Identity exploration in emerging adulthood: how does it apply to atrisk youths Links between identit

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Identity exploration in emerging adulthood how
does it apply to at-risk youths?Links between
identity status and psychosocial adjustment in
emerging adults enrolled in second chance
educational settings

• Julie Marcotte, Ph.D.
• Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
• Québec, Canada
• Julie.Marcotte1_at_uqtr.ca

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Presentation outline

• Presentation and acknowledgements
• Emerging adulthood (EA) and its features
• Review of identity formation
• Outcomes linked to identity exploration
• Our study objectives, method, and analyses
• Results
• Conclusion and further directions
• Questions

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Emerging adulthood

• Emerging adulthood (EA) is now recognized as a
  new developmental period characterized by, among
  others, a prolonged support from family and
  extension of postsecondary education
• Shift of adolescences developmental tasks onto
  EA
• One of the predominant feature of EA is the
  pursuit of identity exploration
• Facilitated by colleges contexts enabling (EAs)
  to exercise agency, responsibility and to be
  exposed to various ideologies and individuals
  (Arnett, 2000 2007)
• However, all youths may not be able to make use
  of this unstructured period for identity
  exploration
• Personal (e.g. behavioral or psychological
  problems) or contextual barriers (e.g. social or
  familial constraints) (Schwartz, 2002 Yoder,
  2000)

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Identity

• Studies on identity development are mostly based
  on Marcias identity status paradigm which
  delineates 4 different statuses emerging from two
  dimensions exploration and commitment (Schwartz
  Pantin, 2006).
• Each status has been proven to be correlated with
  distinctive behavioural and psychosocial outcomes
  and variables
• One of the major problems with results regarding
  identity development largely based on
  college-bound population.
• Few studies are conducted with EA who have either
  dropped out of school or who attend other
  educational settings like second chance schools
• Very few recent studies have been found regarding
  identity development in former foster care youths

Table 1. Summary of Marcias identity status
paradigm (1980) and associations between each
status and different outcomes in emerging
adulthood
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Method

• Aims
• 1) Illustrate the identity statuses
  distribution among a sample of second chance
  schools students
• 2) Examine associations between identity
  exploration, behavioral and psychosocial among
  groups of at-risk youths
• Sample
• 229 EAs (18-24 y-olds) enrolled in adult
  educational settings
• 53,3 women and 46,7 men
• 16 of students were previously placed in foster
  care,
• 38 received special education services
• 48 suspended their education for at least a year
  before entering adult education.

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Method

• Measures
• Identity status. The Ego Identity Process
  Questionnaire (EIPQ) (Balistreri et al., 1995)
• 32-item scale assessing ego identity in 4
  ideological and interpersonal domains
• Status assignments are made according to the
  median split technique of the continuous
  exploration and commitment scores
• Behavioral Problems The Young Adult Self-Report
  (YASR) (Achenbach, 1997)
• 116-item scale scored by the respondent on a
  3-point scale.
• Externalizing and internalizing global scales are
  used
• Traumatic events The Child Trauma Questionnaire
  (CTQ) (Bernstein Fink, 1998)
• 28-item self-report inventory that measures the
  severity of different types of childhood trauma.
• 4 scales Physical and emotional abuse, emotional
  neglect, physical neglect, and sexual abuse
• Self-concept Self-Description Questionnaire II
  (SDQ)
• A 10-item subscale of the SDQ Global self-esteem
  scale
• Locus of control
• 6-item scale measuring the extent to which EA
  believe they have control over what future holds
  for them

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Results objective 1

• Chi-square (²) analysis show significant gender
  differences (p lt.01)
• More females (24,6) than males (9,3) are in the
  Moratorium status
• Diffuse status is more representative of males
  (38,3) than females (24,6)
• EAs in our sample are overrepresented in the
  Foreclose and Diffuse statuses when compared to
  other studies with college student population
• Lower identity exploration scores

