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Identity Style, Parental Authority, and Identity Commitment

NCJ Number
205670
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 33 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2004 Pages: 213-220
Author(s)
Michael D. Berzonsky
Date Published
June 2004
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Because identity styles have been found to be uniquely associated with identity commitment and are postulated to have a role in the way individuals construct and maintain identity commitments, this study tested the hypothesis that identity style mediates the relationship between parental authority and commitment in parent-child interactions.
Abstract
Recently some researchers have focused on the social-cognitive processing orientations or styles used by adolescents, and they have called the outcomes of this processing as having a distinctive identity status. Identity processing style refers to self-reported differences in how individuals process self-relevant information, negotiate identity issues, and make decisions. Identity styles are also associated with differences in identity commitments. This refers to the behavioral patterns that flow from a particular identity status. The current study focused on the role of parental authority styles in interaction with an adolescent child's social-cognitive identity styles in producing various identity commitments, i.e, behavioral patterns. Study participants were 145 (50 males and 95 females) late adolescents from middle-class backgrounds who were enrolled in a college in upstate New York. The participants completed a number of measures, including the third version of the Identity Style Inventory (ISI) modified version of the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ). The ISI indexes three social-cognitive styles of making decisions, coping with personal problems, and negotiating identity issues. The PAQ measures three types of parental authority: authoritative (decisive but willing to discuss decisions and make changes); authoritarian (controlling without negotiation or discussion); and permissive (very little direction and guidance). The study found that parental authority and identity style variables combined accounted for 50 percent of the variation in strength of identity commitment. As hypothesized, the relationship between parental authority and identity commitment was mediated by identity style. These findings are consistent with the view that patterns of parental authority may contribute to the way in which late adolescents construct a sense of identity. Various explanations of these findings are discussed. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 42 references