Separation-individuation and ego identity status in late adolescence: A two-year longitudinal study

This study was undertaken to clarify developmental relationships between intrapsychic object relations structure and ego identity status during late adolescence; one purpose was to examine the possible predictive relationship between initial attachment style and later identity status. A total of 76 subjects (41 females and 35 males) who had been given the Marcia Ego Identity Status Interview and the Hansburg Separation Anxiety Test (SAT) as first-year university students in 1984 were reassessed two years later. Fitted log linear models indicated strong links between attachment style and identity status in 1986, and between identity status in 1984 and 1986; only an indirect connection existed between attachment style in 1984 and 1986 as measured by the SAT. When 1984 and 1986 identity status were known, it was possible to predict 1986 attachment style without knowing 1984 attachment style; 1984 attachment style alone was unable to predict later identity status accurately.This research was supported by a grant from the Internal Research Committee, Victoria University of Wellington.Received Ph.D. in Child Development from the Florida State University. Current research interest is identity formation from a life-span perspective.Received Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics from Victoria University of Wellington. Among current research interests is the analysis of sparse contingency tables.     

Gender-role identity and psychological adjustment in adolescence

The relationship between gender-role identity (traditional, androgynous, cross-gender, and undifferentiated) and psychological adjustment among adolescents was examined. Hypotheses were derived from theories of gender-role identity development. One hundred and three high school students completed a measure of gender-role identity (the Bem Sex-Role Inventory) and four measures of adjustment (three Offer Self-Image scales and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). Findings indicate that traditional, androgynous, and cross-gender identities are each associated with some aspect of superior adjustment. Undifferentiated adolescents are poorly adjusted. When the independent contribution of masculinity, femininity, and gender-role identity to adjustment was assessed, masculinity and femininity had greater predictive power than gender-role identity. The relationship of findings to gender-role identity development is discussed.This paper was written while the author was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mental Health Research Program in Sociology and Psychiatry at Duke University Medical School. Support for this work was provided by NIMH Grant MH14670-01.Received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Colorado. Major research interest is personality development across the life-span, particularly the development of gender-role identity in adolescence and adulthood.     

The factor structure of the Reckless Behavior Questionnaire

In this study, the relative fits of three different factor-structure models of adolescent reckless behavior were examined using the Reckless Behavior Questionnaire (RBQ) with individual samples of college and high school students. Both one- and two-factor models were found to be satisfactory representations of the RBQ with both samples. In order to test the construct validity of the one- and two-factor models, relations between instruments generally associated with reckless behavior were examined by gender. Using the two-factor model, gender differences were found for both the college and high school samples; thus, it was determined to be the more parsimonious fit of the data given previous research supporting gender differences. Findings are discussed in terms of current conceptualizations of factor patterns of adolescent problem behavior and implications for future investigations.B.A. from Oberlin College, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Virginia. Research interests are development of aggression and correlates of reckless behavior.B.A. from University of Akron and M.S. from University of Pittsburgh. Research interests are addictive behaviors and psychopathology in adolescence.Formerly Assistant Professor at Ogelthorpe University (1985–1988). Received B.S. from Michigan State University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from University of Virginia. Research interest is development of reckless behavior.Received B.A. from Yale University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from University of Virginia. Research interests are developmental psychopathology and adolescence.     

Constructing Counseling Through Narrating Adolescence

In this paper we analyze personal narratives of school counseling students so as to better understand how they perceive the influence of their own adolescence on their present views regarding adolescence and counseling. Through the textual analysis of the narratives, we map their perceptions of adolescence and counseling. We consider if and how traditional adolescence views are replicate in the students’ narratives, and reflect on the students’ characterizations of the school counselor’s roles and tasks. The sample includes 34 female respondents aged between 25 and 47 years old. We show that many of the issues raised in the narratives seem to point to a perception of the participants of a need to radically change the school (institutional) culture. We conclude by pointing at the potential confluence between the narratives’ discourse and traditional conceptualizations in sociology and anthropology regarding the organization and practices of informal social spheres.Dr. Zvi Bekerman, teaches anthropology of education at the School of Education and The Melton Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main interests are in the study of cultural, ethnic and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in informal learning contexts. He has also recently become involved in the study of identity construction and development in educational computer-mediated environments. He is one of the editors of the soon to be published “Learning in Places: The informal education reader” (Peter Lang).Dr. Moshe Tatar, Senior Lecturer with Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Counseling, School of Education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Received Ph.D. in Psychology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His major research interests are adolescent help-seeking behaviors and attitudes, counseling adolescent immigrant populations, and parental perceptions of schools     

Personality,cognitive, and interpersonal factors in adolescent substance use: A longitudinal test of an integrative model