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Results in perspective

• Controversy about identity statuses has been
  found in identity literature
• Static representation of a dynamic, life-course
  process (Luyckx et al., 2008)
• Rank order of statuses (D-F-M-A) has been highly
  criticised
• Foreclose and Moratorium are unclear as whether
  one is really preferable over the other (Bosma
  et al., 2001)
• Importance of context
• Historical and social context determines the
  adaptive quality of different statuses
• Western cultural contexts value self-interest and
  self-actualization (Baumeister Muraven, 1996)
• Thus, exploration (weighing of alternatives)
  becomes central in self-definition
• Moratorium is preferred to Foreclose because its
  presumed features are mainly associated with
  exploration
• Ones uniqueness and individuality have to be
  emphasized to meet and
• adapt to the demands of modern life Bosma et
  al, 2001

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About FORECLOSURE

• Prevalence of the Foreclose statushow can we
  explain it?
• Kroger (2007 1995) 2 categories of Foreclose
• Firm dependant on gratification, intense
  proximity to parental figures, search for
  approval assigned
• Developmental resemblances with Moratorium,
  commitment that can be overturned, openness to
  experience self-chosen
• Early foreclosure can be associated with negative
  labels (e.g. special education, diagnosis, that
  limits the exploration of the possible selves)
  (Marcia, 2002)
• Youths in second chance schools all have in
  common an educational pathway punctuated with
  hardships or at least, with delays
• Educational attainment in Western societies
  difficulties in that arena may pose a problem to
  the consideration of alternatives as to whom
  one can become
• Can success in these school settings contribute
  to the activation or reactivation of the
  exploration process ??

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About DIFFUSION

• In line with other studies and initial hypothesis
• Associations between Diffuse status and academic
  failures and school drop out (Berzonsky Kuk,
  2005)
• Diffuse status may be perceived as normative in
  younger adolescents (Luyckx et al, 2008) but is
  questioning in EA
• Enrolment in a second-chance schools causes
  former Forecloses to loosen their commitment?
• Gender differences clearly demonstrate that
  women
• 1) explore and 2) commit more than men.
• Gender differences in statuses are rare in
  literature

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Objective 2 Association between exploration
score and other variables
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Results in perspective

• Unlike others, no relationships were found
  between externalized and internalized problems
  and exploration scores
• Women and men exploration scores are associated
  with different variables
• Locus of control for men what is going to happen
  in my future depends on me
• Self-concept for women overall, I am as worthy
  as anybody
• For women, special education services are linked
  to lower exploration (labelling hypothesis)
• Commitment is negatively linked to
  explorationeither foreclose or moratorium
• Emotional and physical abuse and physical neglect
  are positively associated with exploration
• Why??

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Why a link between abuse and neglect and
exploration? Exploring three possible
explanations

• Existence of a negative type of exploration
• Luyckx et al. (2008) Ruminative exploration
  characterized by a repetitive and passive focus
  contributing to feeling of hopelessness
• This explanation is more or less supported by
  observed links between exploration and
  self-concept and locus of control

• Absence of obstacles to exploration
• Exploration may be constrained by parental
  control, strong identification with parents
  values and norms (Bosma Kunen, 2001)
• Abuse or neglect are highly associated with
  foster care services (not shown is table)
• Youths aging out of care facilities may be less
  influenced by parental control or model
• Exploration is easier

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Why a link between abuse and neglect and
exploration? Exploring three possible
explanations

• 3. Former foster care youths in second chance
  school settings may represent a  resilient 
  subgroup
• More agentic, self-directed
• Abuse or neglect are less severe in comparison
  with former foster care youths who do not enrol
  in school settings?

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Conclusion

• Results reveal two major avenues that need
  further investigation
• Gender
• Differences in statuses distribution
• Difference in terms of explanation of the
  exploration variance
• Identity development in at-risk EA, especially
  former foster care youths
• How to foster positive identity exploration
  could it become a protective factor in other
  out-of-care youths? How.
• Limits
• Cross-sectional design
• Heterogeneous at-risk youths
• Age 18-24
• Measure of identity processes

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Questions and commentary

• Thanks
• For references or updates
• please contact
• Julie.Marcotte1_at_uqtr.ca

www.uqtr.ca