Individual Characteristics And Family Factors In University Students' Ego Identity Formation

Ego identity formation is the primary psychosocial task of college students in the late adolescence. Determinant factors and mechanisms in ego identity formation have been always the core question concerned by identity researchers. Stable inter-individual differences in personal and family environmental factors are often seen as determinants of identity development. Individual characteristics have directly influence on the process of identity formation, and mediate/ moderate family contextual factors'influence on identity. So, this study investigates two determinants of ego identity statuses: individual internal factors (big five personality traits, causality orientations and self-discrepancy) and family contextual factors (parental attachment and separation-individuation), and explored the independent and conjoint effects of family contextual factors and individual characteristics on identity statuses.This study investigates a total of 1131 university students from freshman to senior, who come from seven universities among Jinan, Xuzhou and Taiyuan. Measures used in this investigation are the Chinese modified versions of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Bennion & Adams, 1986), the measure of Five Factor Model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992), the General Causality Orientations Scale (Deci & Ryan, 1985), Self-Discrepancy Questionnaire (Hardin, 2002), the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), and the Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence (Levine, Green & Millon, 1986). The results mainly indicate that:(1) Openness to experience and conscientiousness has strongly positive effect on identity achievement. Neuroticism is greatly positively associated with identity moratorium. Conscientiousness is strongly positively related with identity foreclosure. Extraversion and openness to experience strongly negatively influences idenity diffusion. Autonomy orientation negatively predicts identity foreclosure. Control orientation has strongly positively influence on identity achievement and moratorium. Impersonal orientation can strongly positively influence identity diffusion, and negatively identity achievement. Self-discrepancy has strongly positive influence on identity diffusion and is negatively related with identity achievement. (2) Besides that openness has direct influence on identity achievement and diffusion, big five personality traits have mainly indirect influence on identity statuses, mediated by causality orientations and self-discrepancy. (3) Secure parental attachment has strongly positive influence on identity achievement, while negative on identity diffusion. Positive separation-individuation is strongly positively associated with identity achievement, and negative separation-individuation is strongly positively related with identity diffusion. Secure parental attachment has strongly positive effect on the positive separation-individuation, and negative effect on the negative separation-individuation. (4) Besides direct effect on identity foreclosure, parental attachment mainly has indirect effect on the four identity statuses by the mediation role of positive and negative separation-individuation. (5)The combination of high parental attachment and low conscientiousness/ openness can predict highest level of identity foreclosure. Whether parental attachment is high or not, high extraversion predicts highest level of identity moratorium. The combination of low negative separation-individuation and high extraversion/ openness/ agreeableness/ conscientiousness is the most helpful to university students'identity achievement. For college students characterized by high openness to experience, high positive separation-individuation predicts high level of identity moratorium and low level of identity foreclosure. (6) Besides direct influence on identity achievement and foreclosure, parental attachment has indirect influence on identity statuses, mediated by autonomy orientation, impersonal orientation and self-discrepancy. Besides direct influence on identity statuses, separation-individuation mainly has indirect effect on the identity statuses, mediated by three causality orientations and self-discrepancy. (7) Parental attachment's influences on identity statuses are mainly in turn mediated by separation-individuation and causality orientation/ self-discrepancy. Furthermore, parental attachment has direct influence on identity foreclosure. (8) Big five personalities as the moderators and causality orientations/ self-discrepancy as mediators concurrently influence the relationship between separation-individuation and identity achievement/ foreclosure. Moreover, conscientiousness is a mediated moderator in the relation between negative separation-individuation and identity achievement, i.e. the moderated effect of conscientiousness on this relation is completely mediated by self-discrepancy.