[Examining the reliability and validity of a Japanese version of the 12-item Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (the 5th stage)]

The Interplay Between Personal Identity and Social Identity Among Vocational High School Students: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Although identity research has predominantly focused on college-bound adolescents, it has largely neglected vocational high school students who enter the job market immediately after graduation. Furthermore, most studies have concentrated on personal identity and have overlooked the concurrent development of social identity. This study examined the relationship between adolescents' personal and social identities over three years of vocational high school. The participants were 4,264 vocational high school students in Japan (Time 1: 46.44% girls; Mage = 15.78). Using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, the results indicated that within-person increases in social identity predicted increases in personal identity one year later. These findings highlight the importance of social identity as a valuable resource for personal identity development among vocational high school students, a group underrepresented in identity research.

Adolescents' Identity Development Predicts the Transition and the Adjustment to Tertiary Education or Work

Although identity development is crucial in individuals' psychological adjustment from adolescence to adulthood, little is known about its impact in the transition to tertiary education or work. This study examined whether identity development during high school predicts career choices and adjustment (i.e., engagement) and maladjustment (i.e., burnout) after graduation. A total of 357 Japanese adolescents participated throughout the 3-year period of vocational high school (Mage = 15.75; 62.75% girls). A follow-up assessment, at 18 months after the school-to-tertiary education or school-to-work transitions, was conducted. Higher identity synthesis during high school years predicted entry into tertiary education, while higher identity confusion predicted transition to work. Furthermore, higher identity synthesis during the high school years predicted higher post-graduation academic engagement, and higher levels of identity confusion predicted higher levels of post-graduation academic or work burnout. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the role of identity development in adolescence as a valuable asset for predicting the transition and the adjustment to tertiary education or work.

Association between long-range temporal correlations in intrinsic EEG activity and subjective sense of identity

The long-range temporal correlation (LRTC) in resting-state intrinsic brain activity is known to be associated with temporal behavioral patterns, including decision making based on internal criteria such as self-knowledge. However, the association between the neuronal LRTC and the subjective sense of identity remains to be explored; in other words, whether our subjective sense of consistent self across time relates to the temporal consistency of neural activity. The present study examined the relationship between the LRTC of resting-state scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and a subjective sense of identity measured by the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI). Consistent with our prediction based on previous studies of neuronal-behavioral relationships, the frontocentral alpha LRTC correlated negatively with identity confusion. Moreover, from the descriptive analyses, centroparietal beta LRTC showed negative correlations with identity confusion, and frontal theta LRTC showed positive relationships with identity synthesis. These results suggest that more temporal consistency (reversely, less random noise) in intrinsic brain activity is associated with less confused and better-synthesized identity. Our data provide further evidence that the LRTC of intrinsic brain activity might serve as a noise suppression mechanism at the psychological level.

The Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory in Adolescent Samples

Abstract. This study tested the factorial structure and equivalence of identity as measured by the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI; Rosenthal, Gurney, & Moore, 1981 ) in 2,666 adolescents ( Mage = 16.53, SD = 1.50, 55% girls) in the United States and Japan. The EPSI Identity Scale is a widely used measure of the Eriksonian conceptualization of personal identity (i.e., individual self-knowledge, synthesis, and consistency) and is measured with two factors: identity confusion and synthesis. A bi-factor model for the EPSI had a better fit than a single- and two-factor model. Moreover, the EPSI results showed configural and partial metric equivalence, but did not show scalar equivalence across samples. Future cross-national research with adolescents from the United States and Japan may investigate correlates between identity, as measured by the EPSI, with other measures of interest. However, group comparisons among these samples may be ill advised due to a lack of scalar equivalence.

Longitudinal Links Between Identity Consolidation and Psychosocial Problems in Adolescence: Using Bi-Factor Latent Change and Cross-Lagged Effect Models

Most previous identity research has focused on relationships between identity synthesis, confusion, and psychosocial problems. However, these studies did not take into account Erikson's notion of identity consolidation, that is, the dynamic interplay between identity synthesis and confusion. This study aimed to examine longitudinal relationships and the directionality of the effects between identity consolidation and psychosocial problems during adolescence, using two waves of longitudinal data from 793 Japanese adolescents (49.7% girls; ages 13-14 and 16-17 at Time 1). A bi-factor latent change model revealed that levels and changes in identity consolidation were negatively associated with levels and changes in psychosocial problems. Furthermore, a bi-factor cross-lagged effects model provided evidence that identity consolidation negatively predicted psychosocial problems, and vice versa. Our study facilitates a better understanding of the importance of identity consolidation in the relations between identity components and psychosocial problems.