essay define the concept adolescence

Adolescence: Physical, Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Changes

Diana Lang; Nick Cone; Tera Jones; and Lumen Learning

• Define Adolescence
• Describe major features of physical, cognitive and social development during adolescence
• Be able to explain sources of diversity in adolescent development
• Summarize the overall physical growth
• Describe the changes that occur during puberty
• Describe the changes in brain maturation
• Compare adolescent formal operational thinking to childhood concrete operational (Piaget’s theory)
• Describe the changes in sleep
• Contrast theories of identity development in adolescence
• Compare aggression and anxiety in adolescence
• Describe eating disorders
• Explain the prevalence, risk factors and consequences of adolescent pregnancy

Adolescence is a developmental stage that begins with puberty and ends with the transition to emerging adulthood (young adulthood); the typical age span is from approximately 10 to 20 years. Adolescence has evolved historically, with evidence indicating that this stage is lengthening as individuals start puberty earlier and transition to adulthood later than in the past.

This chapter will outline changes that occur during adolescence in three domains: physical, cognitive, and socioemotional/psychosocial. Physical changes associated with puberty are triggered by hormones. Cognitive changes include improvements in complex and abstract thought, as well as development that happens at different rates in distinct parts of the brain and increases adolescents’ propensity for risky behavior because increases in sensation-seeking and reward motivation precede increases in cognitive control. Within the psychosocial domain, changes in relationships with parents, peers, and romantic partners will be considered. Finally, the chapter summarizes sources of diversity in adolescents’ experiences and development.

Adolescence has frequently been portrayed as a negative stage of life—a period of storm and stress to be survived or endured in professional literature and in the media. [1] Adolescents are often characterized as impulsive, reckless, and emotionally unstable. This tends to be attributed to “raging hormones” or what is now known as the “teen brain.”

With so many negative images of adolescents, the positive aspects of adolescence can be overlooked. [2] Most adolescents in fact succeed in school, are engaged with their families and communities, and emerge from their teen years without experiencing serious problems such as substance abuse or involvement with violence. Recent research suggests that it may be time to lay the stereotype of the “wild teenage brain” to rest. This research posits that brain deficits do not make teens do risky things; lack of experience and a drive to explore the world are the real factors. Evidence supports that risky behavior during adolescence is a normal part of development and reflects a biologically driven need for exploration – a process aimed at acquiring experience and preparing teens for the complex decisions they will need to make as adults. [3] Furthermore, McNeely & Blanchard [4] described the adolescent years as a “time of opportunity, not turmoil.”

Second only to infant development, adolescents experience rapid development in a short period of time. During adolescence, youth typically gain 50% of their adult body weight, experience puberty and become capable of reproducing, and experience an astounding transformation in their brains. All of these changes occur in the context of rapidly expanding social spheres. Adolescent physical development is often completed by age 18, but brain development requires many more years to reach maturity. Thus, it is imperative for adults and adolescents to understand these vast changes to enjoy this second decade of life.

• Arnett, J. (1999). Adolescent storm and stress, reconsidered. American Psychologist, 54 (5), 317-326. ↵
• American Psychological Association (2002). Developing adolescent: A reference for professionals. https://www.apa.org/pubs/info/brochures/develop ↵
• Romer, D., Reyna, R.F., & Satterthwaite, T.D. (2017). Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 27 , 19-34. ↵
• McNeely, Clea and Jayne Blanchard. A Guide to Healthy Adolescent Development. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/center-for-adolescent-health/_docs/TTYE-Guide.pdf. ↵

Individual and Family Development, Health, and Well-being Copyright © 2022 by Diana Lang; Nick Cone; Tera Jones; and Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Development of Self and Identity in Adolescence: Neural Evidence and Implications for a Value-Based Choice Perspective on Motivated Behavior

Associated data.

Following a key developmental task of childhood—building a foundation of self-knowledge in the form of domain-specific self-concepts—adolescents begin to explore their emerging identities in ways that foster autonomy and connectedness. Neuroimaging studies of self-related processes demonstrate enhanced engagement of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in adolescence, which may facilitate and reflect the development of identity by integrating the value of potential actions and choices. Drawing from neuroeconomic and social cognitive accounts, we propose that motivated behavior during adolescence can be modeled by a general value-based decision-making process centered around value accumulation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This approach advances models of adolescent neurodevelopment that focus on reward sensitivity and cognitive control by considering more diverse value inputs, including contributions of developing self- and identity-related processes. It also considers adolescent decision making and behavior from adolescents’ point of view rather than adults’ perspectives on what adolescents should value or how they should behave.

Adolescents are physically, cognitively, and socioemotionally more advanced than children but prone to behave in ways that are inconsistent with adult values and norms. Adolescents are frequently caricaturized as excessive risk takers, overly self-focused, and highly susceptible to social pressure. Despite agreement that such a portrayal is an oversimplification, the field is still searching for a framework to explain why these tendencies are more common in adolescents than in children or adults. One influential approach, the dual-systems model ( 1 ), conceptualizes behavior in terms of a competition or conflict between developing neural circuits implicated in reward sensitivity and cognitive control, and describes how the functioning of these networks may relate to adolescents’ risk taking. Another prominent approach considers contributions of networks that process social information to understand adolescents’ social reorientation, in which social influences expand beyond the family to emphasize peers ( 2 ). However, these models do not account for the contributions of identity- and self-related processes, such as core personal values and self-verification, to motivated adolescent behavior. This gap is disconcerting because the self represents a key intersection among social, cognitive, affective, motivational, and regulatory processes ( 3 ).

To address this gap, we propose a neurobiologically grounded model of value-based decision making that more flexibly accommodates more diverse inputs to behavior, such as considerations related to self and identity that are relevant in adolescence and can promote or prevent risky behavior depending on context. We first review adolescents’ development of self and identity, linking the behavioral and neural levels. We then outline the general value-based decision-making approach and describe the predictions of this model in the context of adolescent development. Our goal is to produce a more flexible, comprehensive account of adolescent behavior – one that might improve adolescent outcomes, as well as enhance our understanding of positive and prosocial development in adolescence.

The Development of Self and Identity in Adolescence

Adolescence is crucial for many aspects of developing self and identity, including commitments, personal goals, motivations, and psychosocial well-being ( 4 – 7 ). During adolescence, youth seek autonomy, particularly from parents, along with increased commitments to social aspects of identity and greater needs for connection with peers ( 8 ). Relatedly, self-evaluations become increasingly differentiated and complex across roles and relationships ( 9 ). Adolescents also frequently report greater self-consciousness, and are more concerned with and interested in others’ perceptions of self ( 10 ).

Given the theoretical and empirical prominence of changes in aspects of self and identity during adolescence, researchers have begun to examine how they are expressed at a neural level. Most of this work has examined self-evaluation, typically by asking youth to judge whether various (often overtly positive or negative) traits and attributes describe them. Like adults, children and early adolescents use cortical and subcortical midline structures, in particular the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and adjacent rostral/perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), more when evaluating themselves than when evaluating others ( 10 – 12 ; although this pattern can be attenuated with close others like adolescents’ best friends; 13 , 14 ). Even in clinical populations of children and adolescents, the vmPFC is usually more active during self-evaluations than most control conditions. Typically developing youth also seem to use the vmPFC more during self-evaluations than do youth with autism spectrum disorder ( 3 ) and, at times, youth experiencing depression ( 15 , 16 ).

We are just beginning to learn more about how neural responses elicited by self-evaluation develop across adolescence, rather than between childhood or adolescence and adulthood. In two studies on the self-reference effect in memory (wherein information evaluated in relation to the self is remembered more accurately than other information), activity in the rostral/perigenual ACC increased from ages 7 to 13 during encoding for self versus mother ( 17 ), and from ages 13 to 19 during encoding for self versus distant other ( 18 ).

Furthermore, in a longitudinal fMRI study, responses to self-evaluations in the rostral/perigenual ACC (and ventral striatum, VS) self-evaluations were stable from age 10 to 13 ( 19 ). Activity also increased in the vmPFC over time during evaluations of self (relative to other), especially for self-evaluations in the social (versus academic) domain, and in adolescents with more advanced pubertal development during social self-evaluations. This suggests the interrelated biological and social changes associated with puberty may affect self-referential processes and the value derived from them.

Although these studies of self-evaluative processes emphasized the vmPFC and adjacent rostral/perigenual ACC, several other regions were also important. As mentioned earlier, VS responses have been observed not only during direct self-evaluations ( 19 ), but also in indirect (reflected) social self-evaluations, specifically when an adolescent thinks about what a best friend thinks of his or her social abilities ( 14 ). The involvement of VS during self-evaluation is consistent with studies of adults, which highlight the overlap between self-reference and reward ( 20 ) through assigning value ( 21 ). Additionally, the dorsal medial PFC (dmPFC) and the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) are sometimes more active in children’s and adolescents self-evaluations ( 10 , 11 , 18 ); in adults, these regions are typically attuned to mentalizing, social perspective taking, and evaluating others. Furthermore, functional connectivity between the TPJ and the vmPFC relates positively to generosity in adults ( 22 ), suggesting that the TPJ might affect social value by modulating the vmPFC during choices involving the self and others.

In summary, in research using functional neuroimaging, explicit self-evaluation as well as more indirect forms of social self-evaluation implicated in relational identity robustly engage the vmPFC and the rostral/perigenual ACC (as part of a broader network including the VS, TPJ, and dmPFC) in children and adolescents, often more so than in adults. Activity in the vmPFC and rostral/perigenual ACC seems to increase from late childhood through middle adolescence, when it either plateaus or continues to increase. These findings are consistent with empirical evidence and theoretical proposals that adolescence is critical for developing identity ( 4 – 7 ).

Despite the behavioral and neural evidence of the elevated importance of self- and identity-related processes during adolescence, what role these processes may play in neurodevelopmental models of adolescent behavior is unclear. Dual-systems models in particular focus on a mismatch between mature reward-related circuitry and immature cognitive control circuitry ( 1 ). However, self/identity does not fit clearly in either category because it can contribute alternately or concurrently to reward-seeking and regulatory behavior. For example, a teenager with an emerging academic identity is likely to prioritize studying over other activities, though it is unclear whether the effect of such an identity operates through rewarding or regulatory processes (or both, or if this distinction is not meaningful theoretically for self/identity). In the next section, we present a model that prioritizes self- and identity-related processes in determining behavior and explains a prominent functional role of the vmPFC during this period.

