Rimantas Vosylis

Reciprocal Associations between Identity and Civic Engagement in Adolescence: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Study

The purpose of this two-wave longitudinal study was to analyze reciprocal associations between identity styles (i.e., socio-cognitive strategies that individuals adopt in processing, structuring, utilizing, and revising self-relevant information) and civic engagement in adolescence. Participants were 1,308 high school students (9–11 grades; 52.9% girls). Findings of cross-lagged models indicated reciprocal associations between identity styles and civic engagement. Specifically, each identity style (i.e., information-oriented, normative, and diffuse-avoidant) predicted changes in later levels of civic engagement, and civic engagement lessened later reliance on one of three identity styles (i.e., the diffuse-avoidant style). Therefore, effects of identity on civic engagement were stronger than effects of civic engagement on identity. From a practical perspective, these findings underline that interventions aimed at facilitating reliance on various identity styles are likely to have effects also on civic participation and civic experiences are likely to reduce adolescents’ avoidance of identity issues.

Global Versus Domain-Specific Identity Processes: Which Domains Are More Relevant For Emerging Adults?

The current study contributes to the ongoing discussion about validity and utility of global and domain-specific assessment of identity processes in emerging adulthood (EA) by using a three-dimensional model of identity development and examining four identity domains (best friend, education, occupation, and partner). The links between global and domain-specific identity processes and main features of EA are analyzed in the Eastern European context, which is largely underrepresented in studies on identity development. Participants were 1,217 (49.9% females) emerging adults aged between 20 and 31 years (M age = 25.89, SD age = 3.51). This study showed that global identity processes only partly explain domain-specific ones and that domain-specific processes have unique links with features of EA. Taken together, this study shows that consideration of different life domains to measure identity processes is essential, since identity development in friendship, partnership education, and work domains can have different associations with outcomes of interest.

How does School Experience Relate to Adolescent Identity Formation Over Time? Cross-Lagged Associations between School Engagement, School Burnout and Identity Processing Styles

The existing research findings still do not provide a clear understanding of the links between adolescent school experience and their identity formation. To address this gap, we analyzed the dynamic links between adolescent school experiences and identity formation by exploring the cross-lagged associations between school engagement, school burnout and identity processing styles (information-oriented, normative and diffuse-avoidant) over a 2-year period during middle-to-late adolescence. The sample of this school-based study included 916 adolescents (51.4% females) in the 9th to 12th grades from diverse socio-economic and family backgrounds. The results from the cross-lagged analyses with three time points revealed that (a) school engagement positively predicted information-oriented identity processing over a 2-year period; (b) school burnout positively predicted the reliance on normative and diffuse-avoidant identity styles across the three measurements; (c) the effects were stable over the three time points and across different gender, grade, and socio-economic status groups. The unidirectional effects identified in our study support the general prediction that active engagement in learning at school can serve as a resource for adolescent identity formation, while school burnout, in contrast, can hinder the formation of adolescent identity. This points to the importance of taking developmental identity-related needs of adolescents into account when planning the school curriculum.