Department of Youth and Family, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, GA, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2021 Jun;50(6):1126-1139. doi: 10.1007/s10964-021-01434-y. Epub 2021 Apr 17.
Developing a personal identity is a core developmental task for all adolescents. Immigrant adolescents need to integrate the meaning that their belonging to their ethnic group and the receiving nation has for them into their personal identity. The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal interplay between personal, ethnic, and national identities of a middle school sample of immigrant youth (N = 765, M = 12.7 years, SD = 0.6 at T1; 46% girls) enroled in Greek schools. Data were collected in three waves with repeated measures. To test the link between these identities, two trivariate Cross-Lagged Panel Models were ran, one examining identity exploration and the other examining identity commitment. The results revealed robust within time positive links between ethnic, national and personal identities for both exploration and commitment at all three time-points. There was some evidence that ethnic and national identities were negatively linked longitudinally, and limited support for longitudinal associations between these domains and personal identity. Follow-up analyses suggest that these processes may be specific to second generation youth and that findings may differ by ethnic background. Finally, the findings that emerged are discussed with attention to the socio-political climate in the receiving nation.
发展个人认同感是所有青少年的核心发展任务。移民青少年需要将其所属族群和接收国的意义融入到个人认同感中。本研究的目的是检验中学阶段移民青少年（N=765，M=12.7 岁，SD=0.6 岁；女生占 46%）个人、族群和民族认同感之间的纵向相互作用。数据通过三次重复测量收集。为了检验这些身份之间的联系，我们运行了两个三变量交叉滞后面板模型，一个检验身份探索，另一个检验身份承诺。结果表明，在所有三个时间点上，探索和承诺的族群、民族和个人身份之间都存在着强有力的、随时间推移的积极联系。有一些证据表明，族群和民族身份之间存在着纵向的负相关，而这些领域与个人身份之间的纵向关联则有限。后续分析表明，这些过程可能是第二代青年特有的，而且发现结果可能因族裔背景而异。最后，讨论了这些发现，同时关注了接收国的社会政治氛围。