Value-Based Decision Making as a Mechanism of Motivated Behaviors in Adolescence

Choosing to attend a party where there may be alcohol as well as an attractive classmate against parental wishes and despite math tutoring in the morning sounds like a failure of self-control—to parents, at least. But from an adolescent’s point of view, this decision might be driven by the high subjective value of partying and associated opportunities relative to some alternative, like studying algebra. This should not be surprising; researchers noted decades ago that adolescents routinely chose to behave in ways that are of optimal utility for their social microenvironments ( 23 ), and utility-maximizing functions can account for decisions like this one made by people at any age ( 24 , 25 ). However, researchers have recently characterized the computational and neural processes involved in value-based decision making, defined as either-or choices between two or more options with varied attributes ( 26 ). In a value-based decision-making approach, diverse gains and costs are integrated in a dynamic and noisy way to yield choices (see Figure 1 ; relevant inputs are specific to a given choice and not necessarily confined to one—e.g., parental incentives for good grades are both tangible and social rewards). As we describe next, this flexibility is a key feature of the model. The gains and costs (represented throughout the brain) act as inputs to the process, and are integrated in the vmPFC after being weighted and transformed into a common neural value currency ( 27 ).

Note. Solid arrows from value inputs represent positive value, dashed arrows represent negative value, and line thickness indicates relative weight. Sample tangible inputs (primary or secondary gains and costs) are tagged in orange, sample social inputs are tagged in blue, and sample self/identity related inputs are tagged in purple. Value inputs can be cross-tagged. Adapted from ( 27 ).

From this perspective, one cause of what adults consider to be problematic adolescent behavior may be a normative developmental process that increases the subjective value of self- and identity-relevant inputs relative to childhood. The increased activity observed in the vmPFC during self-evaluation and relational identity processes in adolescence overlaps spatially with the representation of value in the brain (see Figure 2 ), and thus could reflect greater subjective value afforded to the self and its varied traits, roles, and aspirations. This suggests that identity and other associated self-related processes may increase as a source of value to shape decision-making and motivated behavior across adolescence.

Note. Regions in red are likely to appear in studies using the term value , calculated by Neurosynth’s automated meta-analysis tool. Peaks from studies of self-evaluation using typically developing adolescents are overlayed. Blue represents peaks from the self > other contrast in child or adolescent samples, and green represents peaks that show increases during self-evaluation with age. Slices are displayed at x = −6, y = 44, and z = −10. To be included here, studies had to report activations in medial prefrontal cortex from the contrast of self > other from a developmental sample or changes in that contrast with age. A full list of studies and coordinates can be found at: http://osf.io/64qh5 .

Value-based choice describes decision making as the output of a unified value-accumulation process centered in the vmPFC. The valuation process integrates signals from regions that represent relevant attributes of choice (e.g., self-related value in the mPFC, social values in the TPJ, abstract goals such as health in the lateral PFC). We note two aspects of this process of value integration: First, we do not presume it to be deliberative; in other words, inputs are integrated computationally without relying on explicit reasoning. The model allows for rational decision making independent of formal reasoning, unlike fuzzy-trace theory’s distinction between decisions based on explicit reasoning and those based on intuition or gist ( 28 ). Second, a value-based decision-making approach accounts explicitly for the diversity of inputs, and recognizes that these inputs may not fall neatly into consistent clusters. For example, hot processes such as reward and cold processes such as regulation do not necessarily map on to risky and safe behaviors, respectively, and do not necessarily oppose one another. As such, observed activations in two or more regions during choice might reflect simultaneous contributions to value integration rather than competition or inhibition (see 29 for a similar point and a more integrative account).

Dissolving the one-to-one mapping between process (e.g., hot versus cold or reward versus regulation) and outcome (e.g., risky and safe) averts the issue that can arise when these inputs are funneled through two systems that battle for control over behavior (e.g., 1 , 30 ). The most important distinction in a value-based decision-making model is in fact not between types of processes, but between factors that contribute to the value of one behavior or another. For example, what matters in this model is which behavior is promoted by social influence, regardless of whether it is hot or cold. By refocusing on the many diverse reasons for potential behaviors, the model also suggests new experimental paradigms that manipulate the motivating reasons behind a behavior, as well as new pathways for intervention from the variety of value inputs to choice, rather than just two processes (reward and control) whose functioning is mainly determined by neurodevelopment.

The Identity-Value Model ( 31 ) expands on this general value-based decision-making approach by emphasizing the special role of identity in self-regulation and motivated behavior broadly. The central hypothesis of the Identity-Value Model is that goal-directed behaviors are valued more when they are relevant to the identity. Consider the previously mentioned example: If the adolescent had a strong academic identity commitment, the identity might boost the chance of skipping the party by increasing the value of studying. If, instead, the adolescent wished to fit in with a peer group that valued late-night socializing, that aspect of identity would increase the value of going to the party.

The model considers identity as multifaceted, so different aspects of identity (e.g., academic, social/relational, familial, ethnic/cultural, interest-based) can influence the value of self-regulatory behaviors to the extent that such aspects are salient and perceived as relevant to the decision (see also 32 ). Key features of identity thought to facilitate its effectiveness in adulthood include stability, positivity, and accessibility. Given that identity development is considered a core task of adolescence ( 33 ), and evidence suggests significant exploration of and commitments to key identities during this period ( 4 , 5 , 7 ), we expect identity-relevant inputs to increase in value across adolescence, affecting self-regulation and other motivated behaviors. Additionally, identities and behaviors might be reinforced mutually: aspects of identity that favor consistently chosen actions might be more valued, and aspects of identity that favor actions that are consistently not chosen might be less valued (e.g., through dissonance or reward-devaluation processes; 34 ).

Additional Developmental Considerations for Value-Based Decision Making

One important consideration is the extent of developmental change in the decision-making processes implicated in this model. Even young children apparently understand expected value, and by late childhood use it to decide in a manner similar to adults, which includes sensitivity to probability and magnitude of outcome ( 35 , 36 ). These abilities apparently mature by middle adolescence, particularly for decision-making contexts that are relatively less affective ( 37 ). However, adolescents may also be more sensitive behaviorally and neurally than adults to increasing expected value ( 38 ), and may be more tolerant of ambiguity ( 39 ). The range of simple value inputs in much of the relevant research cited previously was limited; researchers should therefore expand the set of stimulus types used in experiments to include more complex, identity-relevant targets and ecologically valid decision-making contexts. Additionally, despite this support for the general value-based choice model in adolescence, researchers have not manipulated the self-relevance of response options to directly test the contribution of identity-based values to adolescent decision-making processes.

Other components of the value-based decision-making model (detailed in 27 ) may also be affected by development, such as delay discounting in which participants choose between smaller-sooner and larger-later rewards. For example, delay discounting decreases rapidly from early to middle adolescence, a finding that represents an additional important constraint that shapes the value-based decision-making process in adolescence differently than in adulthood ( 40 , 41 ).

Finally, in addition to the possibility that identity-based and other self-related values become increasingly important to adolescent decision making, particular social motivations like social status and peer or romantic relationships are expected to surge in relevance as well ( 2 , 42 , 43 ). One set of social-cognitive weights on the decision-making process undoubtedly includes perceptions of what others—especially peers (e.g., friends, romantic partners, members of social ingroups, members of high-status social groups)—value; in this context, others also include respected individuals (e.g., family members, teachers). The interaction between this concept and identity development processes is also an interesting consideration. Specifically, these social perceptions provide information about the self ( 10 , 14 ) and help shape adolescents’ personal values and identity, which subsequently or concurrently are perceived as increasingly significant in decision making.

Although adolescent behavior is influenced by normative developmental changes in sensitivity to rewards and social context, the self also evolves to become an important source of value and intrinsic motivation. With increasing development and exploration of identity commitments and autonomy, the self can be harnessed for self-regulation and other motivated behavior. This creates a space for intervening to improve outcomes in maladaptive cases of adolescent decision making that does not exist within current models, in which d such behaviors are portrayed to result from expected maturational trajectories of frontostriatal circuitry. In particular, identity-based and other self-related values may be much more modifiable targets, either in terms of the content of identity in various contexts or the relative salience of different aspects of identity that might promote different behaviors (e.g., athletic versus academic). For example, the juvenile justice system is considering ways to foster positive and prosocial identities as a way to keep adolescents from engaging in antisocial behavior ( 44 ).

On a broader level, a neurodevelopmentally informed, value-based decision-making approach may provide not only a more comprehensive theory but also an opportunity to reframe our thinking about adolescents’ choices and actions. If a value-based decision-making account is correct, choices that adults perceive as bad can be considered instead as rational from the adolescent point of view, at least inasmuch as they represent choices with the highest subjective value. The adolescent decision-making system is not broken; adolescents (individually and as a group) may simply consider different value attributes and weight those attributes differently than do adults. By taking the normative adult perspective, we may be artificially constraining the sources of value we consider relevant to adolescent decision making, thereby restricting what we can learn about how and why adolescents’ priorities differ from those of adults, and limiting our ability to develop ways to encourage positive outcomes. Given that developing positive personal and social identities ( 4 – 7 , 9 ), as well as balancing autonomy and connectedness, are core tasks of adolescence ( 8 , 33 ), these self-related and social sources of value are worth prioritizing in investigations and translational efforts.

Supplementary Material

Acknowledgments.

The authors would like to acknowledge support from NIH grants DA035763, DA043015, and MH107418 to JHP and AG048840, CA175241, and CA211224 to ETB.

Adolescence

Making sense of adolescence and young adulthood, these developmental stages are about finding one’s place and way in the world..

Posted March 28, 2021 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• One of the most highly regarded models of human development is that of Erik Erikson, a psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist.
• Many people view each of Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development as distinct and separate, but in reality, these stages don’t begin neatly and end cleanly.
• Consistent with current research that the human brain doesn’t fully develop until age 25, for many people young adulthood has morphed into a continuation of adolescence.

As challenging as coping with significant life change can be, as I’ve written previously, change is really the only constant during this one precious life we have. Indeed, life itself is an ongoing progression of growth and change that takes people from one phase or stage of development to another—from infancy to older age. While some ages and stages of development may be idealized, romanticized, or preferred relative to others, each and every one has its wonders and its challenges.

