The Development Of Adolescent Ego Identity And Its Relation With Attachment To Parents And Peers

This study was designed to investigate the development of adolescents'identity and it's relation with attachment to parents and peers. A sample of 1600 Chinese adolescents aged 12-25 was investigated with series of Chinese transitions of measures, including Ego Identity Process Questionnaire, Attachment Questionnaire(including attachment to father, mother and peers). Results indicated: 1) In general, those who were older in age exhibited higher exploration and commitment scores. For the ideological domain, adolescents in senior middle school and university had higher exploration scores than those who were in Junior middle school. While for the interpersonal domain, adolescents at university had highest exploration scores, and those in Senior middle school had highest commitment scores. 2) There was significant difference between men and women in identity scores. Women scored higher than men in interpersonal domain. For the ideological domain, girls in Junior middle school had higher commitment scores than boys, while boys at university had higher exploration and commitment scores than girls. 3) In general, rural adolescents scored higher than those in urban in identity commitment. For ideological domain, there was no difference between urban boys and rural boys. However, urban girls had higher exploration and commitment scores than rural girls in Junior middle school. While in Senior middle school, urban girls had lower exploration scores than rural girls. For interpersonal domain, urban Junior middle school students scored higher than those in rural. 4) Adolescents of different attachment style to parents tended to have different...