Adolescent Identity Development Research Articles

Identity development measured by the questionnaire AIDA (Assessment of Identity Development in Adolescence) in a Swiss-German clinical sample

Identity development measured by the questionnaire AIDA (Assessment of Identity Development in Adolescence) in a Swiss-German clinical sample

Identity development in a German school sample measured by the questionnaire AIDA (Assessment of Identity Development in Adolescence)

Identity development in a German school sample measured by the questionnaire AIDA (Assessment of Identity Development in Adolescence)

Using Cultural Formulations to Enhance Adolescent Assessment and Psychotherapy

Case formulation that incorporates cultural factors is an important clinical tool for use in initial and ongoing treatment with adolescents. Providing culturally-responsive psychotherapy to adolescents requires the therapist to understand the complex cultural context in which adolescents live. Adolescent identity development and psychological functioning are influenced by an evolving matrix of social identities (race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, spirituality etc.) that may shift and change at each stage of the teen’s developmental life as well as within different contexts. This paper will compare and contrast the DSM-IV-TR Outline for Cultural Formulation with the ADDRESSING and RESPECTFUL mnemonic models of cultural formulation in the evaluation and treatment of teenagers. Case examples will illustrate how each model may be used to create a synopsis of the patient’s experience in cultural context as well as how they are used to conceptualize change over time. The case examples will highlight the utility of cultural formulations in alliance building, in understanding the patient and parents’ explanations of illness as well as in examining cultural transference issues in therapeutic work.

The Interplay of Sexual and Religious Identity Development in LGBTQ Adolescents and Young Adults: A Qualitative Inquiry

Eight sexual-minority adolescents (15–18 years old) and 11 young adults (19–24 years old) participated in individual interviews, journal writing, and focus groups to provide greater insight into the interplay of religious and sexual identity development in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth. The majority of the sample identified as being raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, two participants identified being raised Catholic, and one participant identified being raised Presbyterian. Participants described an early behavioral connection to their childhood religious faiths, reported feeling “different,” and shared efforts to deny their same-sex attractions. Next, participants stated they questioned their faith, and whereas some participants described feeling disconnected religiously, others worked diligently to maintain connection with their faith communities. Participants also endorsed internalized conflict and efforts to change their attractions. Finally, participants disengaged with their childhood faiths, disclosed their sexual orientation to others, and redefined their values and beliefs.

An Exploration of Teachers’ Efforts to Understand Identity Work and its Relevance to Science Instruction

US educators express concern that students are turning away from the study of science and have little interest in pursuing science careers. Nationally, science achievement scores for 8th graders are unchanged since 1996, but 12th graders’ scores have significantly decreased. A shortcoming of education reform efforts is lack of attention to students’ developmental needs. Science study should enable students to learn about themselves—to develop and refine their skills, define their values, explore personal interests, and understand the importance of science to themselves and others. Effective secondary science instruction requires attention to students’ identity development—the key developmental task of adolescence. Secondary science teachers participated in an 8-week course focused on understanding adolescent identity development and methods for addressing identity. Transcripts of the teachers’ online discussions of salient issues were analyzed to determine their perceptions regarding classroom identity work. Teachers identified several assets and obstacles to identity work that were organized into two broad categories: teacher knowledge, training opportunities, and administrative support, or lack of these; and, presence of inflexible curricula, standardized testing regimes, and increased teacher accountability. Implications for student growth and science teacher professional development are discussed.

The role of ethnic identity in school engagement: perceptions of immigrant Tibetan adolescents in select US public schools

This purpose of the study was to ascertain the level of ethnic identity formation and its perceived role on school engagement for Tibetan adolescents enrolled in public schools in two Midwestern states in the USA. The journey of these students from culturally encapsulated schools from Nepal, Bhutan, and India to multiculturally diverse settings was one of the most fascinating facets of the Tibetan Diaspora. Subjects included 16 girls, 25 boys, and 2 who did not identify their gender. The multigroup ethnic identity measure was used to determine the level of ethnic identity formation of Tibetan students while a questionnaire gathered information on school engagement. The overall ethnic identity measure for this sample was high with a mean of 3.58, while the cognitive and affective aspect of the measure was also high with a mean of 3.56 and 3.74, respectively. The girls showed more emotional commitment to ethnic identity, as their mean score was 3.92, while boys scored 3.62. The results clearly corroborated findings and conclusions drawn by other scholars. School and community partnership contributed to the healthy ethnic identity development of adolescents who were thus encouraged to be more engaged in meaningful school activities.

Emotion and relatedness as aspects of the identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities: contributions from ‘practice‐near’ social work research

ABSTRACTThis paper considers social and personal/individual approaches to researching identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities; suggesting that vital components of emotionality and relatedness are largely missing from research and consequently from literature informing social care professionals. This leaves untapped, rich information and communication resources for research which may improve understandings of the experiences of a socially excluded group of young people. A psychosocial view of adolescent identity development, ‘subjectivation’, offers a way forward and a case study on ‘Billy’, drawn from a ‘practice‐near’ observational study, helps to illustrate this. Observation allows the researcher to be sensitive to the subtle ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are constructed, often with a sense of fragility and uncertainty. Continuities of experience between the young people and the rest of the adolescent community may be seen, but also the impact of living with impairment can be thought about in relation to the particular psychosocial circumstances of each young person. Knowledge of these processes enhances social work practice by encouraging workers to be sensitive to, and healthily curious about, the multiple ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are shaped in relationship with those around them and the wider social field.