One of the most highly regarded models of human development is that of Erik Erikson, a psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist. First published in his book Childhood and Society —and expanded and refined in later books, notably Identity and the Life Cycle —Erikson’s framework emphasizes the impact of family and social interactions on emotional development across eight stages that traverse the entire lifespan, from infancy to old age.

According to Erikson, growth occurs as we negotiate the succession of challenges presented to us throughout our lifespan. Our sense of self continuously evolves with new experiences and information we acquire through our interactions with others. A coherent and healthy sense of self and feelings of self-efficacy come about through the meeting of developmental needs and experiences of competence, while an incomplete and inferior sense of self, along with feelings of inadequacy, result from unmet developmental needs and the absence of success.

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

Many people view each of Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development as distinct and separate, but, in reality, these stages don’t begin neatly and end cleanly; they often overlap and blend into one another. “Successful” completion of each stage results in the acquisition of critical psychological strengths and resources, which are carried into subsequent stages. Although problems in moving through a stage spill over into later stages and reduce the ability to negotiate them successfully, it is possible to complete the work of earlier stages at a later time.

These stages are universal in the sense that everyone goes through them in the same order. Although there are specific age ranges associated with each stage, these are approximate—how long people spend in each stage and how old they are when they move from one stage to the next can be different for each person. This is due in part to the often-considerable difference between a person’s chronological age and how old or mature they are emotionally. Moreover, every stage of development has its significant challenges—for both children and their parents. No stage is necessarily easier or more difficult, though, for some parents, certain stages may seem easier and be preferable to others.

Every stage presents children and parents with new and different challenges. The conventional interpretation is that each culminates in a decisive stage-specific positive or negative outcome—for example, trust versus mistrust in the first stage—that sets the tone for the next stage. I think the binary nature of this perspective is too limiting, however. Rather than the stage of infancy (birth to 18 months) leading to either basic trust or general mistrust of the world, I see them as existing on a continuum in which the result for most is somewhere in between. Between the extremes of black and white at each stage are myriad shades of gray.

Stage 5: Adolescence (Ages 12 to 19)—Identity vs. Role Confusion

Adolescence is the stage that bridges childhood and adulthood. Teenagers embark on the transition to becoming adults, attempting to define who they are as individuals and how they fit in the world. Adolescence, especially in the world today, is a complicated period of life—a time of uncertainty and confusion related to rapid physical and emotional changes and shifting expectations: expectations teenagers have of themselves, expectations they have of others, and expectations others have of them.

Developing an identity involves actively figuring out the kind of person a teenager wants to be—this includes how they see themselves and how they want others to see them. They may check out different images, effectively trying them on like different clothes to see how they fit and look using two mirrors: the one on the wall and the direct and indirect feedback they receive from their peers, parents, and others. Adolescents explore and often experiment with a variety of different values, beliefs, roles, activities, and behaviors. Coming to terms with their sexuality and sexual orientation is a critical part of identity formation. Adolescents struggle to develop their own identities while navigating the tremendous pressure to fit in with others (friends, neighborhood, community, etc.). Such peer pressures can include using mind- and mood-altering substances, having sex, and participating in law-violating activities.

The biggest and most important developmental task faced by every adolescent is the transition from child to grown-up. Most teenagers want it both ways. On the one hand, they don’t want to be treated like a kid. They want more independence and privileges, including the ability to make more decisions for themselves, which comes with being an adult. On the other hand, adulthood comes with expectations and responsibilities they’re in no hurry to assume.

The process of separation-individuation is a natural and normal part of growing up. It involves separating from the family of origin and childhood influences enough for adolescents to figure out who they are and further become their own person. In seeking greater independence, they increasingly pull away from their families and gravitate toward their peers, which frequently causes upset and conflict for teenagers and their parents. It involves a certain amount of exploration, experimentation, risk-taking , and limit-testing, as well as questioning, opposing, and sometimes saying (through both words and actions), “Screw you!” Sometimes part of this process involves using alcohol and other drugs and participating in other potentially addictive activities.

Ideally, separation-individuation is about renegotiating family relationships so that teenagers achieve more autonomy and responsibility while still maintaining a positive connection with family. In many families, however, people become so detached from each other that there is little to no positive connection. In others, family members are so closely connected to each other that separating from the family to become one’s own person is extremely difficult to do. As people move toward adulthood, the goals are to become independent without being isolated and connected without remaining dependent.

Success in this stage results in a coherent identity and sense of self. Some adolescents attempt to delay their progress toward adulthood and refuse or withdraw from responsibilities. Failure to establish a sense of identity leads to role confusion regarding who they are and uncertainty about their place in society.

Stage 6: Young/Emerging Adulthood (Ages 19 to 35)— Intimacy vs. Isolation

Over the last two decades adolescence has seemingly become prolonged, now lasting into the early to mid-twenties. Consequently (although this was not part of Erikson’s original formulation), the first part of this stage has, for many individuals, morphed into a continuation of the stage of adolescence, a development consistent with current scientific research indicating that the human brain doesn’t fully develop until about the age of twenty-five.[1]

Recent research has also confirmed that adolescent and adult brains work differently. Adults make much greater use of the prefrontal cortex—the mature decision-making part of the brain that responds to situations with rationality, sound judgment, and an awareness of long-term consequences. Adolescents process information and make decisions primarily through the amygdala—the part of the brain responsible for emotions, emotion -related memory , and survival reactions. In the brains of teenagers and emerging adults, the connections between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex are still very much under construction.[2]

This means society allows young people who are technically legal adults to make adult decisions without fully mature brains. Kids can drive around the age of sixteen, vote and enlist in the military at eighteen, and legally consume alcohol and gamble at twenty-one. While the people who set policy at rental car companies may not be familiar with contemporary neuroscience , they apparently know what they’re doing: you cannot rent a car until the age of twenty-five.

During this stage of development, the creation of a stable identity and sense of self continues, while the search for committed companionship and love intensifies. “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up” used to be the province of teenagers; now, not so much, as most young adults continue their quest to determine who they are and what their place in the world is well into their twenties and often into their thirties. Parents continue to have an important and evolving influence in the lives of their young adult children, who often take longer to move away from home than previous generations and are more likely to move back home at some point before relocating more permanently.

The focus in this stage is on clarifying directions related to relationships, love, and career . There may be multiple changes in residence, roommates, and romantic partners prior to transitioning toward more stability in the form of committing to long-term romantic partnerships or marriages, having children, and identifying a career path.

Failure in this stage culminates in the avoidance of intimacy and fear of relationships and commitment and can lead to lasting loneliness and isolation. Success means learning to share oneself authentically and intimately with others, leading to the establishment of long-term relationships outside the family of origin that results in a sense of satisfaction and commitment.

Copyright 2021 Dan Mager, MSW

Author of Some Assembly Required: A Balanced Approach to Recovery from Addiction and Chronic Pain and Roots and Wings: Mindful Parenting in Recovery

1. J. N. Giedd, “Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Adolescent Brain.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021 (2004): 77–85. doi:10.1196/annals.1308.009.

2. Rita Sather and Amit Shelat (reviewers), “Understanding the Teen Brain,” University of Rochester Medical Center Health Encyclopedia. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=… .

Dan Mager, MSW is the author of Some Assembly Required: A Balanced Approach to Recovery from Addiction and Chronic Pain and Roots and Wings: Mindful Parenting in Recovery .

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7.1: Introduction to Adolescence

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Adolescence is a period that begins with puberty and ends with the transition to adulthood (approximately ages 10–20). Physical changes associated with puberty are triggered by hormones. Cognitive changes include improvements in complex and abstract thought, as well as development that happens at different rates in distinct parts of the brain and increases adolescents’ propensity for risky behavior because increases in sensation-seeking and reward motivation precede increases in cognitive control. Adolescents’ relationships with parents go through a period of redefinition in which adolescents become more autonomous, and aspects of parenting, such as distal monitoring and psychological control, become more salient. Peer relationships are important sources of support and companionship during adolescence yet can also promote problem behaviors. Same-sex peer groups evolve into mixed-sex peer groups, and adolescents’ romantic relationships tend to emerge from these groups. Identity formation occurs as adolescents explore and commit to different roles and ideological positions. Nationality, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religious background, sexual orientation, and genetic factors shape how adolescents behave and how others respond to them, and are sources of diversity in adolescence.

Adolescence Defined

Adolescence is a developmental stage that has been defined as starting with puberty and ending with the transition to adulthood (approximately ages 10–20). Adolescence has evolved historically, with evidence indicating that this stage is lengthening as individuals start puberty earlier and transition to adulthood later than in the past. Puberty today begins, on average, at age 10–11 years for girls and 11–12 years for boys. This average age of onset has decreased gradually over time since the 19th century by 3–4 months per decade, which has been attributed to a range of factors including better nutrition, obesity, increased father absence, and other environmental factors (Steinberg, 2013 [1] ). Completion of formal education, financial independence from parents, marriage, and parenthood have all been markers of the end of adolescence and beginning of adulthood, and all of these transitions happen, on average, later now than in the past. In fact, the prolonging of adolescence has prompted the introduction of a new developmental period called emerging adulthood that captures these developmental changes out of adolescence and into adulthood, occurring from approximately ages 18 to 29 (Arnett, 2000 [2] ).

Adolescence is often characterized as a period of transformation, primarily, in terms of physical, cognitive, and social-relational change. [Image: Lorenia]

• Steinberg, L. (2013). Adolescence (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ↵
• Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480. ↵

Contributors

Ages & Stages

Stages of Adolescence

By: Brittany Allen, MD, FAAP & Helen Waterman, DO

Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. It includes some big changes—to the body, and to the way a young person relates to the world.

The many physical, sexual, cognitive, social and emotional changes that happen during this time can bring anticipation and anxiety for both children and their families. Understanding what to expect at different stages can promote healthy development throughout adolescence and into early adulthood.

Early Adolescence (Ages 10 to 13)

During this stage, children often start to grow more quickly . They also begin notice other body changes, including hair growth under the arms and near the genitals, breast development in females and enlargement of the testicles in males . They usually start a year or two earlier in girls than boys, and it can be normal for some changes to start as early as age 8 for females and age 9 for males. Many girls may start their period at around age 12, on average 2-3 years after the onset of breast development.

These body changes can inspire curiosity and anxiety in some―especially if they do not know what to expect or what is normal . Some children may also question their gender identity at this time, and the onset of puberty can be a difficult time for transgender children .