This study tests a multidimensional model of adolescent drug use. The model incorporates sociodemographic variables, personality variables (state and trait anxiety, depressive mood, and sensation seeking), cognitive variables (knowledge, attitudes, and intentions), interpersonal factors (relationships with peers and parents), and the availability of drugs. The model was tested in a longitudinal study, comprising two phases. A total of 1446 high school students served as subjects. The role of cognitive (attitudinal) and interpersonal factors (relationships with parents and peers) was confirmed. In addition, sensation seeking proved to have significant predictive power. Anxiety, depression, and sociodemographic factors, by contrast, had virtually no influence. Availability had a minor effect. The multidimensional explanation was validated longitudinally. The factors related to drug use at the first phase predicted use at the second. This multidimensional explanation accounted for the use of various substances, suggesting that different substances—whether legal or illegal—share a common multidimensional explanation.This work is based on the doctoral dissertation of Zipora Barnea supervised by Meir Teichman and Giora Rahav, and submitted to the Tel-Aviv University. The research was partially supported by a grant from the National Interministerial Committee on Substance Use and the National Research and Development Foundation.Received Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University. Research interests are substance use, delinquency, and social deviance.Received Ph.D. from University of Missouri. Research interests are drug and alcohol abuse, and family violence.Received Ph.D. from Indiana University. Research interests are substance use, delinquency, and cross-national studies of deviant and violent behavior.     

Rural adolescents' perceived personal risks for suicide

Rural adolescents' suicidal cognitions were assessed while conducting a larger project on risk perception. This allowed for a more indirect (less reactive) method of assessment than is typical in related research. High school students (n=455) rated on a 7-point scale their personal risks for 24 lethal events, including suicide. Over half the adolescents (56%) reported some risk for suicide, of which 12% reported that their subjective risk was quite likely. The rates are consistent with prevalence rates for suicidal ideations obtained from studies using more direct methods of assessment. Public high school students were significantly more likely to report serious suicide risks than parochial high school students. This finding is discussed in the context of Durkheim's proposition that religions deter self destructive impulses.Received Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Research interest: adolescents' perceptions of risks.Received Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. Research interests: in the areas of identity, self, and personality.     

“Thinking About Makin’ It”: Black Canadian Students’ Beliefs Regarding Education and Academic Achievement

Black Canadians share many aspects of the historical experiences of African Americans, but there are also important differences. One similarity between these two groups is the persistent academic underachievement of Black adolescents. Although this is a subject of widespread concern in both countries, it has received little empirical scrutiny in Canada. We address this shortcoming by examining the academic and achievement-related beliefs of Black high school students in two Canadian cities, Toronto and Halifax. Despite significant regional differences most participants believed that schooling could lead to success for them. Females’ attitudes and beliefs regarding education were more positive than those of males. Perceived parental values and support were strong predictors of participants’ attitudes and school marks; socioeconomic status (SES) and perceived peer support were non-significant correlates of academic outcomes. We discuss the results in terms of the germane US research, and highlight the implications of the findings for understanding diversity among Black Canadian youth.Received PhD from the University of Toronto. Areas of research include educational and psychological correlates of ethnic and racial identity in Black Canadians.Received PhD from the University of Toronto. Research focuses on the cultural dimensions of friendship.Received PhD from the University of Toronto. Research interests include adolescent development, social justice, and children’s rights-related thinking and knowledge.     

Depressive styles in adolescence: Assessment,relation to social functioning,and developmental trends

Examined the relation of dependency and self-criticism to social functioning among adolescents. Subjects were 7th–11th graders from a suburban high school who completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire for Adolescents (DEQ-A) and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP). The results showed that self-criticism was strongly associated with reporting a greater number of interpersonal problems, particularly in the areas of sociability and control. Dependency was only marginally related to interpersonal difficulties. The results also showed that levels of self-criticism tended to decline steadily across the high-school years, whereas levels of dependency followed a U-shaped curvilinear pattern in which it was higher in the early and late high school years relative to the middle years. Finally, the present study provides initial evidence of a reliable, shortened 20-item version of the DEQ-A.This research was funded by a team grant to David Zuroff, Richard Koestner, and Debbie Moskowitz from the Fonds Pour La Formation De Chercheurs Et L'Aide A La Recherche (FCAR-Quebec). Richard Koestner was also funded by a McGill Faculty grant.Received B.A. from McGrill University. Research interests include personality development and psychosocial adjustment.Received Ph.D. from University of Rochester. Research interests include motivation, personality, and life-span development.Received Ph.D. degree from University of Connecticut. Research interests include dependency, self-criticism, and vulnerability to depression.     

