How do vocational and relationship stressors and identity formation affectadolescent mental health?

Purpose This article examines the effects of stressors in both the vocation al and relationship career of youngsters in the formation of their identify ; the effects of identity formation on adolescent mental health; the influe nce of career stressors on mental health, directly or via identity, and dif ferences in these effects on boys and Methods: Data were used from the Dutch national panel study, Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development, a study of developmental processes as they occur in the life course ol: young people during the 1990s. Using LISREL, we tes ted hypotheses on two waves of a sample of 1222 respondents between 15 and 24 years of age in Wave 1(1991). Results: The correlation between relationship stressors and relationship id entity can be neglected, while vocational stressors lead to a less achieved vocational identity, particularly in boys. Occupational and relationship i dentity have similar effects on mental health (i.e, the more achieved the i dentity, the better the person's mental health). Vocational and especially relationship stressors lead to poorer mental health, but did not affect the mental health of boys and girls differently. The same goes for the influen ce of relationship and vocational identity formation on mental health. Conclusions: Career stressors, especially stressors in the relationship dom ain, appear to have significant long-term effects on adolescent mental heal th. Vocational and relationship identity formation are also significant pre dictors for adolescent mental health. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 1999.