Abstract
The longitudinal effects among self and identity processes, and between these processes and internalizing symptoms, are not well understood. As a result, the present study was designed to ascertain the over-time effects among identity commitment, reconsideration of commitments, and self-concept clarity, as well as to map the interplay of these self and identity processes with anxiety and depressive symptoms in early adolescence. A sample of 923 Dutch adolescents (mean age 12.4 years at Time 1; 49.3% female) participated at each of five annual assessments. Multivariate growth curve and cross-lagged panel models indicated that the association between self-concept clarity and commitment was bidirectional, that reconsideration occurs based on problems or dissatisfaction with self-concept clarity and with identity commitments, and that self-concept clarity (but not commitment or reconsideration) temporally precedes depressive and anxiety symptoms. Results are discussed in terms of the structure of the self-system and its associations with internalizing symptoms.
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T. A. Klimstra and K. Luyckx are FWO Postdoctoral Researchers.
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Schwartz, S.J., Klimstra, T.A., Luyckx, K. et al. Characterizing the Self-System over Time in Adolescence: Internal Structure and Associations with Internalizing Symptoms. J Youth Adolescence 41, 1208–1225 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9751-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9751-1