Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare identity formation in adolescents from Italian (n = 261), mixed (n = 100), and migrant families (n = 148). Participants completed the Italian version of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale that assesses identity processes in educational and relational domains. Within a variable-centered approach we found that adolescents from migrant families reported significantly higher levels of reconsideration of commitment than did their peers from Italian and mixed families. Similarly, within a person-centered approach, adolescents from migrant families were more represented in the searching moratorium status than their counterparts from Italian and mixed families. Overall, these results indicated that migrant adolescents face more difficulties to define their personal identity.
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Notes
Preliminary analyses indicated that our data met assumptions of homogeneity of variances and normality. Furthermore, no univariate or multivariate outliers were detected.
The 2 adolescents from migrant French families were not included in this analysis.
When the cluster analysis was repeated only in the sub-group of adolescents from migrant families, the same 5-cluster solution emerged. It explained 59% of the variance in commitment, 67% of the variance in in-depth exploration, and 55% of the variance in reconsideration of commitment. Taken together these findings indicate the robustness of the 5-cluter solution and its replicability in different groups.
Official data provided by the Italian Interior Ministry available at http://elezioni.interno.it/.
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Crocetti, E., Fermani, A., Pojaghi, B. et al. Identity Formation in Adolescents from Italian, Mixed, and Migrant Families. Child Youth Care Forum 40, 7–23 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-010-9112-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-010-9112-8