Identity Statuses Based on Four Rather Than Two Identity Dimensions: Extending and Refining Marcia's Paradigm

• NCJ Number: 212806
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 34 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2005 Pages: 605-618
• Author(s): Koen Luyckx; Luc Goossens; Bart Soenens; Wim Beyers; Maarten Vansteenkiste
• Date Published: December 2005
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study used four dimensions of identity--"commitment making," "identification with commitment," "exploration in depth," and "exploration in breadth"--to construct identity states through cluster analysis in a sample of late adolescents.

Abstract

The study findings have practical implications for how therapists and counselors treat youth with various identity-status characteristics. The study resulted in both a qualitative refinement and a quantitative extension of Marcia's 1966 identity-status paradigm, which is most often used in research on identity formation. Marcia distinguishes between four prototypical ways of dealing with the identity crisis of late adolescence. Under Marcia's paradigm, identity statuses are based on a combination of two underlying dimensions, i.e., exploration (questioning and weighing various identity alternatives) and commitment (strong convictions or choices). Marcia gives adolescents who have clear commitments after exploring alternatives the "achievement status." Those who make commitments without exploration are given "foreclosure status." Those who explore alternatives without making commitments are assigned "moratorium status;" and adolescents who have neither engaged in exploration nor made commitments are assigned "diffusion status." The current study expanded and further differentiated Marcia's identity status paradigm by first deriving identity statuses from empirical data. It then distinguished between empirically derived identity statuses based on adjustment and two personality characteristics, i.e., "openness" (tolerance and exploration of the unfamiliar) and "conscientiousness" (degree of organization, persistence, and motivation in goal-directed behavior). The empirical data were obtained from a sample of 565 first-year students at a university in the Dutch-Speaking part of Belgium. They were all White and from middle-class backgrounds. A battery of tests measured "commitment making" and "exploration in breadth," "identification with commitment and exploration in depth," self-esteem, depressive symptoms, substance use, social and academic adjustment, and openness and conscientiousness. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 51 references