Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University.
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna.
Dev Psychol. 2017 Nov;53(11):2182-2194. doi: 10.1037/dev0000351.
Adolescent delinquency and identity formation have both been described in relation to the confusion, doubt, and need for individuation and autonomy faced by adolescents. While theoretical conceptualizations (e.g., Erikson, 1968; Moffitt, 1993) suggest that delinquency and identity formation might be developmentally intertwined across adolescence, this link had yet to be longitudinally examined. This study tested whether delinquency and identity are related and whether we could determine a developmental order considering both between- and within-person associations across adolescence. We examined these associations in a multi-informant sample of 497 Dutch adolescents followed for 5 annual waves from age 14-18. Between-person cross-lagged models showed that adolescents who scored higher on delinquency relative to their peers, scored lower on commitment and higher on reconsideration, 1 year later. Within-person cross-lagged models showed that when adolescents reported above their own average on delinquency, they reported decreased commitment and increased reconsideration 1 year later. Additionally, within-persons, when adolescents reported an increase in in-depth exploration compared with their own average they reported decreased delinquency 1 year later. From these results we can conclude that delinquency and personal identity are indeed related across adolescence. Experimenting with delinquency hampers identity formation by increasing reconsideration and decreasing commitment. Within-person results suggest that interventions tailored to increase in-depth exploration in adolescents may help to prevent adolescent delinquency. (PsycINFO Database Record
青少年犯罪和身份形成都与青少年所面临的困惑、怀疑和个性化及自主性的需求有关。虽然理论概念化（例如，埃里克森，1968；莫菲特，1993）表明，犯罪和身份形成在青少年时期可能是相互交织的，但这一联系尚未得到纵向研究。本研究检验了犯罪和身份是否相关，以及我们是否可以考虑到青少年时期的个体间和个体内的关联来确定一个发展顺序。我们在一个由 497 名荷兰青少年组成的多信息源样本中检验了这些关联，这些青少年在 14-18 岁期间进行了 5 次年度随访。个体间的交叉滞后模型显示，与同龄人相比，犯罪得分较高的青少年，1 年后在承诺和重新考虑方面得分较低。个体内的交叉滞后模型显示，当青少年报告的犯罪行为高于自己的平均水平时，他们报告的承诺减少，重新考虑增加，1 年后也是如此。此外，个体内的结果表明，与自己的平均水平相比，当青少年报告深入探索的增加时，他们在 1 年后的犯罪行为减少。从这些结果中，我们可以得出结论，犯罪和个人身份在青少年时期确实是相互关联的。尝试犯罪会通过增加重新考虑和减少承诺来阻碍身份形成。个体内的结果表明，针对青少年进行的增加深入探索的干预措施可能有助于预防青少年犯罪。（心理学信息库记录
