The complex story of educational identity in adolescence: Longitudinal relations with academic achievement and perfectionism

Does Perfectionism Affect Parental Identity Development? A One-Year Longitudinal Study

INTRODUCTION

Previous studies have revealed that perfectionism and identity development during adolescence are related. However, no longitudinal study has been conducted on the impact of perfectionism on identity development in adulthood. In the present study, we analyzed for the first time the longitudinal relationship between personal standards, an indicator of perfectionistic strivings, and concern over mistakes and doubts about actions, indicators of perfectionist concerns, and identity development in one of the most important yet least understood domains for adults, parental identity.

METHODS

This 1-year, three-wave longitudinal study investigated reciprocal relationships between perfectionism and parental identity among 1275 parents (aged 18-30, M = 26.11; SD = 3.00). We analyzed the results using cross-lagged panel model analysis and random-intercept cross-lagged panel model analysis.

RESULTS

The results revealed that personal standards were associated with a relative increase in seeking in-depth information about parenthood, and doubts/concerns were associated with a relative increase in disappointment and parenthood regret. Parental identity was not reciprocally related to changes in perfectionism at the between-person level. However, we observed the effect of parental identity on the decrease in personal standards at the within-person level.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest mutual relationships between perfectionism and parental identity at the between-person and within-person levels.

The Association between Sleep Patterns, Educational Identity, and School Performance in Adolescents

Adolescents' school experience can be developmentally related to adolescents' sleep. This study aimed to understand how sleep patterns (i.e., sleep duration and sleep-schedule) and weekend sleep-recovery strategies (i.e., social jetlag and weekend catch-up sleep) are associated with adolescents' school experience (i.e., educational identity and school performance). Moreover, the differences in the school experiences between adolescents with different numbers of weekend-sleep-recovery strategies were assessed. For this purpose, 542 Italian adolescents (55.2% females, mean age 15.6 years) wore an actigraph for one week. After the actigraphic assessment, questionnaires on educational identity and school performance were administered. Results showed that short sleep-duration, later bedtime during weekdays and weekends, and a higher amount of social jetlag were negatively associated with school performance. Furthermore, adolescents who did not use any sleep-recovery strategy during the weekend presented lower levels of educational in-depth exploration compared to adolescents with higher levels of catch-up sleep but not social jetlag. These data pointed out a potentially detrimental role of social jetlag on school performance and differences in identity processes between adolescents who used and those who did not use sleep-recovery strategies, which could affect adolescents' psychosocial adjustment.

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

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.