Interrelationships Among Identity Process, Content, and Structure: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate hypothesized relationships among identity process, content, and structure with youth living in three different cultural contexts: the United States, Finland, and the Czech Republic. Results indicated that youth who used an informational identity processing style had well-structured identities that were rooted in personal self-elements. Youth who used a normative processing style also had well-consolidated identities but ones anchored in collective self-elements. Youth who relied on a diffuse/avoidant identity processing style lacked firm identity commitments and emphasized social self-components in defining their sense of identity. This pattern of relationships was found for both male and female youth living within all three cultural contexts.