Personal Identity Development in Hispanic Immigrant Adolescents: Links with Positive Psychosocial Functioning, Depressive Symptoms, and Externalizing Problems

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine trajectories of personal identity coherence and confusion among Hispanic recent-immigrant adolescents, as well as the effects of these trajectories on psychosocial and risk-taking outcomes. Personal identity is extremely important in anchoring young immigrants during a time of acute cultural change. A sample of 302 recently immigrated (5 years or less in the United States at baseline) Hispanic adolescents (Mage = 14.51 years at baseline; SD = 0.88 years, range 14–17) from Miami and Los Angeles (47 % girls) completed measures of personal identity coherence and confusion at the first five waves of a six-wave longitudinal study; and reported on positive psychosocial functioning, depressive symptoms, and externalizing problems at baseline and at Time 6. Results indicated that identity coherence increased linearly across time, but that there were no significant changes in confusion over time and no individual differences in confusion trajectories. Higher baseline levels of, and improvements in, coherence predicted higher levels of self-esteem, optimism, and prosocial behavior at the final study timepoint. Higher baseline levels of confusion predicted lower self-esteem, greater depressive symptoms, more aggressive behavior, and more rule breaking at the final study timepoint. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of personal identity for Hispanic immigrant adolescents, and in terms of implications for intervention.

Developmental antecedents of adolescent optimism in rural midwestern U.S. Latinx youth

“…In contrast to other researchers who have found cultural variables, such as cultural identity and socialization to be associated with optimism (e.g., Meca et al, ; Schwartz et al, ), our cultural construct (ethnic pride) was not a significant predictor of optimism in any of our models. Ethnic pride was positively correlated with both T1 and T2 optimism in the bivariate correlations, which suggests that other variables were more salient predictors of optimism when all variables were accounted for.…”

“…Another study found that ethnic identity contributed to optimism, which in turn contributed to lower levels of externalizing symptoms in a diverse sample of adolescents that included a sizable number of Latinx youth (Smokowski, Evans, Cotter, & Webber, ). Identity cohesion has been found to lead to increased optimism and self‐esteem (Meca et al, ; Schwartz et al, ). Meca et al () also found that increased optimism as a result of identity cohesion was subsequently associated with a decrease in risk‐taking behaviors, such as rule‐breaking, unprotected sex, and cigarette and alcohol usage.…”

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

“…The Cronbach’s alpha of the present data was 0.85 for the CES-D. In line with previous studies 52 – 54 , synthesis and confusion showed negative ( rho = − 0.51, p < 0.001, 95% confidence interval [CI] = − 0.66, − 0.30, and positive ( rho = 0.54, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.34, 0.69) correlations with CES-D. Therefore, the external validities of the identity measurements were confirmed.…”

Cultural stressors, identity development, and substance use attitudes among Hispanic immigrant adolescents

“…Identity confusion has also been associated with an increased likelihood of alcohol initiation in Hispanic adolescents (Donovan et al., ; Schwartz, Mason, Pantin, & Szapocznik, ), and work with this sample has evidenced an indirect relationship between cultural stressors, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol use at a later wave of data collection (Oshri et al., ). Previous evidence (Schwartz et al., ; Schwartz et al., ) suggests personal identity confusion is most predictive of negative and health‐compromising outcomes, and less strongly predictive of health‐promoting outcomes. Such a finding may support Erikson's (1950, ) contention that a confused sense of identity serves as a direct risk for harmful behaviors that may interfere with one's ability to plan for the future.…”