Ego identity in adolescence: Preliminary validation of a French short-form of the EIPQ

Abstract

Following the seminal work on personal identity of Erikson, Marcia's identity status model has been one of the most enduring paradigms. The Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ; Balistreri et al., 1995) is a widely used measure of identity status. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factor structure and the reliability of a French version of the EIPQ. The hypothesized structures were not confirmed. In light of the failed attempts to validate the original version, an alternative short-form version of the EIPQ (EIPQ-SF), maintaining the integrity of the original model, was developed in one sample and cross-validated in another sample. Additionally, theoretically consistent associations between the EIPQ-SF dimensions and self-esteem confirmed convergent validity. Globally, the results indicated that the French short-version of the EIPQ might be a useful instrument for the assessment of the identity statuses in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Résumé

À la suite des travaux d’Erikson, Marcia a proposé un modèle des statuts identitaires qui reste une référence dans l’étude de la construction identitaire à l’adolescence. L’Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ ; Balistreri et al., 1995) est actuellement l’une des échelles les plus utilisées afin d’évaluer ces statuts identitaires. L’objectif de cette étude est d’examiner la structure factorielle et la consistance interne de la version française de l’EIPQ dans une population d’adolescents. Les résultats d’analyses factorielles confirmatoires ne nous permettent pas de confirmer la structure originale de l’instrument. Sur la base d’une analyse factorielle exploratoire, une version courte de l’EIPQ, consistante avec le modèle original, est proposée et validée dans un second échantillon. Enfin, des corrélations théoriquement attendues entre les dimensions de l’EIPQ-SF et l’estime de soi global soutiennent la validité convergente de l’échelle. Globalement, ces résultats suggèrent que la version française courte de l’EIPQ constitue un instrument utile dans l’évaluation des statuts identitaires au moment de l’adolescence et de la transition à l’âge adulte.

Introduction

In line with Erikson, 1950, Erikson, 1968, identity formation is a dynamic life-long process, which is considered a central developmental task during adolescence. Based on Erikson's theory, Marcia's identity status model Marcia, 1966, Marcia, 1989 has been the most important paradigm in the neo-Eriksonian identity research. Marcia described four qualitatively different identity statuses that arise from the processes of “Exploration and Commitment”. “Exploration” refers to a period of active questioning and sorting through about previous choices, values, and identifications. “Commitment” refers to the choice and the adhesion to a relatively stable set of values and roles. Using these two dimensions, adolescents are classified into one of the four identity statuses: “identity achievement, moratorium, identity foreclosure, and identity diffusion”. Specifically, in the “achieved” status, adolescents have undergone the process of exploration and have established firm identity commitments. Conversely, in the “diffusion” status adolescents have not established firm commitments and have not undergone pro-active identity exploration. “Moratorium” status refers to adolescents who are currently in a state of exploration, but who have not made identity commitments yet. Finally, “foreclosure” status refers to adolescents who have made identity commitments without prior exploration. The identity statuses seem to be better described as “character types than as developmental stages” (Schwartz, 2001, p. 12).

Numerous instruments have been developed to measure identity statuses. In 1995, Balistreri et al. developed the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ), one of the most popular measures in Marcia's identity status paradigm. Overcoming several limitations of previous existing identity-status self-report instruments and interviews, the EIPQ is a short completion time paper-and-pencil scale, developed to gather quantitative data on large samples, that offers the advantages of objective scoring and separate exploration and commitment scores (Balistreri et al., 1995). It assesses exploration and commitment in ideological (occupation, politics, religion and values) and interpersonal domains (family, friendship, dating and gender roles). According to Schwartz (2004), the EIPQ is considered the preferred self-report instrument for making contrasts between or among identity statuses.

Several studies reported psychometric data for the EIPQ. First, Balistreri et al. (1995) evidenced its face validity (i.e. significant agreement among expert raters concerning the assigned dimensions of the items) and moderate to high internal consistency and test-retest reliability estimates. Moreover, results of factor analysis provided preliminary evidence for the validity of the two-factor model (Balistreri et al., 1995). Later, some studies on late adolescents in the United States and in Europe showed that the two-factor model (Commitment, Exploration) and the four-factor model (Ideological Commitment, Ideological Exploration, Interpersonal Commitment, Interpersonal Exploration) evidenced adequate validity in college students (Luyckx et al., 2006a, Schwartz and Montgomery, 2002).

To date, this measure has mainly been used with late adolescents and emerging adults (college students), and, to our knowledge, only in the United States and in the Flemish part of Belgium. There is consequently a scarcity of identity status research focusing on early to middle adolescence, probably based on the assumption that few identity activities take place during these years and partly because Marcia et al. repeatedly stated that identity statuses were intended to measure a conflict, which is resolved between the ages of 18 and 22 (Meeus et al., 1999, Schwartz, 2008). However, since Erikson's seminal work on psychosocial development (Erikson, 1968), identity formation has been widely cited as a central developmental task of adolescence. The period between early and middle adolescence is the time when individuals first begin to consider identity issues (Kroger, 2007, Marcia, 1991). Defined as a “destructuring” phase, this period “provides a naturally occurring opportunity for the reconsideration of childhood values and identifications” (Marcia, 1991, p. 530). This period is also frequently marked by experimentations with vocational directions or sexual identity. However, exploring social, ideological and spiritual values or worldviews are also important for many adolescents (Furrow et al., 2004, Hunsberger et al., 2001). According to Meeus et al. (1999), Marcia himself finally recognized that the status model could be used to assess identity in early and middle adolescence.

Today, research using the “Ego Identity Status Paradigm” is unfortunately rare in French-speaking contexts (e.g. France or French-speaking part of Switzerland) and to fill this gap, the development of French versions of reliable and valid instruments are needed. The present study has two main objectives. The first is to explore the factorial validity of a French version of the EIPQ in a sample of younger individuals (early and middle adolescents) than the ones previously examined. The second aim, contingent on failing to find good fit for the hypothesized models, is to identify and validate a short-form EIPQ (EIPQ-SF), using the adolescent sample as a criterion and a new older sample (college students) for confirmation. Once the new version is established, we will explore the relationship between EIPQ and the construct of self-esteem. According to previous results of Schwartz (2004), we hypothesize that high commitment statuses (i.e. Achievement and Foreclosure) will display higher levels of self-esteem.