Type of social participation and identity formation in adolescence and emerging adulthood

This paper presents the results of empirical research that explores the links between types of social participation and identity. The author availed herself of the neo-eriksonian approach to identity by Luyckx et al. (2006) and the concept of social participation types (Reinders, Butz, 2001). The study involved 1,665 students from six types of schools: lower secondary school (n=505), general upper secondary school (n=171), technical upper secondary school (n=187), specialized upper secondary school (n=214), university (n=252), and post-secondary school (medical rescue, massage therapy, cosmetology, occupational therapy) (n=336). The results of the research, conducted with the use of Dimensions of Identity Development Scale (DIDS) and Social Participation Questionnaire (SPQ-S 1 and SPQ-S 2), indicate that transitive orientation increases with age and that, consequently, the frequency of assimilation and integration types of social participation tends to be higher in emerging adulthood in comparison with adolescence. The study showed that general upper secondary school students, contrary to their colleagues from technical and specialized upper secondary schools, did not differ in terms of transitive and moratorium orientation levels from lower secondary school students. The hypothesis about the relationship between transitive orientation and commitment scales was confirmed, whereas the hypotheses concerning the links between exploration scales and both dimensions of social participation were not validated.