Early adolescents have concrete, black-and-white thinking . Things are either right or wrong, great or terrible, without much room in between. It is normal at this stage for young people to center their thinking on themselves (called "egocentrism"). As part of this, preteens and early teens are often self-conscious about their appearance and feel as though they are always being judged by their peers .

Pre-teens feel an increased need for privacy . They may start to explore ways of being independent from their family. In this process, they may push boundaries and may react strongly if parents or guardians reinforce limits .

Middle Adolescence (Ages 14 to 17)

Physical changes from puberty continue during middle adolescence. Most males will have started their growth spurt, and puberty-related changes continue. They may have some voice cracking, for example, as their voices lower. Some develop acne. Physical changes may be nearly complete for females, and most girls now have regular periods.

At this age, many teens become interested in romantic and sexual relationships . They may question and explore their sexual identity―which may be stressful if they do not have support from peers, family, or community. Another typical way of exploring sex and sexuality for teens of all genders is self-stimulation, also called masturbation .

Many middle adolescents have more arguments with their parents as they struggle for more independence. They may spend less time with family and more time with friends. They are very concerned about their appearance , and peer pressure may peak at this age.

The brain continues to change and mature in this stage, but there are still many differences in how a normal middle adolescent thinks compared to an adult. Much of this is because the frontal lobes are the last areas of the brain to mature―development is not complete until a person is well into their 20s! The frontal lobes play a big role in coordinating complex decision making, impulse control, and being able to consider multiple options and consequences. Middle adolescents are more able to think abstractly and consider "the big picture," but they still may lack the ability to apply it in the moment. For example, in certain situations, kids in middle adolescence may find themselves thinking things like:

"I'm doing well enough in math and I really want to see this movie… one night of skipping studying won't matter."

Do I really have to wear a condom during sex if my girlfriend takes the pill?"

"Marijuana is legal now, so it can't be that bad."

While they may be able to walk through the logic of avoiding risks outside of these situations, strong emotions often continue to drive their decisions when impulses come into play.

Late Adolescents (18-21… and beyond!)

Late adolescents generally have completed physical development and grown to their full adult height. They usually have more impulse control by now and may be better able to gauge risks and rewards accurately. In comparison to middle adolescents, youth in late adolescence might find themselves thinking:

"While I do love Paul Rudd movies, I need to study for my final."

"I should wear a condom…even though my girlfriend is on birth control, that's not 100% in preventing pregnancy."

"Even though marijuana is legal, I'm worried about how it might affect my mood and work/school performance."

Teens entering early adulthood have a stronger sense of their own individuality now and can identify their own values . They may become more focused on the future and base decisions on their hopes and ideals. Friendships and romantic relationships become more stable. They become more emotionally and physically separated from their family. However, many reestablish an "adult" relationship with their parents, considering them more an equal from whom to ask advice and discuss mature topics with, rather than an authority figure.

More information

What's Going On Inside the Teen Brain?

Ages and Stages: Teen

Ages and Stages: Puberty

What is an Adolescent Health Specialist?

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Article contents

Identity development in adolescence and adulthood.

• Jane Kroger Jane Kroger Department of Psychology, University of Tromsoe
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.54
• Published online: 27 February 2017

Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson was the first professional to describe and use the concept of ego identity in his writings on what constitutes healthy personality development for every individual over the course of the life span. Basic to Erikson’s view, as well as those of many later identity writers, is the understanding that identity enables one to move with purpose and direction in life, and with a sense of inner sameness and continuity over time and place. Erikson considered identity to be psychosocial in nature, formed by the intersection of individual biological and psychological capacities in combination with the opportunities and supports offered by one’s social context. Identity normally becomes a central issue of concern during adolescence, when decisions about future vocational, ideological, and relational issues need to be addressed; however, these key identity concerns often demand further reflection and revision during different phases of adult life as well. Identity, thus, is not something that one resolves once and for all at the end of adolescence, but rather identity may continue to evolve and change over the course of adult life too.

Following Erikson’s initial writings, subsequent theorists have laid different emphases on the role of the individual and the role of society in the identity formation process. One very popular elaboration of Erikson’s own writings on identity that retains a psychosocial focus is the identity status model of James Marcia. While Erikson had described one’s identity resolution as lying somewhere on a continuum between identity achievement and role confusion (and optimally located nearer the achievement end of the spectrum), Marcia defined four very different means by which one may approach identity-defining decisions: identity achievement (commitment following exploration), moratorium (exploration in process), foreclosure (commitment without exploration), and diffusion (no commitment with little or no exploration). These four approaches (or identity statuses) have, over many decades, been the focus of over 1,000 theoretical and research studies that have examined identity status antecedents, behavioral consequences, associated personality characteristics, patterns of interpersonal relations, and developmental forms of movement over time. A further field of study has focused on the implications for intervention that each identity status holds. Current research seeks both to refine the identity statuses and explore their dimensions further through narrative analysis.

• identity status
• identity formation
• adolescence

Introduction

We know what we are, but not what we may be . Shakespeare, Hamlet

The question of what constitutes identity has been answered differently through different historical epochs and through different theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding identity’s form and functions. However, basic to all identity definitions is an attempt to understand the entity that, ideally, enables one to move with purpose and direction in life and with a sense of internal coherence and continuity over time and place. Despite the changing physique that aging inevitably brings and the changing environmental circumstances that one invariably encounters through life, a well-functioning identity enables one to experience feelings of personal meaning and well-being and to find satisfying and fulfilling engagements in one’s social context. The means by which one experiences a feeling of sameness in the midst of continual change is the focus of identity theory and research.

Historically, concerns with questions of identity are relatively recent. Baumeister and Muraven ( 1996 ) and Burkitt ( 2011 ) have noted how changes in Western society, specifically the degree to which society has dictated one’s adult roles, have varied enormously over time. Additional changes have occurred in the loosening of social guidelines, restrictions, and constraints, such that contemporary late adolescents experience almost unlimited freedom of choice in their assumption of adult roles and values. In Medieval times, adolescents and adults were prescribed an identity by society in a very direct manner. Social rank and the kinship networks into which one was born set one’s adult roles for life. In early modern times, wealth rather than kinship networks became the standard for self-definition. In the first half of the twentieth century , apprenticeship systems that prepared adolescents for one specific line of work were giving way to more liberal forms of education, thus preparing adolescents for a broad range of occupational pathways. A more liberal educational system, however, eventually required occupational choice in line with one’s own interests and capacities. In addition, many regions in the United States became more tolerant of diversity in attitudes and values, and gender roles became more fluid. Thus, by the middle of the twentieth century in the United States and many other Western nations, the burden of creating an adult identity was now falling largely on the shoulders of late adolescents themselves.

Into this twentieth century United States context came Erik Erikson, a German immigrant (escaping Hitler’s rise to power) and psychoanalyst, trained by Anna Freud. Erikson began his clinical work and writings on optimal personality development in the Boston area, focusing, in particular, on the concept of identity and identity crisis . As an immigrant, Erikson was acutely attuned to the role of the social context and its influence on individual personality development, and, as a psychoanalyst, he was also adept at understanding the roles of conscious as well as unconscious motivations, desires, and intentions, as well as biological drives on individual behavior.

Erikson ( 1963 ) first used the term “ego identity” to describe a central disturbance among some of his veteran patients returning from World War II with a diagnosis of “shell shock” (or currently, post-traumatic stress disorder), who seemed to be experiencing a loss of self-sameness and continuity in their lives:

What impressed me most was the loss in these men of a sense of identity. They knew who they were; they had a personal identity. But it was as if subjectively, their lives no longer hung together—and never would again. There was a central disturbance in what I then started to call ego identity. (Erikson, 1963 , p. 42)

Through identity’s absence in the lives of these young men, Erikson came to understand the tripartite nature of identity, that he believed to be comprised of biological, psychological, and social factors. It was often a particular moment in a soldier’s life history where soma, psyche, and society conspired to endanger identity foundations that necessitated clinical care. And, thus, it was through disruptions to individual identity that Erikson more clearly came to understand identity’s form and functions.

Erikson has often been referred to as “identity’s architect” (e.g., Friedman, 1999 ), and his initial writings on identity served as the springboard for many later theorists and researchers to examine further identity’s many dimensions. Erikson’s psychosocial approach will thus serve as the organizing framework for a review of research on identity development during adolescent and adult life.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Orientation

Erikson’s ( 1963 , 1968 ) understanding of identity views the phenomenon as a result of the mutual interaction of individual and context; while individual interests and capacities, wishes and desires draw individuals to particular contexts, those contexts, in turn, provide recognition (or not) of individual identity and are critical to its further development. Erikson stressed the important interactions among the biological, psychological, and social forces for optimal personality development. He suggested a series of eight psychosocial tasks over the course of the life span that follow an epigenetic principle, such that resolution to one task sets the foundation for all that follow. Identity vs. Role Confusion is the fifth psychosocial task that Erikson identified, becoming of primary importance during adolescence. Resolution to preceding tasks of Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Doubt and Shame, Initiative vs. Guilt, Industry vs. Inferiority are the foundations upon which one’s resolution to Identity vs. Role Confusion is based, according to Erikson; resolution to subsequent adult tasks of Intimacy vs. Role Confusion, Generativity vs. Stagnation, and Integrity vs. Despair all similarly depend upon resolution to the Identity vs. Role Confusion task of adolescence.

Erikson ( 1963 , 1968 ) postulated a number of key identity concepts that have served as foundations for much subsequent identity research. For Erikson, identity formation involves finding a meaningful identity direction on a continuum between identity attainment and role confusion . The process of identity formation requires identity exploration and commitment , the synthesis of childhood identifications into a new configuration, related to but different from, the sum of its parts. The identity formation process is extremely arduous for some, and the resolutions of a negative identity or identity foreclosure are two means by which the identity formation process can be bypassed. A negative identity involves identity choices based on roles and values that represent polar opposites of those espoused by one’s family and/or immediate community. Thus, the daughter of a Midwestern minister of religion runs away to become a prostitute in inner city Chicago. A foreclosed identity resolution also avoids the identity formation process by basing identity-defining choices on key identifications, mostly with parental values, without exploring potential alternatives.

