The Role of Perceived Parental Dimensions and Identification in Late Adolescents' Identity Processing Styles

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which three dimensions of perceived parenting style (responsiveness, regulation, and autonomy), parental identification, and interactions between parenting and identification accounted for variation in the identity processing styles identified by Berzonsky (1989, 1990). A sample of 406 undergraduate university students provided retrospective reports about how their parents behaved when the students were 15-year-old adolescents living at home. Parental regulation uniquely predicted informational-style scores. Parental identification was positively associated with normative-style scores, but the relationship was conditional. Identification was positively associated with a normative style when parents were high responsive or when parents provided minimal support for age-appropriate autonomy and volitional freedom. Parental identification was also positively associated with diffuse-avoidant-style scores, but only when parents were low on autonomy support. The results shed new light on the processes involved in the socialization of late adolescents' styles of identity exploration.