Individuation predicts moral identity, religious centrality, and identity achievement — ASN Events
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  3. Individuation predicts moral identity, religious centrality, and identity achievement

Individuation predicts moral identity, religious centrality, and identity achievement (#651)

Claire Crafts 1 , Emily LaPorte 1 , Lillie Renck 1 , Daniel Lapsley 1
  1. Psychology , University of Notre Dame , South Bend , Indiana , United States

Background

Identity is a fundamental challenge of emerging adulthood with implications for positive development. For example, the centrality of morality to identity is associated with numerous manifestations of moral competence (Lapsley & Hardy, 2017). Religious identity is connected to outcomes like meaning in life and prosocial behavior (Hardy et al. 2017). Identity work co-occurs with the individuation process and may depend upon it. Individuation refers to the degree of autonomy-relatedness (Ouderkerk et al., 2015) experienced in one’s family of origin. There is little research on how individuation influences the formation of moral and religious identity. 

 Aims

This study investigated if dysfunctional and healthy individuation predicted moral identity, religious centrality, and identity achievement.  

Method

Participants were 240 emerging adults (68% female, M = 19.4 years, SD = 1.15) at a private midwestern university. Participants completed an online assessment in healthy individuation (Levine et al., 1986), dysfunctional individuation  (Stey et al., 2012), moral values internalization (Aquino and Reed, 2002), identity achievement (Luyckx et al., 2008), and religious centrality (Huber et al., 2012).

Results

Multiple regression analyses showed that healthy individuation predicted identity achievement (B=.370, p=<.001) and moral identity (B=.145 , p=<.001). Analyses also found that dysfunctional individuation predicted religious centrality (B=.033, p=.<001). With a one unit increase in healthy individuation, identity achievement increased by .370, and moral identity increased by .145. With a one unit increase in dysfunctional individuation, religious centrality increased by .033.

Conclusion

Though similar concepts, the relationship between individuation and identity development has not been established in the literature. In line with hypotheses, healthy individuation predicted identity achievement and moral identity, which would support earlier findings that these factors all are related to positive outcomes like meaning in life and prosocial behaviors. However, dysfunctional individuation as a predictor of religious centrality is an asymmetry and suggests the possibility that religious commitments may be compensation for problematic individuation. Further research is needed on this relationship.

 

  1. Hardy, S. A., Francis, S. W., Zamboanga, B. L., Kim, S. Y., Anderson, S. G., & Forthun, L. F. (2013). The roles of identity formation and moral identity in college student mental health, health‐risk behaviors, and psychological well‐being. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69(4), 364-382. https:// dx.doi.org/10.1002/jclp.21913
  2. Hardy, S. A., Nadal, A. R. C., & Schwartz, S. J. (2017). The integration of personal identity, religious identity, and moral identity in emerging adulthood. Identity, 17(2), 96-107. https://10.1080/15283488.2017.1305905
  3. Huber, S., & Huber, O. W. (2012). The centrality of religiosity scale (CRS). https://10.3390/rel3030710
  4. Ouderkerk, B.A., Allen, J.P., Hessell, E.T., & Molloy, L. E. (2015). The cascading development of autonomy and relatedness from adolescence to adulthood. Child Development, 86, 472-485.
  5. Josselson, R. (1980). Ego development in adolescence. In Adelson, J. (ed.),Handbook of Adolescent Psychology. John Wiley, New York.
  6. Lapsley, D., & Hardy, S. A. (2017). Identity formation and moral development in emerging adulthood. In L. M. Padilla-Walker & L. J. Nelson (Eds.), Flourishing in emerging adulthood: Positive development during the third decade of life (pp. 14–39). Oxford University Press.
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Ethics, Life span development, Religion and Spirituality
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