Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University, Martinus J. Langeveldgebouw, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands,
J Youth Adolesc. 2014 Nov;43(11):1818-28. doi: 10.1007/s10964-014-0100-4. Epub 2014 Feb 2.
Identity formation is a core developmental task of adolescence. Adolescents can rely on different social-cognitive styles to seek, process, and encode self-relevant information: information-oriented, normative, and diffuse-avoidant identity styles. The reliance on different styles might impact adolescents' adjustment and their active involvement in the society. The purpose of this study was to examine whether adolescents with different identity styles report differences in positive youth development (analyzed with the Five Cs-Competence, Confidence, Character, Connection, and Caring-model) and in various forms of civic engagement (i.e., involvement in school self-government activities, volunteering activities, youth political organizations, and youth non-political organizations). The participants were 1,633 (54.1 % female) 14-19 year old adolescents (M age = 16.56, SD age = 1.22). The findings indicated that adolescents with different identity styles differed significantly on all the Five Cs and on two (i.e., involvement in volunteering activities and in youth non-political organizations) forms of civic engagement. Briefly, adolescents with an information-oriented style reported high levels of both the Five Cs and civic engagement; participants with a normative style reported moderate to high scores on the Five Cs but low rates of civic engagement; diffuse-avoidant respondents scored low both on the Five Cs and on civic engagement. These findings suggest that the information-oriented style, contrary to the diffuse-avoidant one, has beneficial effects for both the individual and the community, while the normative style has quite beneficial effects for the individual but not for his/her community. Concluding, adolescents with different identity styles display meaningful differences in positive youth development and in rates of civic engagement.
身份认同的形成是青少年发展的核心任务之一。青少年可以依靠不同的社会认知风格来寻求、处理和编码与自我相关的信息：信息导向型、规范型和弥散回避型身份风格。对不同风格的依赖可能会影响青少年的适应能力和他们对社会的积极参与。本研究的目的是检验具有不同身份认同风格的青少年在积极的青年发展（用“五个 C”模型分析，即能力、信心、品格、联系和关爱）和各种形式的公民参与（即参与学校自治活动、志愿活动、青年政治组织和青年非政治组织）方面是否存在差异。参与者为 1633 名（54.1%为女性）14-19 岁的青少年（M 年龄=16.56，SD 年龄=1.22）。研究结果表明，具有不同身份认同风格的青少年在“五个 C”和两种形式的公民参与（即参与志愿活动和青年非政治组织）方面存在显著差异。简而言之，具有信息导向风格的青少年在“五个 C”和公民参与方面报告了较高的水平；具有规范型风格的参与者在“五个 C”上报告了中等至高的分数，但公民参与率较低；弥散回避型的受访者在“五个 C”和公民参与方面的得分都较低。这些发现表明，与弥散回避型风格相反，信息导向型风格对个人和社区都有有益的影响，而规范型风格对个人有相当大的好处，但对他/她的社区没有好处。总之，具有不同身份认同风格的青少年在积极的青年发展和公民参与率方面表现出有意义的差异。
