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Stages of identity development and problem drinking in college women

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Abstract

Deviation from age-appropriate identity-developmental stage and problem drinking in 75 undergraduate women was investigated. A quantity/frequency scale assessed problem drinking. Two measures of identity, one projective and one observational, were used. May's Deprivation/Enhancement fantasy pattern measure assessed sexual identity. The College Women's Assertion Sample assessed the cognitive-style component of identity. The results supported the hypotheses that younger (freshman/sophomore) women deviating from their age-appropriate identity stage of dedifferentiation, and older (junior/senior) women deviating from their age-appropriate stage of identity integration, were significantly more likely to experience drinking problems than were women who had entered their age-appropriate identity stages. The findings support psychodynamic theories of identity development in late adolescence, and suggest that problem-drinking women in different age/ developmental stages of identity drink for different reasons and should be treated differently.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Tobin Hall, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, MA

    Randi E. Schnur & Marian L. MacDonald

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  1. Randi E. Schnur
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  2. Marian L. MacDonald
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Doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Teaching Associate with the Psychological Services Center there. She has also served on the clinical staff of the Amherst College Counseling Center, the Community Care Mental Health Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Franklin/Hampshire Community Mental Health Center in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her primary interest is in the area of identity development in women.

Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Clinical Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She has held faculty appointments at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Hawaii, the University of Connecticut, and Smith College. Her primary interests are in the areas of statistics and assessment, and clinical gerontology.

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Schnur, R.E., MacDonald, M.L. Stages of identity development and problem drinking in college women. J Youth Adolescence 17, 349–369 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01537675

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