Identity development among adolescents living in urban poverty
Abstract
Twelve million children and adolescents in the United States, about 20% of all American children and adolescents, live in poverty. Most research on youth living in urban poverty has focused on problem behaviors, such as drug use or dropping out of school, and less is known about how normal developmental transitions are perceived. This study examines the developmental transition of identity development, and how it is perceived in a population of 102 eighth graders living in urban Chicago. Results showed that the effects of economic deprivation were mediated by identity development for both psychological and behavioral outcomes. Support was found for the hypotheses that identity development is more closely associated with behavioral outcomes than psychological outcomes, and that content-specific identity development is more strongly related to both psychological and behavioral outcomes than global assessments of identity development. Results are discussed in relation to the protective nature of identity development as well as theoretical and methodological issues relating to measuring identity development with an urban population.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Myers-Walls, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Developmental psychology
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