The Role of Parental Socio-Economic Status and Perceived Career-Related Behaviors in Developmental Trajectories of Educational Identity in Adolescence: A Four-Wave Study

Abstract

Personal identity formation is a key developmental task of adolescence, with the educational domain being a core life domain. Parents are gatekeepers of adolescent career development but their role in facilitating educational identity formation still needs to be uncovered. The present study investigated developmental trajectories of educational identity processes (commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) across two academic years. Educational identity processes, parental socio-economic status, and parental career-related behaviors (support, interference, lack of engagement) were appraised through a four-wave longitudinal study with 5- to 6-month intervals ( N = 744; M age = 15.2 years, 55% girls). Results of the latent class growth analysis revealed five educational identity trajectories (i.e., Undifferentiated, Searching moratorium, Foreclosed, Diffusion, and Achievement). Commitment and in-depth exploration processes were stable for all five trajectories. The undifferentiated trajectory (medium stable levels for all identity processes) was the most prevalent. Parental socio-economic status and perceived parental support correlated positively with achievement and searching moratorium trajectories and negatively with diffused and undifferentiated trajectories. Foreclosed adolescents perceived their parents as the most engaged. Trajectories characterized by high reconsideration of commitment also correlated the most with perceived parental interference. The results bring forward valuable insights into the role parents play in their adolescents’ educational identity development.

Editorial: Youth personality development

“…The studies in the current special issue replicate and build on these earlier findings by mapping developmental patterns of temperament (Lawson et al, 2023), personality traits (de Moor et al, 2023; Li et al, 2023; Tetzner et al, 2023), and other conceptualizations of personality (self-esteem: Gonzalez Avilés et al, 2023; Scherrer et al, 2023; identity: Karataş et al, 2023; Timar-Anton et al, 2023; values: Bacchini et al, 2023; and prejudice: Bobba et al, 2023) across various cultural contexts. For example, the study by Avilés and colleagues examines average trends of self-esteem development among romantic late bloomers over a period of 10 years from adolescence till emerging adulthood (ages 16–26).…”

“…Overall, this special issue offers novel insights on youth personality development. The results on developmental patterns, predictors and mechanisms, and life outcomes provide a nuanced understanding on how youth from diverse European (Gonzalez Avilés et al, 2023; Bacchini et al, 2023; Bobba et al, 2023; De Moor et al, 2023; Karataş et al, 2023; Laceulle et al, 2023; Scherrer et al, 2023; Tetzner et al, 2023; Timar-Anton et al, 2023), American (Lawson et al, 2023), and Asian (Li et al, 2023) cultural contexts, develop in adolescence and in the transition to emerging adulthood. Importantly, this set of articles pave the way for more research that adopts integrative perspectives to further enrich a developmental understanding of youth personality.…”

“…The final two studies on predictors and mechanisms in youth personality development look at more distal contexts related to parental workplace and socio-economic status. Timar-Anton et al (2023) highlight that parental socioeconomic status and career-related behaviors, such as support, interference, and lack of engagement, play an important role in adolescents' developmental trajectories of educational identity. Li et al (2023) demonstrate that personality trait levels in middle to late adolescence, but not their changes, are associated with both childhood and current family socio-economic status as well as perceived economic inequality, indicating further support for resource-related accounts when it comes to the role of parental support.…”

Educational identity processes in adolescence: An analysis of longitudinal evidence and the role of educational systems

“…Hence, adaptive educational identities are grounded in the freedom or coercion that educational systems impose through educational tracking, the role of academic achievement, the choice of optional curricular and extracurricular activities and school climate. Educational systems that overvalue academic achievement support strong educational commitments with limited opportunities for in‐depth exploration of the educational path students follow (e.g., Romania, Timar‐Anton et al., 2023; Japan, Hatano et al., 2020). In these systems, students' opportunities to reconsider educational commitments are limited because they have few objective chances to change educational tracks.…”

“…Other profiles capture identity foreclosure (medium to high commitment, low in‐depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment), diffusion (low levels of all identity processes), moratorium (low levels of commitment and in‐depth exploration, high levels of reconsideration of commitment), and searching moratorium (medium‐high levels of all identity processes). Research has also identified an undifferentiated educational identity profile characterized by medium levels of all identity processes (Timar‐Anton et al., 2023).…”