Adolescent Identity Formation, Psychological Well-being, and Parental Attitudes

The present study aimed to investigate adolescent identity formation in relation to psychological well-being and parental attitudes (viz., acceptance, concentration, and avoidance). For this purpose, a sample of 210 late adolescents (99 boys and 111 girls) with ages ranging from 17 years to 20 years. They were administered Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status-2 (Bennion Adams, 1986), Friedman Well-being Scale (Friedman, 1994), and Family Relations Inventory (Sherry Sinha, 1987).Pearson Product Moment correlation analyses revealed that for the boys’ sample, psychological well-being was positively correlated with identity achievement while opposite pattern emerged for diffusion. Avoidant and concentrated parental attitudes have significant positive correlates with lower identity statuses (moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion in either gender). Factor analyses revealed that identity achievement status clustered both with parental acceptance and parental concentration on different factors among boys; girls in lower identity statuses experienced more avoidant and concentrated parenting.