Parental criticism and the adolescent experience

In a questionnaire study of 883 high school students, subjects were asked the extent to which their parents criticized them for 18 criticizable behaviors or attitudes. Over 50% of the respondents reported being criticized for being disobedient, lazy, and messy—issues central to family life. Further analyses indicated a relationship between perceived criticism and self-image. The more criticism the teenager perceived for a specific behavior or attitude (e.g., being selfish), the more likely that teenager was to perceive himself/herself as being that way. The differential impact of criticism in the context of parental rejection was also explored.Received M.D. from Rush Medical College. Research interests are birth order and adolescence.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescence and psychotherapy.     

Why do adolescents use drugs? Age,sex, and user differences

This paper makes four points: (1) There is substantial substance use among adolescents in our large rural southwestern sample. (2) Adolescents explain their drug use with five kinds of reasons (i.e., Belonging, Coping, Pleasure, Creativity, and Aggression). (3) Different reasons for using drugs are related to frequency of substance use. (4) There are age, gender, and user differences in the reasons adolescents have for their drug use. After summarizing traditional ways of thinking about drug use, we describe an alternative way for examining such behavior. We use this approach to study relationships between drug use reasons and age, gender, and substance use in 2637 6th–12th-grade students. We then discuss prevention and treatment implications of this research.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include school dropouts, substance use, delinqueccy, personal commitments, health, and identity.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include at-risk youth, substance use, delinquency, narcissism, and identity.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include moral development and personality.     

Intimacy development in middle adolescence: Its relationship to gender and family cohesion and adaptability

The relationships of family cohesion and adaptability to adolescent intimacy development were explored by administering the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales survey and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation — Behavioral Version survey to 207 middle adolescents (70 males and 137 females) from a small midwestern high school. The adolescents' perceptions of family adaptability correlated with the amount of responsibility the teens expressed in their relationships, while cohesion correlated with companionship and affection in their relationships; however, females' scores were related to cohesion, while males' scores were related to satisfaction with cohesion in their families. The study suggests that family cohesion and adaptability differentially influence intimacy development based on the adolescent's gender.Received Ph.D. in marital and family therapy from Purdue University. Research interests include family influences on adolescent development and family issues related to incarceration.Received Ed.D. in human development from Boston University. Research interests include major life transitions (e.g., adolescence, middle adulthood).     

Drug culture expertise and substance use

This study concerns the relationship between knowledge of drug culture and substance use. Results from a sample of 2,635 middle and high school students indicate that (1) knowledge of drug culture is positively correlated with substance use; (2) drug knowledge is more reliable and coherent in older youth; (3) drug knowledge is unrelated to other kinds of knowledge acquired in school; (4) youth exposed to peers' substance use in school have more drug knowledge; and (5) the earlier young people begin using drugs and alcohol, the more they know about the drug culture. Results suggest that knowledge of the drug culture may be an unobtrusive indicator of substance use problems.This project was made possible by a grant from the Tulsa Psychiatric Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include school dropouts, substance use, delinquency, identity, narcissism, and health. To whom correspondence should be addressed.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include school dropouts, substance use, delinquency, personal commitments, identity, narcissism, and health.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include moral development and personality.     

Identity in adolescence: Influences of dysfunction and psychosocial task issues

The Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI) was utilized in two studies to investigate task resolutions (trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, identity) in adolescence. In the first study, a comparison of delinquents and non-delinquents indicated that delinquents have less successful task resolutions. In the second study, a comparison of adolescents with high and low dysfunctional attitudes again revealed that troubled adolescents have less successful task resolutions. In this study, 7th graders, 12th graders, first-year college students, and junior and senior college students participated. Older adolescents demonstrated more successful task resolutions than younger adolescents, and different identity issues were salient during early adolescence as compared to later adolescence. Also, first-year college students had more problems with identity consolidation and less positive overall task resolutions than high school seniors or college juniors and seniors. A life-context approach to identity formation is discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the first biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Madison, Wisconsin, March 1986, and at the Midwestern Psychological Association meetings, Chicago, Illinois, 1987 and 1989.M.A. degree in psychology from University of Toledo. Research interests: identity development, cognitive and perceptual development.Ph.D. from University of Toledo. Research interests: personality and cognitive development in adolescence, infant cognitive development.     

Career development of adolescents: An ecological perspective

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development is used as a framework for examining the research on the career development of adolescents. The examination of the four contexts — the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem — provides an additionalperspective to the ontogenic (individual) approach that has predominated the research literature in this field. Among the four contexts examined, some research on the influence of microsystem, including family, school,peer group, and workplace is identified. The amount of developmentally based research drops off quickly for the other systems, although there are other pertinent research and social issues for each system. Research and intervention implications of this perspective are indicated.This research was supported by grants from the Humanities and Social Science Grants Committee of the University of British Columbia and Youth Employment Program of British Columbia.Received Ed.D. from McGill University. Current research interest is career development and counseling of adolescents.     