Erikson ( 1963 , 1968 ) also proposed several further concepts for optimal identity development. A moratorium process, the active consideration and exploration of future possible identity-defining adult roles and values, was considered vital to optimal identity development. Erikson also became well known for his use of the term identity crisis , an acute period of questioning one’s own identity directions. And finally, Erikson stressed that while an initial resolution to the Identity vs. Role Confusion task often occurs during adolescence, identity is never resolved once and for all, but rather remains open to modifications and alterations throughout adult life. The strength of Erikson’s approach lies in its consideration of both individual and sociocultural factors and their mutual interaction in identity construction and development. Erikson’s model of identity development has wide applicability across cultural contexts and highlights the ongoing nature of identity development throughout adulthood. Weaknesses include his imprecise language, which at times makes operationalization of key concepts difficult, and his historically dated concepts regarding women’s identity development.

While other psychosocial models have evolved from Erikson’s original writings (e.g., Whitbourne’s [ 2002 ] identity processing theory, Berzonsky’s [ 2011 ] social cognitive identity styles, McAdams’s [ 2008 ] narrative approach), it is Erikson’s identity formation concepts, particularly those operationalized by Marcia ( 1966 ) (Marcia, Waterman, Matteson, Archer, & Orlofsky, 1993 ) that have generated an enormous volume of empirical research over past decades and will be the primary focus of subsequent sections of this article.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Approach and Marcia’s Identity Status Model

As a young Ph.D. student in clinical psychology, James Marcia was interested in Erikson’s writings but suspected that the process of identity formation during late adolescence to be somewhat more complicated than what Erikson ( 1963 ) had originally proposed. While Erikson had conceptualized an identity resolution as lying on a continuum between identity and role confusion, an entity that one had “more or less of,” Marcia proposed that there were four qualitatively different pathways by which late adolescents or young adults went about the process of forming an identity. Based on the presence or absence of exploration and commitment around several issues important to identity development during late adolescence, Marcia ( 1966 ; Marcia et al., 1993 ) developed a semi-structured Identity Status Interview to identify four identity pathways, or identity statuses, among late adolescent or young adult interviewees.

An individual in the identity achieved status had explored various identity-defining possibilities and had made commitments on his or her own terms, trying to match personal interests, talents, and values with those available in the environmental context. Equally committed to an identity direction was the foreclosed individual, who had formed an identity, but without undergoing an exploration process. This person’s identity had been acquired primarily through the process of identification—by assuming the identity choices of significant others without serious personal consideration of alternative possibilities. An individual in the moratorium identity status was very much in the process of identity exploration, seeking meaningful life directions but not yet making firm commitments and often experiencing considerable discomfort in the process. Someone in the diffusion identity status had similarly not made identity-defining commitments and was not attempting to do so.

Marcia et al.’s ( 1993 ) Identity Status Interview was designed to tap the areas (or domains) of occupation, political, religious, and sexual values that had been described by Erikson as key to the identity formation process. In Marcia’s view, however, the nature of the identity domain was not as critical to the assessment of identity status as was finding the identity-defining issues most salient to any given individual. Marcia suggested the use of clinical judgment in assigning a global identity status, the mode that seemed to best capture an adolescent’s identity formation process. It must be noted that Marcia and his colleagues (Marcia et al., 1993 ) have never attempted to capture all of the rich dimensions of identity outlined by Erikson through the Identity Status Interview; such a task would be unwieldy, if not impossible. Marcia does, however, build on Erikson’s concepts of identity exploration and comment to elaborate these identity dimensions in relation to those psychosocial roles and values identified by Erikson as key to the identity formation process of many late adolescents.

Subsequent to the original Identity Status Interview, several paper-and-pencil measures were developed to assess Marcia’s four identity statuses. One widely used measure has been the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS II), devised and revised through several versions by Adams and his colleagues (Adams, Bennion, & Huh, 1989 ; Adams & Ethier, 1999 ). This questionnaire measure enables identity status assessments in four ideological (occupation, religion, politics, philosophy of life) and four interpersonal domains (friendships, dating, gender roles, recreation/leisure), as well as providing a global rating.

Different dimensions of identity exploration and commitment processes have also been identified through several recent and expanded identity status models (Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, & Beyers, 2006 ; Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008 ). Luyckx and his colleagues differentiated two types of exploration (exploration in breadth and exploration in depth) and two types of commitment (commitment making and identification with commitment). Exploration in breadth is that moratorium process identified by Marcia, while exploration in depth describes the process of considering a commitment already made and how well it expresses one’s own identity. Commitment making refers to deciding an identity-defining direction, while identification with commitment describes the process of integrating one’s commitments into an internal sense of identity. Later, Luyckx and his colleagues (Luyckx, Schwartz, Berzonsky, Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Smits, et al., 2008 ) also identified a process of ruminative exploration.

Meeus and his colleagues (e.g., Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008 ) also identified three identity processes: commitment, exploration in depth, and reconsideration of commitments. Commitment here refers to the dimensions of commitment making and identification with commitment in the Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, and Beyers ( 2006 ) model; exploration in depth corresponds to that dimension in the Luyckx model. Reconsideration of commitment refers to one’s willingness to replace current commitments with new ones. In this model, commitment and reconsideration reflect identity certainty and uncertainty, respectively, in the identity formation process.

Through cluster analysis, these two groups of researchers have extracted clusters that match all of Marcia’s original identity statuses. In addition, Luyckx and his colleagues (Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, Beyers, & Vansteenkiste, 2005 ) identified two types of diffusion—troubled and carefree—while Meeus, van de Schoot, Keijsers, Schwartz, and Branje ( 2010 ) found two types of moratoriums—classical (where the individual exhibits anxiety and depression in the identity exploration process) and searching (where new commitments are considered without discarding present commitments). Work has now begun to explore the identity formation process during adolescence and young adulthood with these refined identity statuses, which hold interesting implications for understanding both adaptive and non-adaptive identity development.

Over the time since Marcia’s initial studies, the identity statuses have been examined in relation to personality and behavioral correlates, relationship styles, and developmental patterns of change over time. Most of the studies reviewed in subsequent sections address some aspect of identity development during adolescence or young adulthood; a later section will focus on identity development research during adulthood. It must be further noted that discussion of identity statuses here will be limited to general (or global) identity and its relationship to associated variables.

Personality and Behavioral Correlates of the Identity Statuses

Work utilizing Marcia’s original identity status model, as well as its more recent refinements, have focused on personality and behavioral variables associated with each identity status in order to help validate the model; such studies have produced some reasonably consistent results over time. In terms of personality variables associated with the identity statuses, Kroger and her colleagues (e.g., Martinussen & Kroger, 2013 ) have produced a series of findings utilizing techniques of meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a “study of studies,” using statistical procedures to examine (sometimes contradictory) results from different individual studies addressing comparable themes over time. Results from such meta-analytic studies allow greater confidence in results than a narrative review of individual studies can provide. The personality variables of self-esteem, anxiety, locus of control, authoritarianism, moral reasoning, and ego development and their relations to identity status have attracted sufficient studies for meta-analyses to be undertaken and are described in the sections that follow. While a number of other personality variables have also been examined in identity status studies over the past decades, their numbers have been insufficient to enable meta-analytic studies.

An initial database for all studies included in the meta-analytic work described in the following sections was comprised of some 565 English-language studies (287 journal publications and 278 doctoral dissertations) identified from PsycInfo, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, and Dissertation Abstracts International databases, using the following search terms: identity and Marcia, identity and Marcia’s, and ego identity. Cohen’s ( 1988 ) criteria were used to define small, medium, and large effect sizes. In some of the meta-analyses that follow, different methods were used to assess identity status (categorical ratings of identity status and scale measures of identity status). Separate meta-analyses had to be undertaken for studies utilizing each of these two types of identity status assessments for statistical reasons.

Self-Esteem

Ryeng, Kroger, and Martinussen ( 2013a ) undertook meta-analytic studies of the relationship between identity status and global self-esteem. A total of twelve studies with 1,124 participants provided the data for these studies. The achieved identity status was the only status to have a positive correlation with self-esteem ( r = .35), considered to be moderate in effect size. Mean correlations between self-esteem and the moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion statuses were all negative (−.23, −.23, and −.20, respectively) and considered small to moderate in effect size. All of these correlations were significantly different from zero, based on their confidence intervals. When identity status was assessed categorically, there was no difference in effect size between achievements and foreclosures on self-esteem measures. The effect size for the foreclosure-diffusion comparison ( g̅ = −0.19) was small to medium and also significant. Remaining comparisons evidenced small effect size differences in self-esteem scores. Findings here were mixed, as previous research had also produced mixed results on the question of whether foreclosure self-esteem scores would be lower than or similar to those of the identity achieved. Here, results show that only the achieved status (when the identity statuses were measured by continuous scales) produced a moderately positive correlation with self-esteem, while there was no difference in effect sizes between the achieved and foreclosed identity status when studies assessing identity status categorically were analyzed. Thus, the relationship between identity status and self-esteem may depend upon how identity status is measured.

Lillevoll, Kroger, and Martinussen ( 2013a ) examined the relationship between identity status and generalized anxiety through meta-analysis. Twelve studies involving 2,104 participants provided data for this investigation. Effect size differences in anxiety scores for moratoriums compared with foreclosures ( g̅ = 0.39) and for the foreclosure–diffusion comparison ( g̅ = −0.40) were small to moderate. Additionally the confidence intervals for both of these effect sizes did not contain zero, indicating a significant result. A significant moderate effect size ( g̅ = 0.46) was also found in the achievement–foreclosure comparison, but for men only. As predicted, foreclosures had lower anxiety scores compared with all other identity statuses except the achievement women. While it was predicted that those in the achievement identity status would have lower anxiety scores than those in moratorium and diffusion statuses, a small but significant effect size difference was found for the achievement–moratorium comparison only ( g̅ = −0.22). Thus, the moratoriums showed higher generalized anxiety scores than foreclosures, who, in turn, showed lower anxiety scores than the diffusions and male achievements. It appears that unexamined identity commitments undertaken by the foreclosures provided relief from the anxieties and uncertainties of uncommitted identity directions experienced by the moratoriums and diffusions.

Locus of Control

Lillevoll, Kroger, and Martinussen ( 2013b ) examined the relationship between identity status and locus of control. Some five studies with a total of 711 participants provided data for this study. A positive correlation between identity achievement and internal locus of control ( r = .26) and a negative correlation between identity achievement and external locus of control ( r = −.17) was found; these effect sizes are considered small to medium. The moratorium identity status was negatively correlated with internal locus of control ( r = −.17) and positively with an external locus of control ( r = .17), both considered small to medium effect sizes. The foreclosure status was negatively correlated the internal locus of control ( r = −.12) and positively with external locus of control ( r = .19), both considered small to medium effect sizes. The diffusions’ status was negatively correlated with internal locus of control ( r = −.15) and positively with external locus of control ( r = .23), both considered small to medium effect sizes. Apart from the moratorium findings, which were anticipated to reflect an internal locus of control, all other results were in expected directions. It appears that the ability to undertake identity explorations on one’s own terms by the identity achieved is associated with an internal locus of control. Moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion statuses are associated with an external locus of control.

