The comparison of identity and its dynamics in junior schoolchildren, teenagers, and adolescents

Abstract

Introduction. The paper overviews various domestic and foreign approaches to identity and its dynamics in junior schoolchildren, teenagers, and adolescents. This paper is the first report on the place of integral identity with small groups in the identity system in the subjects of different ages, as well as the relationship between this component and an identity crisis.

Methodology. The study used Kuhn & McPartland’s Twenty Statements Test and Charles E. Osgood’s Semantic Differential.

Results. The results of a two-year study, which involved 902 persons, revealed a number of age and gender features of the dynamics of identity. Regardless the respondents’ gender, their self-assessment gradually decreased in the period between junior school age and adolescence. At the same time, the respondents often described their personality as a “complicated” one. Gender, family, and professional identities were the most prominent components of social identity in junior schoolchildren, teenagers, and adolescents. There were both gender and age specificity of the dynamics of these components. The study described a gradual increase in the social component of identity while its personal component decreased in junior school children and teenagers. Finally, the analysis of the dynamics of the integral identity with small groups showed that this component increased in junior schoolchildren and decreased in adolescents.

Discussion. The study findings were compared to the results of domestic (A. V. Mikljaeva, T. V. Rumjanceva, V. L. Sitnikov) and foreign (Z. Abdukeram, Ch. Tanti) research. The differences in the results may be explained by the difference in samples, as well as the approaches to the problem (foreign authors’ use a three-component model).

Conclusion. The integral identity with small groups plays a special role in the dynamics of teenager’s identity.