Formation of Identity in Adolescence - Essay Example

? CHFD342 Formation of Identity in Adolescence FORMATION OF IDENTITY IN ADOLESCENCE The prominent developmental theorist Erik Erikson contendedthat adolescents are required to resolve two crises in their life. His human development psychosocial theory, unlike other theorists of his time, this theory was inclusive of the entire human lifespan into adulthood (Dacey et al, 2009). The word crisis was used, as a way to describe the internal conflicts linked to stages of development. According to this theory, the manner in which a person is able to resolve the crisis is a determinant of future development and their personal identity. The first crisis normally sets in from early to mid adolescence, which is referred to as the identity versus identity, confusion crisis. It is representative of the person’s struggle to get a balance between an individual and unique identity and still be able to fit into the crowd, in addition to, being accepted. Therefore, the young person must establish whom; they would like to be, as well as how others will perceive them. This theory postulates that when a young person is able to navigate this crisis successfully, they emerge with a clear comprehension of whom they are and are able to share it with others, which enables them to attain a well adjusted and healthy life. They also become confident people and are able to associate freely with society sans losing sight of whom they are. When they are unable to navigate this crisis; however, they are not certain of their identity and are socially disconnected from others (Dacey et al, 2009). They can also attain an exaggerated sense of how important they are and could adopt extremist tendencies. In the article Identity Formation in Adolescence: Change or Stability by Klimstra et al, the authors sought to examine the manner in which identity information, in adolescents, can be adolescents can be best described. In addition, their study also set out to seek a clarification on commitment development explored in earlier studies that had been inconclusive and unreliable. The study was longitudinal in nature with five waves and an overall aim of comprehensively studying stability, and change in formation of identity in youth aged between the ages of twelve and twenty (Klimstra et al, 2010). The individual waves of the longitudinal study were separated by a one-year period. The samples of the study involved one thousand three hundred and thirteen participants, who were divided onto cohorts of early adolescence to mid-adolescence with an average age of 12.4 years and a cohort consisting of young people between middle and late adolescence with 16.7 as their average age. This was during the first measurement wave with standard deviations of .59 and .80 respectively. The first cohort consisted of 455 girls and 468 girls while 221 girls and 169 boys constituted the latter cohort. The entire range of 12 to 20 years was available during the study because the study involved five measurement waves. The adolescents who took part in the study were recruited randomly from high schools in the Dutch province of Utrecht (Klimstra et al, 2010). This population was assumed to be representative of the entire Dutch population because of its diversity. In order to recruit the participants, the researchers sent invitation letters to the participants and their parents/guardians, with a detailed description of what the study’s goals and objectives were while also explaining to them that it was possible to decline the invitation (Klimstra et al, 2010). For each wave, the participants who accepted to participate, which was 99% of the participants, were paid $15 and were required to sign an informed consent form. The High Schools from which the participants were picked from completed the questionnaires during annual assessments with the participants being guaranteed of their responses’ confidentiality (Klimstra et al, 2010). The measure for the study involved the formation of an identity, which was assessed using the U-MIC Scale developed by Meeus as a self-report measure. The instrument has a response format that ranges from one to five, which are completely untrue to completely true respectively. It is used for the assessment of three dimensions of identity, five items of commitment, three items of reconsideration, and five items of in-depth exploration (Klimstra et al, 2010). The study focused on education as the major ideological domain and friendship as the main interpersonal domain, especially because both of them have a fundamental role in adolescent lives. The study also had twenty-six U-MICS items with each domain possessing thirteen items. For example, one of the sample items was “I think it is better getting myself a different friend/find myself alternative education”, which was representative of interpersonal/ideological reconsideration. Another example was “My friend/education gives my life certainty”, which was representative of interpersonal/ideological commitment, as well as I mostly think of my best friend/education, which is representative of interpersonal/ideological in-depth exploration (Klimstra et al, 2010). The study focused on dimensions of identity on a global level, despite the fact that the U-MIC Scale can allow for measurement of identity dimensions in varied/alternative domains of content. Across waves for in-depth exploration, commitment, reconsideration, and the U-MIC Scale’s reliability were high. The results were presented as a table of descriptive statistics for dimensions of identity in both cohorts, as well as a table for growth factors for both cohorts. These were then used to plot different graphs for girls and boys for estimated commitment growth, reconsideration, and in-depth exploration (Klimstra et al, 2010). The results of the study showed that levels of commitment were stable in the entire period of adolescence. The commitment slopes for girls and boys in both cohorts did not reach significance, and no differences attributable to gender were found in commitment intercepts. There were increases, discerned in-depth explorations with its levels being stable for both girls and boys in the first cohort but increasing linearly for the second cohort for both girls and boys. The girls were found to display increased levels of in-depth exploration in comparison to the boys across the entire adolescent process. Rates of change were found to be the same among both girls and boys. Girls also showed a lower level of reconsideration compared to boys in the first cohort, although the initial difference between girls and boys lessened as they approached mid-adolescence. However, at mid-adolescence differences among girls and boys increased initially because there were no significant changes among the girls, whereas there was a considerable increase among the boys as far as reconsideration was concerned (Dacey et al, 2009). Among the boys, however, increases in mid-adolescence were followed in late adolescence by a sharp decrease. This ensured that differences among the genders were not so large between the two genders because reconsideration levels seemed to remain the same for girls between mid to late adolescence. For this reason, gender differences between the genders lessened as they got to late adolescence (Klimstra et al, 2010). The main objective for the research was aimed at providing a comprehensive view on adolescent identity formation through an examination of three change/stability types. The study’s results were consistent with other studies performed earlier, i.e. Waterman 1999, Meeus 1999, and Van Hoof 1999 (Klimstra et al, 2010). Like those studies, this research study found that, while stability was evident, there were small but progressive changes in the adolescents, both girls and boys, as they became older. The results were indicative of the fact that changes are inherent in dimensions of identity as adolescents near maturity, which were evidenced by decreasing tendencies for maturing adolescents to be re-considerate, as well as the tendency for adolescents to become increasingly stable as far as profiles of identity dimensions were concerned. In addition, as adolescents become more mature, they develop increased in-depth exploration (Dacey et al, 2009). The average levels of commitment across the two cohorts, i.e. early to mid-adolescence and mid to late adolescence, remained stable, while reconsideration, in-depth exploration, and rank-order commitment stability were not altered even as the adolescents advanced in age. Overall, the girls showed increased maturity as far as the formation of identity in their early years of adolescence was concerned. However, the boys were able to catch up with the girls with regards to the formation of an identity by the time they got to their late adolescent years. The findings from this research study, when all taken together, are indicative of the fact that the formation of identity in adolescent girls and boys is guided by slow but progressive changes in the manner through which both genders of adolescents deal with life commitments, instead of through the changes that occur in the commitments. References Dacey, John. Travers, John. & Fiore, Lisa. (2009). Human development across the lifespan. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Klimstra, Theo. Hale, William. Raaijmakers, Quinten. W. Branje, Susan. & Meeus, Wim. (2010). Identity Formation in Adolescence: Change or Stability? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 150-162. Read More