Authoritarianism

The relationship between identity status and authoritarianism was investigated by Ryeng, Kroger, and Martinussen ( 2013b ) through meta-analysis. Some nine studies involving 861 participants provided data for this study. The mean difference between authoritarianism scores for the achievement—foreclosure comparison ( g̅ = −0.79) was large in terms of Cohen’s criteria and significant. The mean difference in authoritarianism scores for the moratorium–foreclosure comparison ( g̅ = −0.67) was medium and significant, while the mean difference in authoritarianism scores for the foreclosure and diffusion identity statuses was medium ( g̅ = 0.42) and significant. Other comparisons were relatively small and not significant. That the foreclosures scored higher on authoritarianism than all other identity statuses is consistent with expectations. Foreclosures often base their identity commitments on their identifications with significant others, rather than exploring identity options on their own terms; thus, the rigidity and intolerance of authoritarian attitudes seem to characterize the terms of their identity commitments, in contrast to the more flexible commitments of the identity achieved or moratoriums in the process of finding their own identity directions.

Ego Development

Jespersen, Kroger, and Martinussen ( 2013a ) examined studies utilizing Loevinger’s ( 1976 ) measure of ego development in relation to the identity statuses through meta-analysis. Eleven studies involving 943 participants provided data for this investigation. Odds ratios (OR) were used to examine frequency distributions of the categorical data. Results of correlational studies showed a moderate, positive relationship between ego development and identity status ( r = .35), which was significant. Results from categorical assessments of identity status also showed a strong relationship between identity status and ego development (mean OR = 3.02). This finding means that the odds of being in a postconformist level of ego development were three times greater for those high in identity statuses (achievement and moratorium) compared with those in the low identity statuses (foreclosure and diffusion). The study also found a moderate relationship between identity achievement and ego development (mean OR = 2.15), meaning that the odds of being in a postconformist level of ego development were over two times greater for those in the identity achievement status than remaining identity statuses. However, no relationship was found between the foreclosed/nonforeclosed identity statuses and the conformist/nonconformist levels of ego development, contrary to prediction (mean OR = 1.31). While results indicate a strong likelihood of being in a post-conformist level of ego development for the identity achieved and moratoriums, as one would predict, it is somewhat surprising that the foreclosure status was not associated with conventional levels of ego development. This lack of association requires further investigation.

Moral Reasoning

A meta-analysis of moral reasoning stages (using Kohlberg’s [ 1976 ] stages in relation to the identity statuses) was also undertaken by Jespersen, Kroger, and Martinussen ( 2013b ). Some ten studies involving 884 participants provided data appropriate for this study. Results showed a small positive mean correlation (.15) between identity status and moral reasoning development, which was significant. Results from categorical assessments of both measures indicated a strong relationship between high identity status (achievement and moratorium) and postconventional levels of moral reasoning (mean OR = 4.57). This result means that the odds of being in the postconventional level of moral reasoning are about four and a half times greater for the high identity status group (achievement and moratorium) than the low (foreclosure and diffusion) group. A strong relationship was also found between the achieved identity status and the postconventional level of moral reasoning (mean OR = 8.85), meaning that the odds of being in a postconventional level of moral reasoning were almost nine times greater for the identity achieved than for other identity statuses. However, no significant relationship appeared for the foreclosed/nonforeclosed identity statuses and the conventional/nonconventional levels of moral reasoning, contrary to prediction. While a meaningful relationship was found between postconventional stages of moral reasoning and the moratorium and achievement identity statuses, it is again surprising that no relationship appeared for the foreclosed identity status and conventional levels of moral reasoning. This finding warrants further investigation.

Additional Personality and Behavioral Variables

A number of additional personality and behavioral variables have been explored in relation to the identity statuses, but no further meta-analyses have yet been undertaken. With regard to the newer, more refined measures of identity status, some additional personality and behavioral associations have been noted. Luyckx et al. ( 2008 ) found ruminative exploration related to identity distress and low self-esteem, while exploration in breadth and depth were positively related to self-reflection. Furthermore, commitment-making (particularly identification with commitment) was associated with high self-esteem, high academic and social adjustment, as well as with low depressive symptoms. Crocetti et al. ( 2008 ) similarly found strong, positive associations between commitment and self-concept clarity, in addition to strong negative associations between in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment with self-reflection. Emotional stability was strongly associated with commitment and negatively with in-depth exploration.

Recent work has performed cluster analyses on the exploration and commitment variables, finding four clusters replicating Marcia’s four identity statuses (with the diffusion status including carefree and diffuse diffusions) and an undifferentiated status (Schwartz et al., 2011 ). In terms of psychosocial functioning, achievements were significantly higher than carefree diffusions on a measure of self-esteem; diffusions, in turn, were significantly lower than all other identity statuses on this variable. On a measure of internal locus of control, achievements and moratoriums were significantly higher and carefree diffusions significantly lower than all other identity statuses. On psychological well-being, identity achievements scored significantly higher and carefree diffusions significantly lower than all other identity status groups. For general anxiety, moratoriums and the two diffusion groups scored significantly higher than achievement and foreclosure groups, while the moratoriums scored significantly higher than foreclosures and the two diffusions groups on depression. These findings are generally in line with findings of earlier studies using Marcia’s original model.

Further behavioral studies in relation to the identity statuses have consistently found the identity diffusion status to be related to psychosocial problem behaviors. Delinquent behavior (e.g., Jessor, Turbin, Costa, Dong, Zhang, & Wang, 2003 ; Schwartz, Pantin, Prado, Sullivan, & Szapocznik, 2005 ), substance abuse (e.g., Jones & Hartmann, 1988 ; Laghi, Baiocco, Longiro, & Baumgartner, 2013 ), risky behaviors (e.g., unsafe sex, Hernandez & DiClemente, 1992 ), social, physical aggression, and rule-breaking (carefree diffusions, Schwartz et al., 2011 ), and procrastination (Shanahan & Pychyl, 2006 ) have all been linked with the identity diffusion status. By contrast, the identity achieved have demonstrated a low prevalence of all preceding problem behaviors, coupled with high levels of agency or self-direction and commitment making (e.g., Schwartz et al., 2011 ; Shanahan & Pychyl, 2006 ). Moratoriums have also scored relatively high on levels of social and physical aggression, although they have also scored high on a number of psychosocial measures of well-being (e.g., Schwartz et al., 2011 ).

Relationships and the Identity Statuses

While a number of relational issues have been explored in identity status research (e.g., parental attitudes toward childrearing, family styles of communication, and friendship styles), to date, meta-analyses have been undertaken to examine identity status only in relation to attachment patterns and intimacy or romantic relationships.

Bartholomew and Horowitz ( 1991 ) have proposed that one’s very unique attachment history and subsequent working models of attachment lead to one of four different adolescent/adult attachment styles, or patterns of relating to significant others; these attachment styles become activated particularly in times of stress. S ecurely attached individuals are at ease in becoming close to others and do not worry about being abandoned or having someone become too close to them. Furthermore, they are interdependent—comfortable depending on others and having others depend on them. Those using the avoidant attachment style find it difficult to trust and depend on others and are uncomfortable in becoming too emotionally close. The preoccupied (anxious/ambivalent) attachment group wants to be close to others but worries that others will not reciprocate and will abandon them, while the fearful attachment group wants to be emotionally close to others but are too frightened of being hurt to realize this desire.

These varied styles of attachment have been examined in relation to Marcia’s identity statuses among adolescents and young adults in a number of studies over the past decades, and recent meta-analytic work has explored patterns of findings across studies (Årseth, Kroger, Martinussen, & Marcia, 2009 ). From the large database of 565 identity status studies described earlier, some 14 had data suitable for meta-analysis (a full description of the database can be found in Martinussen & Kroger, 2013 ). A total of 2,329 participants were involved in this investigation. Weak to moderate correlations were found between identity status and attachment style when scale measures were used to assess each variable; the highest mean correlations were between the secure attachment style and identity achievement ( r = .21) as well as identity diffusion ( r = −.23). (Cohen, 1988 , regarded a correlation of .30 as moderate and .10 as weak.) The diffusion status was also weakly to moderately positively correlated with the fearful attachment style ( r = .19). Among categorical assessments of identity status and attachment style, results suggest there are real differences between the identity achieved and foreclosed as well as diffusion identity statuses, with the identity achieved far more likely to be securely attached than foreclosed or diffusion statuses. Data from these studies suggests that one’s relational experiences do have some links to one’s identity status.

According to Erikson’s ( 1963 , 1968 ) epigenetic principle, resolution to the task of Identity vs. Intimacy should set the foundation for resolution to the task of Intimacy vs. Isolation during late adolescence and young adulthood. In Erikson’s ( 1968 ) view, true intimacy involves mutuality and commitment, an acceptance of another with all of his or her strengths and weaknesses in an interdependent, sexual relationship. Erikson ( 1968 ) believed that genuine intimacy requires a sense of identity to be firmly in place, or the relationship becomes merely a tool to help resolve identity concerns for each partner. However, Erikson was unclear about the potential for gender differences in his theory, and a number of feminist writers (e.g., Gilligan, 1982 ) have stressed the importance of relationship issues for women to the identity formation process. Literature examining the relationship between identity and intimacy statuses for late adolescent and young adult men and women has often produced conflicting results.

Thus, a meta-analysis of the relationship between identity status and intimacy for men and women was undertaken by Årseth, Kroger, Martinussen, and Marcia ( 2009 ). Some 21 studies with a total of 1,983 participants were included in meta-analyses here. For studies utilizing scale measures of intimacy, results indicated a low to moderate effect size for men ( g̅ = .35) and women ( g̅ = .30) considered separately, as well as for the total group ( g̅ = .40). All results were significant and indicate that high identity status individuals (achievement and moratorium) scored higher on scale measures of intimacy than low identity status individuals (foreclosures and diffusions). For categorical assessments of identity and intimacy, the picture was somewhat more complex. Among men, the mean odds ratio of having both a high identity and high intimacy status was very high at 22.09, while for women the mean odds ratio was 2.61. In terms of percentages, some 69% of high identity status men were also high in intimacy, while only 23% of low identity status men were high in intimacy. Erikson’s epigenetic principle thus finds strong support among men. Among women, while 65% of high identity status women were also high in intimacy status, some 46% of low identity status women were also high in intimacy status. Thus, the low identity status women were almost equally distributed over high and low intimacy status groups. These results indicate Erikson’s epigenetic principle also was present for a large proportion of women sampled; however, the relationship was significantly stronger for men than women (p < .001), and reasons for this gender difference require further investigation.