Child and Adolescent Development for Medical Learners: Adolescent Identity Development

Abstract This module, Adolescent Identity Development, reviews the theories and research of several well know contributors (Erikson, Anna Freud, The Offers, James Marcia) to the understanding of ad...

Child and Adolescent Development for Medical Learners: Developmental Perspectives of Emotions and Illness

Abstract This module, Developmental Perspectives of Emotions and Illness, discusses the impact of development on a child's understanding and experience of illness. Cognitive developmental influence...

The role of future work goal motives in adolescent identity development: A longitudinal mixed-methods investigation

Theories of adolescent identity development often emphasize the importance of adolescents’ future work goals, yet these theories rarely distinguish the self-oriented motives (enjoying or being a good fit for one’s work) from the beyond-the-self-oriented motives (having a positive impact on the world beyond the self) that underlie them. The present article explored the impact and development of both types of motives. Using longitudinal, mixed-methods data from middle school and high school students (N=99), the present article found that: (1) adolescents generated both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives for their future work goals, often simultaneously; (2) adolescents who held both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives for their work goals were more likely to experience higher levels of purpose and meaning over a 2-year period than those who held neither; (3) school assignments that asked students to reflect on their work goals were positively related only to the development of self-oriented motives for work goals among middle school students; and (4) support from friends was positively related only to the development of self-oriented motives for work goals among high school students.

Developing a Framework for Research on Religious Identity Development of Highly Committed Adolescents

The aim of this article is to present a framework for studying the religious identity development of highly religious Christian and Muslim adolescents. Building on existing theories on identity development, the authors define highly religious Christian and Muslim adolescents as orthoprax adolescents and explore the consequences of this for reflection on the religious identity development of these groups of youngsters. This study is a first step toward gaining qualitative insights into the religious identity development of orthoprax adolescents and filling up a perceived gap in research on religious identity development.

Assessment of identity development and identity diffusion in adolescence - Theoretical basis and psychometric properties of the self-report questionnaire AIDA.

BackgroundIn the continuing revision of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) “identity” is integrated as a central diagnostic criterion for personality disorders (self-related personality functioning). According to Kernberg, identity diffusion is one of the core elements of borderline personality organization. As there is no elaborated self-rating inventory to assess identity development in healthy and disturbed adolescents, we developed the AIDA (Assessment of Identity Development in Adolescence) questionnaire to assess this complex dimension, varying from “Identity Integration” to “Identity Diffusion”, in a broad and substructured way and evaluated its psychometric properties in a mixed school and clinical sample.MethodsTest construction was deductive, referring to psychodynamic as well as social-cognitive theories, and led to a special item pool, with consideration for clarity and ease of comprehension. Participants were 305 students aged 12–18 attending a public school and 52 adolescent psychiatric inpatients and outpatients with diagnoses of personality disorders (N = 20) or other mental disorders (N = 32). Convergent validity was evaluated by covariations with personality development (JTCI 12–18 R scales), criterion validity by differences in identity development (AIDA scales) between patients and controls.ResultsAIDA showed excellent total score (Diffusion: α = .94), scale (Discontinuity: α = .86; Incoherence: α = .92) and subscale (α = .73-.86) reliabilities. High levels of Discontinuity and Incoherence were associated with low levels in Self Directedness, an indicator of maladaptive personality functioning. Both AIDA scales were significantly different between PD-patients and controls with remarkable effect sizes (d) of 2.17 and 1.94 standard deviations.ConclusionAIDA is a reliable and valid instrument to assess normal and disturbed identity in adolescents. Studies for further validation and for obtaining population norms are in progress and may provide insight in the relevant aspects of identity development in differentiating specific psychopathology and therapeutic focus and outcome.

Brief report: Do peer relationships matter to Vietnamese adolescents’ and young adults’ development of identity? Towards a working theory of identity development in a changing culture

In this paper, using data from the first nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of more than 7000 Vietnamese adolescents, we explore how peers, compared to family, matter to Vietnamese adolescents’ development of their independent identity as an adult. We use future hopes and aspirations as proxies for identity development, arguing that an individual’s development of future hopes and aspirations is a correlate to the emergence of an independent identity. Our analyses show that peers have a positive and consistent influence on adolescents’ hopes to have a happy family, good job, good income, and opportunities to do what they want. Regarding career and economic aspirations, the importance of peer relationships appears to have dropped away. It may be that when youth consider their realistic economic alternatives, the role of peers that was important for identity development in adolescence gives way to pragmatism about the attainment of a career identity.

