationship between belief and the meaningfulness versus alienation and genuineness and truthfulness dimensions of the ego identity. 1 Yeshivot and ulpanot are high schools for boys and girls, respectively, offering an intensive religious curriculum combined with general, secular studies.