Identity Status Change from Adolescence Through Adulthood

Erikson ( 1963 , 1968 ) had proposed that while making initial identity resolutions was a key developmental task of adolescence, identity remained malleable, open to further changes throughout adult life. Similarly, the identity status literature that has pointed to different patterns of movement during young, middle, and late adolescence clearly shows that identity will continue to meet challenges and, for some, the need for revision throughout adulthood. What are the most prevalent patterns of identity status change over the course of adolescent and adult life, and what are the key events primarily associated with these changes?

A number of studies addressing identity status changes over time have now been undertaken, and a series of meta-analytic investigations are perhaps the most effective means of summarizing common patterns of movement and stability in the identity status literature. Kroger, Martinussen, and Marcia ( 2010 ) investigated some 72 of 124 identity studies that contained developmental information from the larger database of 565 English-language identity status studies described earlier. Movement patterns were investigated in several ways.

When movements over approximately three years of late adolescence and young adulthood were examined longitudinally from data that assessed identity status in categorical terms, the mean proportion of adolescents making progressive identity status changes (D–F, D–M, D–A, F–M, F–A, and M–A) was .36, compared with .15 who made regressive changes (A–M, A–F, A–D, M–F, M–D, and F–D) and .49 who remained stable (A–A, M–M, F–F, D–D) over this time period. It is interesting that the mean proportion of those remaining stable in identity status was so high, especially during the time of late adolescence that Erikson ( 1968 ) has identified as central to the identity formation process. As anticipated, the highest mean proportions of progressive movements were from M–A (.46), F–A (.22), and F–M (.22). The highest mean proportions of those remaining stable were the committed identity achieved (.66) and the foreclosed (.53) statuses. The highest mean proportions of those making regressive movements were from A–F (.17) and M–F (.17).

For cross-sectional studies assessing identity status in categorical terms, the mean proportion of identity achievements increased steadily through the high school years, dropped upon university entry and increased to .34 by age 22 years. It was not until the 30–36 year age group that about half of the participants were rated identity achieved (.47). The mean proportion of moratoriums rose fairly steadily to age 19 years, which peaked at .42 and declined fairly steadily thereafter through the 30–36 year age span. The mean proportion of foreclosures dropped fairly steadily to a low at age 19 years of .12, but then showed and up and down movement throughout remaining ages to .17 in the 30–36 year age group. The mean proportion of diffusions declined fairly steadily from age 14–20 years of age (from .36 to .21), but by age 21 years, the diffusions rose again to .26 and showed up and down movement until the final 30–36 year age span (.14).

For cross-sectional studies using continuous measures of identity status, it was anticipated that achievement and moratorium scores would increase across age groups and foreclosure and diffusion scores would decrease over time. Studies here were based on data for early and mid-adolescents. The anticipated patterns were found, but all effect sizes were small. It may be that more pronounced identity status changes occur during and beyond late adolescence.

Additional studies of identity status change through middle and later adulthood years not included in meta-analyses have also generally found slow, progressive identity status movements over time. Fadjukoff, Pulkkinen, and Kokko ( 2016 ) analyzed identity status longitudinally in a Finnish sample of men and women drawn from the general population. Identity status was assessed at ages 27, 36, 42, and 50 years. Movement towards identity achievement was predominant on the overall measure of identity status, with women typically reaching identity achievement earlier than men. In a narrative analysis of identity pathways among women assessed from late adolescence through mid-life, Josselson ( 1996 ) found a diversity of identity pathways, with achievement and foreclosure pathways tending to be the most stable over time. Carlsson, Wängqvist, and Frisén ( 2015 ) have also examined identity status change and stability in a longitudinal study of young adults at ages 25 and 29 years in Sweden. Half of participants were coded in the same identity status at Times 1 and 2, while half who changed did so in a progressive direction. Additional identity processes of how people approach life-changing situations, the extent to which they continue to engage in meaning-making, and how they continue to develop their personal life directions were explored through narrative methods among foreclosed and achieved participants. Identity achievement was associated with continued identity development over time, while patterns for ongoing development among foreclosures were more mixed. McLean and Pasupathi ( 2012 ) have made a plea for the use of narrative methods that examine reconstructions of past events to supplement current understandings of the exploration and commitment processes involved on ongoing identity development throughout the life span. Additional identity processes may usefully be identified through such means.

Events Associated with Identity Status Change

An issue that researchers have been exploring over several decades is the question of what kinds of circumstances are associated with identity status change and, conversely, what circumstances are linked with identity status stability. Some hints have appeared in related literatures. For example, Helson and Roberts ( 1994 ) found that some optimal level of “accommodative challenge” or life stimulation is critical for adult ego development (referring to Loevinger’s, 1976 , model of ego development). Accommodative challenge is a circumstance or event that involves either a positive or negative disruption to one’s life. It may be that such life challenges are important to ongoing identity development over time as well.

Anthis and colleagues (Anthis, 2002 , 2011 ; Anthis & La Voie, 2006 ) have conducted several investigations into life events associated with identity exploration and commitment. In her “calamity theory of growth” model, Anthis ( 2002 ) has found stressful life events, such as divorce or job loss, to be associated with increased levels of identity exploration and decreases in identity commitments. She has also found increased levels of identity exploration to be associated with a “readiness for change” measure (Anthis & La Voie, 2006 ). Anthis suggests investigating how optimal levels of perceived conflict interact with other factors for different cohorts of people in exploring the role that life events may play in ongoing identity development during adulthood.

Additionally, Kunnen ( 2006 , 2010 ) asks if conflict may be the driver of identity change. In a study of freshman university students, she found that students who experienced a conflict in their career goals increased identity exploratory activity and also manifested a decrease in the strength of their present commitments. Furthermore, those experiencing conflict perceived more change in their commitments as compared to nonconflicted students. The types and levels of perceived identity conflict and the mechanisms by which conflict may stimulate or impair ongoing identity development are in need of further study. Lilgendahl’s ( 2015 ) narrative work reiterates the value of negative events and their potential for psychological growth during midlife, while events that are understood as positive are key to the formation of identity commitments during young adulthood.

Identity Development in Adulthood

Research into ongoing identity development during adulthood has taken several forms. Some researchers have attempted to understand the relationship between resolution to identity issues during late adolescence or young adulthood and the Eriksonian psychosocial tasks of adulthood: Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood), Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood), and Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood). Others have attempted to examine selected issues of identity during these specific adult life phases and whether or not identity cohesion and stability increase with age over the course of adulthood. The following brief overview presents some selected findings from these strands of identity research during various phases of adult life.

According to Erikson’s ( 1963 , 1968 ) epigenetic principle, resolutions to earlier psychosocial tasks will impact resolutions to all subsequent ones. Research to date has generally supported this proposal, with some caveats for the relationship between identity and intimacy, described in meta-analytic studies in a preceding section. The relationships among identity, generativity, and integrity have only recently become a focus of research attention, and they present important opportunities for future investigations. Beaumont and Pratt ( 2011 ) have examined links among Berzonsky’s ( 2011 ) identity styles, Intimacy vs. Isolation, and Generativity vs. Stagnation in samples of young and midlife adults. They found that the informational style (associated with identity achievement) was linked with both the capacity for intimacy and generativity, while the diffuse–avoidant style (associated with identity diffusion) was negatively linked with both intimacy and generativity. The normative identity style (associated with the foreclosure identity status) also positively predicted resolution to intimacy and generativity tasks of adulthood. Pulkkinen, Lyyra, Fadjukoff, and Kokko ( 2012 ) obtained longitudinal data from Finnish adults at ages 27, 36, 42, and 50 years on measures including parental identity, general identity, generativity, and integrity. Generativity scores (as well as scores for psychological and social well-being) were highest if parental identity was achieved by age 42. On a cross-sectional basis, Hearn, Saulnier, Strayer, Glenham, Koopman, and Marcia ( 2012 ) examined the relationship between identity status and a measure of integrity status. A significant relationship was found, with some 86% of integrated persons rated as identity achieved, while no despairing persons were. Those in the non-exploring integrity status (in which questions of personal life meanings were unexplored), the pseudo-integrated integrity status (in which the world was understood in terms of simplistic templates or clichéd meanings), and the despairing integrity status were most frequently in the foreclosed identity status. Hannah, Domino, Figueredo, and Hendrickson ( 1996 ) explored predictors of Integrity vs. Despair in a sample of later life adults, finding the most predictive and parsimonious variables to be trust, autonomy, identity, and intimacy, with no meaningful gender differences. Thus, Erikson’s epigenetic principle has found considerable support over time and illustrates the important role that identity resolution plays to the resolution of subsequent psychosocial tasks during adulthood.

While Erikson ( 1963 , 1968 ) had postulated the ongoing nature of identity development throughout adulthood, and Stephen, Fraser, and Marcia ( 1992 ) had first proposed the likelihood of ongoing moratorium–achievement–moratorium–achievement cycles in adult identity development, there have been relatively few efforts to examine the nature of change and continuity in identity development over the course of adulthood. While some early research has estimated the likelihood of a midlife identity crisis to be about 10% (e.g., Brim, 1992 ), recent work has pointed to ongoing times of identity crisis (or revision) during the later adult years as well (Robinson & Stell, 2015 ). Experiences of well-being have been examined in relation to adult psychosocial stage resolutions in the Rochester Adult Longitudinal Study (Sneed, Whitbourne, Schwartz, & Huang, 2011 ), where scores on both identity and intimacy measures in early and middle adulthood predicted midlife feelings of satisfaction and well-being. A sense of coherence and life satisfaction in later adult years has been fully mediated by resolution to Integrity vs. Despair (Dezutter, Wiesmann, Apers, & Luyckx, 2013 ). Much remains to be learned about ongoing identity development in the adulthood years, and the relation of identity to subsequent psychosocial tasks and additional personality variables.