The role of purpose in life in healthy identity formation: A grounded model

Researchers contend that committing to an inspiring purpose in life is an important component of healthy identity development for adolescents; however, little research has focused on how identity and purpose develop together. Therefore, the study followed a sample of eight adolescent purpose exemplars for five years in order to develop a grounded model of the way these two constructs interact. Findings suggest that for adolescent purpose exemplars, the processes of identity formation and purpose development reinforce one another; the development of purpose supports the development of identity, and the development of identity reinforces purposeful commitments. Furthermore, in the adolescent purpose exemplars' lives, the purpose and identity constructs largely overlap in such a way that what individuals hope to accomplish in their lives serves as the basis of the adults they hope to become. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The Influence of Parental Marital Commitment on the Identity Formation of Japanese University Students

The objective in the present study was to investigate how parental commitment to marital life affects identity formation of university students. Tolerance for family differentiation was set as a mediating variable. Participants were 271 Japanese university students (mean age = 20.0) who completed a survey. The results of analyses indicated that parental marital commitment influenced identity formation both directly and indirectly through tolerance for family differentiation. In addition, the influence process differed to some degree depending on the gender of the student. The results suggest that it is necessary to consider identity development in adolescence in the context of quality of parental marital commitment.

Gender difference, exposure to domestic violence and adolescents’ identity development

Domestic abuse is a kind of violence common in South Africa which for most part focuses on women. Children and adolescents who witnessthese abuses are hardly the focus of domestic abuse research. Hence the need to understand the relationship between gender, exposure to domesticviolence and identity development of adolescents. Based on a cross-sectional design, a questionnaire with three sections A, B and C was used to collect data from 109 randomly selected adolescent young men and girls from the University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), Limpopo Province in South Africa. Age of participants ranged from 15-20 years with a mean age of 18.7 years (SD = .946). The child exposure to domestic violence scale (CEDV) was used to dichotomize exposed and non exposedgroups while gender was defined as male/female. Two hypotheses were stated within a 2-way factorial ANOVA. Results showed a significantmain effect for group exposure, (F (1,109) =9.395, P

A Conceptual Model of Incarcerated Adolescent Fatherhood: Adolescent Identity Development and the Concept of Intersectionality

Little is known about teen fathers though they are found to be disproportionately represented among incarcerated youth. SOURCE USED: This article is developed from a qualitative pilot study of adolescent fathers in the justice system. The authors theorize about teen fathers and the process by which they accept, reject, or are "barriered" from a father identity and role. Adolescence as a developmental period during which an identity is forming is viewed in concert with the concept of hegemonic masculinity and the concept of intersectionality. Risk factors in childhood and adolescence complete the conceptual model through which incarcerated adolescent fathers can be examined.

Understanding Identity Development and Spirituality in African American Female Adolescents through Their Foster Care Experience

A qualitative research study was conducted to understand the meaning and experience of foster care and identity development for African American females who had been in foster care during adolescence. The study was designed to maximize the common epistemological traditions of social work and the African American experience, and integrate knowledge from the arenas of practice wisdom, the discipline of social work, and the knowledge of adult African American women who have experienced the phenomenon. An unexpected finding of the research was that many of the women, unsolicited, expressed a belief in the importance of spirituality to their understanding and acceptance of what had happened to them during and after the foster care experience. The phenomenon is examined through three themes including a stated belief in God, the frequent use of the language of spirituality, and evidence of participation in religious activity.

Contextual Factors Contributing to Ethnic Identity Development of Second-Generation Iranian American Adolescents

The data drawn from interviews with 55 second-generation Iranian American adolescents revealed that pride in ancient Persian culture, the adolescents’ physical characteristics, perceived stereotypes, and community point of reference all combined to affect ethnic identity as well as to reinforce a sense of ethnic loyalty. The contextual factors that influenced ethnic identity retention were family connectedness, language, community ties, ethnic pride, engagement in cultural activities and traditions, and cultural beliefs including mannerisms and an emphasis on education. Females were more likely than their male counterparts to retain the Persian language and to engage in Persian entertainment. Furthermore, the majority of the participants self-identified themselves as Persian instead of Iranian, due to the stereotypes and negative portrayals of Iranians in the media and politics. Adolescents from Jewish and Baha’i faiths asserted their religious identity more than their ethnic identity.

Correlates of identity statuses among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong

This study investigates correlates of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents' identity statuses with (i) parental and school contexts and (ii) major psychosocial developmental outcomes. Data were collected from 1260 Secondary 2-4 (equivalent to Grades 8-10 in the US school system) students through a questionnaire survey. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that parental attributes of acceptance, values and goals, and psychological control, and school contextual factor of task orientations predicted identity achievement, whereas parents' acceptance, psychological and firm control, and teacher's support predicted identity foreclosure. Regarding the impact on psychosocial development, another series of regression analyses revealed that (i) identity achievement predicted low depression, high self-esteem, and high self-efficacy; (ii) moratorium predicted low self-esteem; and (iii) foreclosure predicted high self-efficacy. Overall, the findings shed light on adolescent identity development in Hong Kong, facilitating discussions on identity-related issues.