Marilyn J. Montgomery

The Role of Identity in Acculturation among Immigrant People: Theoretical Propositions, Empirical Questions, and Applied Recommendations

The present paper advances theoretical propositions regarding the relationship between acculturation and identity. The most central thesis argued is that acculturation represents changes in cultural identity and that personal identity has the potential to ‘anchor’ immigrant people during their transition to a new society. The article emphasizes the experiences of nonwhite, non-Western immigrant people moving to Western nations. The article also calls for research on heretofore unexplored aspects of the relationship of acculturation to personal and social identity. Ideas are proposed for interventions to promote cultural identity change and personal identity coherence.

Psychosocial Intimacy and Identity From Early Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

Age and gender differences in patterns of behavior and experience, cognitive beliefs, affective involvement, and psychosocial functioning in romantic relationships were observed in 473 adolescents and emerging adults (ages 12-24). Older adolescents indicated more dating experiences, times in love, passion, identity, and intimacy. They also reported more commitment-related romantic beliefs but less romantic idealization. Across all grades, females indicated fewer times in love and less tendency to believe in love at first sight but greater intimacy and self-consciousness. In addition, predictions of psychosocial intimacy were examined. For both males and females, greater intimacy was associated with less self-consciousness but more passion, commitment-related beliefs, and psychosocial identity. Implications for creating empirically based resources for facilitating positive development in adolescents’ interpersonal lives are discussed.

The Development and Validation of a Measure of Identity Distress

The most frequently used measures of identity development do not contain a scale to measure the distress that can sometimes be associated with the process. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Identity Distress Survey. The measure was found to have high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Identity distress was related to the constructs of identity style and identity status. Identity distress was positively correlated with identity exploration and associated with the informational style and was negatively correlated with identity commitment. This measure could help identify those people who are having exceptional difficulties in the process of identity development and in need of intervention.

Similarities or Differences in Identity Development? The Impact of Acculturation and Gender on Identity Process and Outcome

This study examined the effects of variations in acculturation and gender on identity processes and outcomes. Three hundred fifty-seven students at a culturally diverse university completed measures of identity processes (exploration, commitment, and identity style) and outcomes (identity status). The generalizability of the underlying identity processes across contextual variations was ascertained by evaluating the consistency of factor solutions across immigrant generation and gender. Results suggested that the processes underlying identity development are consistent across variations in acculturation and gender. Supplemental analyses revealed effects of acculturation and gender on the extent to which individuals utilized various identity processes and manifested various identity outcomes.

A comparison of two approaches for facilitating identity exploration processes in emerging adults an exploratory study

This article, using a controlled design, reports the results of an exploratory study to investigate the impact of two types of intervention strategies (cognitively vs. emotionally focused) on two types of identity processes (self-construction and self-discovery) in a culturally diverse sample of 90 emerging adult university students. A quasi experimental design was used to evaluate the relative impact of the cognitively focused self-construction and emotionally focused self-discovery strategies. Quantitative and qualitative results indicated that cognitively focused intervention strategies were most efficacious in affecting self-constructive identity processes, whereas emotionally focused intervention strategies were most efficacious in affecting self-discovery identity processes. This pattern of differential effects suggests that programs intended to broadly affect identity development should include both types of intervention strategies and should target both self-constructive and self-discovery processes.

Feminist Perspectives on Erikson 's Theory: Their Relevance for Contemporary Identity Development Research

In view of recent controversies about theory and self, identity development researchers need to examine the utility of their own theory. In an effort to begin this enterprise, we define what we see as the central concerns of Erikson s theory a life-span, psychosocial emphasis, and the notion of agentic identity development and use a feminist standpoint analysis to examine the usefulness of these aspects of his theory in a rapidly changing, multicultural context. We critique the theory s emphasis on biology as a significant component of psychosocial development, including the emphasis on the biological distinctiveness of women and men as an explanatory construct. We also address the issue of an androcentric bias that many have argued is interwoven with the theory s core concepts. Finally, we offer conclusions regarding the aspects of the theory we find most useful and most in need of clarification or revision.

Promoting Positive Youth Development New Directions in Developmental Theory, Methods, and Research

The articles in this special issue report the efforts of the Miami Youth Development Project (YDP), a community-supported positive youth development program of outreach research that draws on a developmental intervention science (DIS) perspective (i.e., a fusion of the developmental and intervention science literatures). These reports illustrate how the application of DIS outreach research contributes to knowledge of human development at all levels (practical as well as methodological, theoretical, and metatheoretical). Consistent with a DIS outreach research approach, YDP is committed to the use of descriptive and explanatory knowledge about changes within human systems that occur across the life span in the development of evidence-based individual and institutional longitudinal change intervention strategies in promoting long-term developmental change. The evolution of the Miami YDP illustrates the value of DIS outreach research “in action.”

Identity Distress and Adjustment Problems in At-Risk Adolescents

This study assessed the usefulness of the Identity Distress Scale (IDS), a measure modeled after the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev. [DSM–III–R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) defined Identity Disorder, by investigating links between identity distress and poor psychological adjustment in at-risk middle adolescents. A significant proportion (16%) met DSM–III–R criteria for Identity Disorder, and 34% met the more liberal criteria for Identity Problems as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Significant associations were found between identity distress and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The IDS appears to be useful for identifying youth experiencing significant difficulties in developing an identity and for exploring links between Identity Problems and other areas of psychological functioning.

Promoting Positive Youth Development The Miami Youth Development Project (YDP)

The Miami Youth Development Project (YDP) had its beginnings in the early 1990s as a grassroots response to the needs of troubled (multiproblem) young people in the community (Arnett, Kurtines, & Montgomery, 2008, this issue). YDP is an important outcome of efforts to create positive youth development interventions that draw on the strengths of developmental intervention science outreach research in the development of community-supported positive development programs (i.e., an approach that focuses on meeting community needs as well as youth needs by generating innovative knowledge of evidence-based change intervention strategies that are feasible, affordable, and sustainable in “real world” settings, (Kurtines, Ferrer-Wreder, Cass Lorente, Silverman, Montgomery, 2008, this issue). Now completing its second decade, YDP represents an effort to bring together a more empowering model of knowledge development for research involvement in the community, a nuanced and contextualized notion of youth and their development, and methodologies that richly reflect rather than reduce the experiences of the young people whose development the authors seek to promote.

Promoting Positive Identity Development in Troubled Youth: A Developmental Intervention Science Outreach Research Approach

This article illustrates how developmental intervention science outreach research contributes to knowledge development on the promotion of positive identity development by describing results from the Miami Youth Development Project. The project is committed to the use of descriptive and explanatory knowledge about evidence-based individual and institutional intervention strategies for promoting developmental change in self and identity. Our efforts, described here, include a method for measuring theoretically and personally meaningful identity change, a procedure for integrating key aspects of qualitative and quantitative data through relational data analysis, and an evidence-based positive youth development intervention that fosters measurable and meaningful identity change.