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Ego identity status in mid to late adolescence: their presence in university students and
correlation between Moratorium stage with well-being and Achievement stage with future
Gabriela Sarmiento
RMIT University
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the presence of ego identity status among Australian
university students and the correlation of Moratorium with well being and Achievement with
future security using the EOMEIS II and PWI. Identity status scores were examines for 232
(176 female, 56 male) Australian university students aged between 18 and 25 years old. The least
common Ego Identity Stage was Foreclosure, there was a strong negative correlation between
Moratorium and well- being and a strong positive correlation between future security and
Ego identity status in mid to late adolescence: their presence in university students and
correlation between Moratorium stage with well-being and Achievement stage with future
The main goal in adolescence is to find our own identity, which may encompass religious
beliefs, career or occupational goals, cultural and ethnical background, along with sexual and
physical identity (Clark & Justice, 2008). The search to fit in adult society can generate great
stress in adolescence, since they try to obtain a job and become citizens while trying to maintain
a sense of continuity with them-selves (Erikson, 19S6, 1963). Minority adolescents who suffer
from racism and inequity tend to avoid this by going into foreclosure or diffusion statuses
(Phinney and Kohatsu 1997). Marcia (1966, 1980) defined 4 ego identity status in adolescents:
foreclosure (commitment with little or no exploration of alternatives, usually following the steps
of their parental figures or the path set by them, people in this stage tend to be rigid, should they
parents desires and values become non functional they would feel threatened), achievement
(commitment chosen after exploration of alternatives, they have seriously considered all their
options and chose according to them even if his contradicts parental desires, when faced with
adversity they would not feel overwhelmed), moratorium (exploring alternatives with no
commitment chosen, they are in a state of crisis attempting to compromise between parental
desires and expectations, societys demand and their own abilities and desires, this tends to
generate a stress and concern in them regarding their future), and diffusion (no commitment and
no exploration of alternatives, they seem uninterested and not preoccupied with their future and
have an inconsequential outlook in which every option is as good as the other). Adams, Bennion
and Huh (1989) determine that the most advanced status is Achievement, followed by
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Moratorium, Foreclosure and Diffusion, therefore it can be assumed that the identity
achievement grows with age.. The tests most commonly used for this type of study have 2 main
separations in the questions, those regarding interpersonal areas and those regarding ideological
areas. To measure this we selected the most developed and validated questionnaire for measuring
identity status: the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status II (EOMEIS-II), (Adams
et al., 1989)
Based on the previous information and taking into consideration that in modern cultures,
specially in developed, western countries, is becoming more and more common for sons and
daughters to focus on a career of their choosing it can be hypothesize that the least common
assumed, do to the high levels of stress managed in this stage, that students in the stage of
Moratorium will have a lower sense of personal well being in general, and that future security in
Method
Participants. The 232 participants were students from Rmit University in Australia aged
between 18 and 25 years (with and average age of 20.25 and a standard deviation of 1.53), who
answered the questionnaire voluntarily. It should be noted that 75.9% (176 of 232) of the
Materials. To Asses the participants ego identity statuses the Extended Objective
Bennion, and Huh (1989) was used. The presence or absence of exploration and commitment
were assessed within the following areas: standard of living, personal health, achieving in life,
spirituality religion, personal relations, personal safety, community correctness, and future
security. Each of the four identity statuses-diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium and identity
scale ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (6). The identity status subscale
score is the average score from the ideological and the interpersonal subscale scores.
To measure subjective well being the Personal Wellbeing Index was used, a written or verbally
applicable test, which uses a scale from no satisfaction at all (0) to completely satisfied (10).
Procedure. For the realization of this study, the participants were first asked to volunteer
answering the questionnaire and were explained that it will hold no danger, physically or
emotionally, for them and that their privacy was not at risk since the personal information will be
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discarded once the questionnaire is done. Second the instructions for answering the questionnaire
were given you will have to log on blackboard and click on the link for the questionnaire, it will
take about 30 minutes please answer as truthfully as you can, your personal information will be
discarded after you finish. Third, once the deadline was met no more surveys could be filled and
the information was collected. Fourth, the information was analysed using SPSS in order to
Results
Ideological (15 of 232) or Interpersonal (12 of 232) is significantly lower than in the other stages
Table 1
participants
Ideological Diffusion 110 47.7
Ideological 15 6.5
Foreclosure
Ideological 84 36.2
Moratorium
Ideological 23 9.9
Achievement
Interpersonal 80 34.5
Diffusion
Interpersonal 12 5.2
Foreclosure
Interpersonal 109 47.0
Moratorium
Interpersonal 31 13.4
Achievement
As shown in Table 2 overall well being (PWI) shows a strong negative correlation (-.227,
Table 2
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As shown in Table 3 Future Security has a strong positive correlation (.276, with p < .
Table 3
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s ness
Achievem Pearson .244 .201 .305 .354 .237 .196 .276 .174
ent Correlati
on
Sig. (2- .000 .002 .000 .000 .000 .003 .000 .008
tailed)
N 232 232 232 232 232 232 232 232
Discussion:
Based on the results, all of the hypothesis previously stated can be accepted; this is in
accordance with the information obtained at the beginning of the study. Although It should be
noted that despite of what was stated by Adams et al. (1989) a large portion of the participants
are still in a stage of diffusion, this can due to the fact that the mean age was 20, which,
according to new studies where late adolescence is along the mid twenties, can be considered
still mid adolescence. For future studies the methodological limitations should be taken into
account, this limitations are: given that the investigators have no way of proving the validity of
the results reported, these cannot be a 100% trusted, the high level of subjectivity of the
questions in the various questionnaires is also a limitation regarding the validity of this findings
and last due to physical and geographical constrains the vast majority of the participants are of
Australian nationality and therefore there is a no representation of different cultures from around
the world who may have different consideration regarding what constitutes each of the Status. So
it is recommended for future investigators to try and obtain the most culturally varied
participants as possible, in order to make the results of these studies widely applicable. All that
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being said the study can help therapist, psychologist and other people in similar positions
understand, and therefore better help, university students in this stressful and defining stage of
their life.
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References:
Adams, G. R., Bennion, L., & Huh, K. (1989). Objective measure of ego identity status: A
Clark, E. G., Justice, E. M., (2008). Identity Development - Aspects of Identity, Child
Erikson, E. H. The problem of ego identity. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association,
1956, 4, 56-121.
Erikson, E. H. Childhood and society. (2nd ed.) New York: Norton, 1963
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality
Phinney, J., Kohatsu, E. L., (1997), Ethnic and Racial Identity Development and Mental Health.
In John Schulenberg, Jennifer Maggs, and Klaus Hurrelmann eds., Health Risks and
Press,