What the Identity Statuses Mean

Through the decades since Marcia ( 1966 ) developed his identity status model, there has been considerable discussion in the literature about what the identity statuses actually mean and how best to assess them. Marcia ( 1980 ) considers identity to be a structure for organizing individual conscious and unconscious wishes, interests, skills, and talents within the framework of one’s biology and cultural context. His identity status model was intended to reflect the movement through Erikson’s ( 1963 , 1968 ) identity formation process, from an identity based on identifications (foreclosure status), through an exploration (moratorium) process, to a new configuration, based on but different from the sum of its identificatory elements (achievement).

In considering the question of what it is that actually changes in an identity status transition, Kroger ( 2003 ) has suggested that qualitatively different forms of ego organization underlie each of Marcia’s identity statuses. However, after an initial identity has formed, further use of the identity status model during adult life begs the question of what the identity statuses actually mean when applied to adults. While new identity-defining decisions may occur in adult life, is there an actual underlying structural change of identity? There may or may not be. There may actually be new or additional structures of ego organization that underlie the identity achievement status of adulthood, and future research could fruitfully explore this issue. Lile ( 2013 , 2015 ) considers structural identity boundaries for each of the identity statuses and offers some empirical support for a structural model of identity that underlies the identity statuses. Identity status research in adulthood should carefully consider the meaning that the identity statuses may hold when applied to a life phase beyond that for which they were originally developed.

Conclusions

Historically, the task of identity formation is a relatively recent phenomenon. Erikson ( 1963 , 1968 ) first used the identity concept in his clinical writings to describe that entity that seemed to be lacking in the lives of young men returning from combat in World War II. From Erikson’s early writings, several broad approaches to identity theory and research have emerged, laying differential emphasis on the psychosocial, phenomenological, and the contextual nature of identity. This article has reviewed some of the writings and research that have sprung from the identity status model of James Marcia ( 1966 , 1980 ). This review has documented meta-analytic work covering the associations of Marcia’s four identity statuses with various personality, relational, and behavioral variables, as well as documenting the most common patterns of identity status change and stability during adolescence and adulthood. The review has also documented the role that resolution to questions of identity plays in resolutions to ongoing psychosocial tasks of adulthood.

Further identity research could fruitfully explore both the meaning of the identity statuses in ongoing adult identity development as well as the processes and contents of identity changes during adult life. The role of regression in adolescent and adult identity development is poorly understand, occurring more frequently than can be predicted by chance alone (see Kroger et al., 2010 ). Understanding what kinds of regression there may be and whether or not specific types of regression are vital to ongoing adult identity development are important avenues for further identity research. And though identity concerns of adolescence have many parallels to identity issues of later adulthood, very little identity-related theory and research has been undertaken with older adults. (For example, individuals in both phases of the life span must adjust to important biological changes, deal with philosophical questions of life’s meanings, and readjustment to changing demands from social contexts.) It is hoped that this article will present a foundation upon which future psychosocial research into the process and contents of identity development from adolescence through adulthood can take place.

Further Reading

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A development concept of adolescence: the case of adolescents in the Philippines

2004, Philippine Population Review

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Shehu Yahaya Tsagem

Seoyeon Cho

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Dr. Shikha Kapur , Dr. Shikha Kapur

ABSTRACT This article examines the important transitory stage in human life i.e. adolescence- a life stage, that lies between childhood and adulthood. Beginning around 10, 11 or 12 years, adolescence concludes between 18-21 years of age. It is a stage, when complete metamorphosis takes place and is akin to a butterfly emerging from its cocoon which in its former stage is a caterpillar! The speed of adolescent changes varies among cultures and societies since they are contingent on the processes of socialization, training and education. Key developmental milestones are achieved during adolescence and in order to understand adolescents it is important to understand their physical, cognitive, psychological, socialemotional, moral, educational and vocational development and the ensuing changes. Sex differences exist between boys and girls when we examine all these factors. The end of this tumultuous period entails physical and sexual maturation, social and economic independence, development of identity, acquisition of skills needed to carry out adult relationships and roles, and the capacity for abstract reasoning. Parents, teachers, peers and the significant others in the adolescent’s environment have to be supportive and empathetic of the turmoil that they go through to enable a smooth well adjusted transition into adulthood. Keywords: adolescence, adolescents, human development, child development, child, childhood, adulthood, cognitive, social, emotional, moral, development, vocational, late maturer, early maturer, transition. Link: http://www.hhecu.org/Home/Issuedetails?t=ReL4FRYircqCfLTnsEw%252fpw%253d%253d

Interal Res journa Managt Sci Tech

Human life completes its journey through various stages and one of the most vital stages is adolescence. Adolescence is the period of transition from childhood to adulthood and plays a decisive role in the formation of prosocial/antisocial adult. All of us undergo this stage which poses many challenges and is full of excitement. At the same time it demands adjustment on many fronts. When we come to this world we are completely dependent upon others and learn gradually to be independent. In India, the adolescents do most of the work themselves but the final decision regarding various domains of life is taken by their parents. For example, an adolescent wishes to enjoy movies but parents may force him/her to complete study first. Parents claim that they have more practical knowledge and experience and tend to treat adolescents like children. This lesson shall help you understand the nature of adolescence and its challenges and major tasks faced by the adolescents, the influences that shape their personality and some of the important problems faced by the adolescents. CONCEPT OF ADOLESCENCE Adolescence is a period of transition when the individual changes-physically and psychologically-from a child to an adult. It is a period when rapid physiological and psychological changes demand for new social roles to take place. The adolescents, due to these changes often face a number of crises and dilemmas. It is the period when the child moves from dependency to autonomy. It demands significant adjustment to the physical and social changes. The adolescence period in the Indian social system comes under Brahmacharya (apprenticeship).This is the first ashram (stage of life) of development stages. In this stage, the child learns the basic skills in relation to his future role as a responsible adult. It is a fact that all living beings pass through specific stages or phases of development. Erikson believed that each stage of life is marked by a specific crisis or conflict between competing tendencies. Only if individuals negotiate each of these hurdles successfully they can develop in a normal and healthy manner. During this phase adolescents must integrate various roles into a consistent self-identity. If they fail to do so, they may experience confusion over who they are.

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This article is written with our Owen convictions as competitive students in the academic jamboree and due to the pro-active and unabated quantum of youngster’s physiological transition and contextual influences during adolescence development. This paper shows the environmental cues and detailed description of topics that have dominated recent research, including the meaning of adolescence, preadolescence, social, the mental and emotional development of the adolescent child, adolescent problem-solving behaviour (skills), parent-adolescent relations, puberty, the development of the self, and peer relations. We then identify and elaborate on what seem to us to be the most important new directions that have come to the fore in the last decade, including research on the strange and significant interests of adolescents (be it recreational, religious or influential interests), their developmental tasks and contextual influences on development, genetic behaviours that passed on through their family lineage, and some intellectual developments, they undergo (together with the time span at which this intelligence level (IQ) of every single adolescent can be developed). We go further to briefly explain the problems that result from some of the physical deviations that occur during the adolescence period (changes) and how we can help to make these deviations suit us or our children properly. We also expound on the need for adolescents to take up leadership positions or roles and the merits and demerits of associating with friends (and also the type of friends to keep). We draw the curtains down with a well knowledgeable summary that briefly outlines everything discussed in the chapters plus some solutions to help curb some of the problems adolescents are challenged with.

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The study broadly explores the thesis developed by Prof. T.S. Saraswathi that contests the conception of adolescents as a single universal cohort. This study was aimed at exploring adolescence at the micro level by interviewing participants in the age group of 13 to 20 year. The study attempts to understand individuals as situated in their contexts. We found that adolescence is experienced in some way or the other by people of all classes and gender. However, the manifestation and concerns of adolescence may vary.

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In times past, the main focus of the study of psychology has been seen to be on the unacceptable and negative behavioral characteristics of humans and for that matter, adolescents. However the increase in knowledge about psychological issues in young people and especially the quest to understand their behavior, cognition and learning abilities etc., have birthed an aspect of psychology called Adolescent psychology. This aspect of psychology is aimed at understanding teenagers, helping them to understand themselves and guiding them in their milestone transition from childhood to adulthood. Hence with the study of Adolescent psychology, adolescents can be understood better and helped to navigate through their new world of growth, development and learning.

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Chapter 6: Adolescence

Self-concept and self-esteem in adolescence, learning objectives: psychosocial development in adolescence.

• Describe the changes in self-concept and self-esteem in adolescence
• Summarize Erikson’s fifth psychosocial task of identity versus role confusion
• Describe Marcia’s four identity statuses
• Summarize the three stages of ethnic identity development
• Describe the parent-teen relationship
• Describe the role of peers
• Describe dating relationships

In adolescence, teens continue to develop their self-concept. Their ability to think of the possibilities and to reason more abstractly may explain the further differentiation of the self during adolescence. However, the teen’s understanding of self is often full of contradictions. Young teens may see themselves as outgoing but also withdrawn, happy yet often moody, and both smart and completely clueless (Harter, 2012). These contradictions, along with the teen’s growing recognition that their personality and behavior seems to change depending on who they are with or where they are, can lead the young teen to feel like a fraud. With their parents they may seem angrier and sullen, with their friends they are more outgoing and goofy, and at work they are quiet and cautious. “Which one is really me?” may be the refrain of the young teenager. Harter (2012) found that adolescents emphasize traits such as being friendly and considerate more than do children, highlighting their increasing concern about how others may see them. Harter also found that older teens add values and moral standards to their self-descriptions.

As self-concept differentiates, so too does self-esteem. In addition to the academic, social, appearance, and physical/athletic dimensions of self-esteem in middle and late childhood, teens also add perceptions of their competency in romantic relationships, on the job, and in close friendships (Harter, 2006). Self-esteem often drops when children transition from one school setting to another, such as shifting from elementary to middle school, or junior high to high school (Ryan, Shim, & Makara, 2013). These drops are usually temporary, unless there are additional stressors such as parental conflict, or other family disruptions (De Wit, Karioja, Rye, & Shain, 2011). Self-esteem rises from mid to late adolescence for most teenagers, especially if they feel competent in their peer relationships, their appearance, and athletic abilities (Birkeland, Melkivik, Holsen, & Wold, 2012).

• Authored by : Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French. Provided by : College of Lake County Foundation. Located at : http://dept.clcillinois.edu/psy/LifespanDevelopment.pdf . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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