Patterns of adolescent identity development: Review of literature and longitudinal analysis

A review of theoretical articles demonstrates that the theoretical claims o f the identity status model have been greatly moderated over the past 30 ye ars. It has been established that the model is not sufficiently specific to qualify as a developmental theory, and a teleological and unidirectional i nterpretation of identity development has been abandoned. The development d oes not have a fixed end-target, achievement, and is also not unidirectiona l, i.e., always proceeding from the low statuses to the high: a reverse dev elopmental pathway is also possible. The moderation outlined here does not mean that a dominant direction in development must be denied, nor does it c onflict with the fundamental developmental hypothesis of the identity statu s model, which(1) assumes a decrease in diffusion and foreclosure and an in crease in achievement during the course of development and (2) specifies a pattern of identity status transitions underlying this progressive developm ent. Reviews of empirical studies on identity development support the first assumption of the fundamental developmental hypothesis but not the second, owing to lack of research. An analysis of empirical studies on the relatio nship between identity status and psychological well-being further specifie s the developmental hypothesis. In view of its associated level of psycholo gical well-being, foreclosure emerges as another possible end-point of iden tity development, in addition to achievement. The developmental hypothesis and the relationship between identity status and psychological well-being a re again addressed in a longitudinal study investigating relational and soc ietal identity in a sample of 1538 Dutch adolescents. Four new identity sta tuses are used in this study: diffusion, closure, moratorium, and achieving commitment. The results support the first assumption of the developmental hypothesis, although not completely. For relational identity we find a decr ease in diffusion and an increase in achievement and for societal identity a decrease in diffusion and an increase in closure. This means that a direc tion can in fact be indicated in the development of identity, but that clos ure can also serve as the end-point of the development, particularly for so cietal identity. Moreover, the domain of societal identity in general displ ays a less pronounced development than relational identity. This difference between relational and societal identity can be interpreted in terms of th e distinction between open and closed domains of identity. In order to test the second assumption of the developmental hypothesis, the patterns of ide ntity development were investigated for the first time in identity status r esearch using loglinear analyses. A number of the status transitions propos ed by the developmental hypothesis do not occur, and the developmental path ways are also less comprehensive. We found no indications that identity dev elopment proceeds faster in a certain period of adolescence than in other p eriods. However, the stability of relational identity increases, particular ly in postadolescence, and a slow development of identity results in a lowe r level of psychological well-being. (C) 1999 Academic Press.