Adolescent Self-identity Development And Its Relationship With Parenting Style

Ego identity is the core of Erikson's ego psychoanalytic theory. Erikson considered that identity vs. identity diffusion is the central developmental task in adolescence. Ego identity can influence all the aspects of adolescent development. Ever since Erikson set forth the concept of ego identity in 1968, ego identity is always the important issue in psychology research. The western developmental psychologists have conducted a large amount of studies, both theoretical and empirical. In contrast, systematic research on ego identity has been rare in Chinese developmental psychology, and most research of this area has been limited to the theoretical analysis on identity. So, by the cross-sectional design, the present study was to investigate the development characteristic of adolescent ego identity, parenting style's influence on the development of adolescent ego identity, and identity processing style's the mediation role between parenting style and ego identity status.About 1233 adolescents from junior middle school, senior middle school and university were investigated, using the modified measures of ego identity status questionnaire, identity style inventory and parenting style questionnaire. The main findings are follows:1. For the adolescents, the distributions of ego identity statuses, whether in the ideological, interpersonal or total domain, are unbalanced. 60% of adolescents are in the identity moratorium status, and identity diffusion, foreclosure and achievement in turn. The proportion of adolescents using identity style from high to low is informational style, normative style and diffuse style.2. As regards the developmental trends of identity statuses, in the ideological domain, the number of identity achievements and moratoriums has no significant change, i.e., the development of the two statuses is stable; the proportion of diffusions in senior high school and university is more than that of junior high school, and the proportion of foreclosures in senior high school and university is less than that of junior high school; No significant difference is found in the percentage of diffusions and foreclosures in the senior high school and university. In the interpersonal domain, the proportion of achievements and moratorium in senior high school and university is more than that of junior high school and the proportion of foreclosures and diffusions in senior high school and university is less than that of junior high school; No significant difference is found in the percentage of four identity statuses in the senior high school and university. In the total identity domain, the proportion of identity moratoriums and diffusions has no significant change, i.e., the development of the two statuses isstable; the proportion of achievements in the senior high school and university is more than that ofjunior high school, and the proportion of foreclosure is less than that of junior high school; No significant difference was found in the percentage of achievements and foreclosures in senior high school and university.With regard to the developmental trends of identity styles, the proportion of information-orientation individuals in junior high school is more than that of senior high school and university; the proportion of normative-orientation individuals is gradually increased from junior high school to university; the proportion of diffuse-orientation individuals in senior high school is more than that of junior high school and university.3. For all the adolescents, by contrast with female adolescents, there are more male adolescents in the interpersonal achievement, total achievement and information style, while less males in the interpersonal moratorium and normative style. By contrast with only children, there are more non-only children in the interpersonal moratorium and normative style, while less non-only children in the interpersonal foreclosure and information style.4. Adolescents from authoritative and indulgent families scored higher than those from authoritative and neg...