Self and Identity in Early Adolescence: Some Reflections and an Introduction to the Special Issue

• NCJ Number: 221580
• Journal: Journal of Early Adolescence Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2008 Pages: 5-15
• Author(s): Seth J. Schwartz
• Date Published: February 2008
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): 019409
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: See NCJ-221581-86 for related articles.

Annotation

This article reviews contemporary issues in the study of self and identity, and introduces this special issue.

Abstract

The articles in this issue address various dimensions of self and identity, including identity status, self-concept, self-esteem, ethnic-identity, and national-identity. Researchers have defined self and identity as the way in which the self is influenced by contextual processes in the family, with peers, and within school domains. A cohesive and well-functioning family environment, including involved and supportive parents, is associated with a positive and coherent sense of self and identity. Support from peers and teachers are related to a positive sense of identity, while peer acceptance and academic performance are related to self-concept in early adolescence. Aspects of self have also been implicated in the genesis and maintenance of problem behaviors. Personal identity, operationalized from either an identity status or an Eriksonian viewpoint, has been negatively associated with conduct problems, and sexual risk taking. Ethnic identity seems to protect youth against all of these outcomes. Self-concept has been identified as a protective factor, along with family, and school processes, against problem behavior. Article 1 addresses the issues using a mixed-method approach of both variable-centered and person-centered quantitative analysis to explore correlates of identity and self-concept in a multiethnic sample of adolescent girls; article 2 uses a mixed-method approach to explore patterns of family reminiscing, and the effects of these patterns on subsequent adolescent adjustment; article 3 examines how adolescents in South Africa, one of the most multiethnic countries in the world, identified with their nationality in the shadow of apartheid; article 4 examines relational predictors of identity status across three prominent United States ethnic groups--Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics; article 5 explores the possibility of reciprocal relationship between self-concept and sexual onset in African-American adolescents; and article 6 explores longitudinal relationships of ethnic identity, coping with discrimination, and self-esteem in a sample of Hispanic adolescents. References