The relationship of values to identity achievement status

Each of 61 college undergraduates was classified as a high or low scorer based on his score on the Simmons Identity Achievement Status (IAS) scale. Ss from each group also ranked Rokeach's terminal and instrumental values in order of importance. The finding of differential ranking of several values by the high and low IAS Ss was congruent with Erikson's statements regarding the constructs of ego identity and identity diffusion and, in addition, seemed to lend further validity to the IAS scale.Received Ph.D. in 1968 from Syracuse University in the area of school psychology. Major areas of interest are socialization; personalty development in children and adolescents.     

Ego identity status and values among high school females

To test the hypothesis that adolescent females who are high in ego identity have high interests in religious and political values, the relationship between the ego identity status of 80 senior high school females and their response to the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values was examined. Participants classified as being identity achievements, moratoriums, and foreclosures had higher religious value scores than did diffusions; however, the expected differences on political value scores were not found. Two-thirds of the identity achievers came from homes disrupted by divorce or death of one parent, while less than 20% of the members of the other three statuses came from broken homes.This report is based on the first author's M.A. thesis, which was submitted to the Graduate School, Texas Woman's University, 1978.Received her M.A. from Texas Woman's University. Major interests are ego identity formation and female adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Major interests are developmental effects of stress and neurophysiology.     

Identity development and formal operations as sources of adolescent egocentrism

The self-concerns and social expectations that are part of the identity development process may lead adolescents to think that others survey them for signs of individuality. The novelty of identity development may also lead to feelings of uniqueness and invulnerability. The imaginary audience and personal fable may therefore stem from identity development and not from the emergence of formal operations. In this study high school and first-year university students (N=255) completed measures of adolescent egocentrism, identity development, and formal operations. Egocentrism was moderately associated with higher scores on identity crisis and identity achievement, and with lower scores on identity diffusion. There was no significant relationship between egocentrism and the emergence of formal operations.Received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Victoria. His main interests are in personality, social and developmental psychology.Currently completing a master's degree at Lakehead University. Interests are in social and clinical psychology.     

An extension of Marcia's Identity Status Interview into the interpersonal domain

This article describes an extension of Marcia's (1966) Identity Status Interview into three interpersonal domains: friendships, dating, and sex roles. The Identity Status Interview method is assessed favorably in terms of identity theory, justification for the three new sections is provided on the basis of theory and research on sex differences in adolescent identity, and methodological refinements in the interview are described. A study is reported in which the extended interview was administered to 41 male and 40 female high school juniors and seniors. Average percentage of exact agreement for ratings of exploration, commitment, and identity status was over 70% when two coders were used and over 94% when the ratings of two out of three coders were used. It is concluded that this extended interview is psychometrically sound and provides a method for assessing interpersonal issues salient to contemporary adolescents.This work was supported in part by a grant from the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.Received his Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Main Interest is the influence of the family on adolescent personality development, especially identity and vocational interests.Doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, with special interst in sex roles and adult development.Received Ph.D. in community psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Main interests include adult development, communities, and spiritual growth.     

Demographic correlates of adolescents' helping behavior

The helping behavior of 250 sixth-grade children was assessed by four different measures and related to several demographic variables. The results indicated that (a) more girls were helpful than boys; (b) more children of European-American and Israeli origin were helpful than those of Asian — (North) African origin; (c) more children having fathers with a high level of education were helpful than those having fathers with a low level of education; and (d) more secondborn children were helpful than firstborn. These results are explained and their importance indicated.The study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from Tel-Aviv University.Received Ph.D. from Hebrew University. Current interests are prosocial behavior and school climate.Received Ph.D. from University of Pittsburgh. Current interests are prosocial behavior and the social psychology of education.     

The state of research on ego identity: A review and appraisal

In the first part of this review (see Volume 7, Number 3 of this journal), a comprehensive survey of empirical research on ego identity was presented. Special emphasis was given to the large number of studies employing James Marcia's identity status paradigm. Research within this paradigm is recapitulated here by presenting empirical results which typify each of the four identity statuses (i.e., achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion). A detailed evaluation of the identity status paradigm itself follows. Among the topics considered are (1) the construct and external validity of the approach as a whole, (2) the rationale and discriminant validity of the identity statuses, and (3) the reliability of the Identity Status Interview. Part II concludes by considering a number of problems for future research. Several persisting methodological and substantive issues within the identity status paradigm are noted. Finally, it is suggested that investigators turn their attention to the processes mediating identity formation. Contemporary psychoanalytic conceptions of adolescent development are viewed as providing one possible theoretical framework for investigating such processes.Support for this study comes from Research Training Grant No. 5T32MH14668-02 awarded to Dr. D. Offer by the National Institute of Mental Health.Postdoctoral Fellow in the Clinical Research Training Program in Adolescence jointly sponsored by the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training of Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and the Committee on Human Development of the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescent ego development and epistemological/methodological issues in personality theory and measurement.