Political, religious and occupational identities in context: Placing identity status paradigm in context

This study critically contrasts global identity with domain-specific identities (political, religious and occupational) and considers context and gender as integral parts of identity. In a cross-sectional survey, 1038 Greek Cypriot adolescents (449 boys and 589 girls, mean age 16.8) from the three different types of secondary schools (state, state technical and private) and from different SES completed part of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status-2 (EOMEIS-2). The macrocontext of Greek Cypriot society is used to understand the role of context in adolescents’ identities. Results showed that Greek Cypriot young people were not in the same statuses across their global, political, religious and occupational identities. This heterogeneity in the status of global identity and of each identity domain is partially explained by differences in gender, type of school and SES (Socio-Economic Status). The fact that identity status is found to be reactive to context suggests that developmental stage models of identity status should place greater emphasis on context

What Works for Whom in School-Based Anti-bullying Interventions? An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis

The prevalence of bullying worldwide is high (UNESCO, 2018). Over the past decades, many anti-bullying interventions have been developed to remediate this problem. However, we lack insight into for whom these interventions work and what individual intervention components drive the total intervention effects. We conducted a large-scale individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 39,793 children and adolescents aged five to 20 years (Mage = 12.58, SD = 2.34) who had participated in quasi-experimental or randomized controlled trials of school-based anti-bullying interventions (i.e., 10 studies testing nine interventions). Multilevel logistic regression analyses showed that anti-bullying interventions significantly reduced self-reported victimization (d =  − 0.14) and bullying perpetration (d =  − 0.07). Anti-bullying interventions more strongly reduced bullying perpetration in younger participants (i.e., under age 12) and victimization for youth who were more heavily victimized before the intervention. We did not find evidence to show that the inclusion of specific intervention components was related to higher overall intervention effects, except for an iatrogenic effect of non-punitive disciplinary methods–which was strongest for girls. Exploratory analyses suggested that school assemblies and playground supervision may have harmful effects for some, increasing bullying perpetration in youth who already bullied frequently at baseline. In conclusion, school-based anti-bullying interventions are generally effective and work especially well for younger children and youth who are most heavily victimized. Further tailoring of interventions may be necessary to more effectively meet the needs and strengths of specific subgroups of children and adolescents. </p

Antecedents of political trust in adolescence: Cognitive abilities and perceptions of parents

This study examined the predictors of political trust in late adolescence. Three waves of longitudinal data (ages 11, 15, and 17) from 1116 Czech adolescents (346 participated at least in the first and last wave) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that high verbal cognitive ability in early adolescence predicted greater political trust in late adolescence. This effect was explained by adolescents' greater cognitive political engagements, but not by their more positive relationships with authorities (e.g., school or parents) during adolescence. Next, early adolescents who perceived more parental warmth demonstrated greater political trust when they reached late adolescence. These results suggest that some young people might enter adulthood more skeptical regarding politics based on their abilities and early nonpolitical experiences

The stages, content and context of adolescent identity

Adolescent identity attracts much interest in the research community, however the\ud majority of existing studies conceptualise it as a global construct with minor\ud examination of its content. The present research focuses on a snapshot of domainspecific\ud identities: political, religious and occupational, viewed as complex constructs,\ud and examines them in various dimensions. First, the developmental stages of global\ud identity as theorised by Erikson and Marcia are critically contrasted with domainspecific\ud identities. Second, the analysis of the content of adolescents' identities reveals\ud different values, attitudes and beliefs, which were used in a cluster analysis to identify\ud distinct identity types. Thirdly, gender and context differences of developmental stages,\ud content and types of adolescents' identities are considered. The context of Greek\ud Cypriot society, specifically, the ecological systems of the politics of partition, the\ud strong Greek Orthodox faith and the contradictions of tradition and\ud modernisation/Europeanization are used to understand the role of the environment in\ud adolescents' identities.\ud In a cross-sectional survey, 1,038 Greek Cypriot adolescents (449 males and 589\ud females, mean age 16.8) completed part of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-\ud Identity Status, which assesses identity developmental stages in both global and\ud domain-specific identities. They were also asked to write three answers to three\ud questions of the type "Who Are You?" in each of the referred identity domains. This\ud valuable textual data was analysed by using both variable and person-centered\ud approaches.\ud The results suggest that the identity of adolescents does not always develop\ud synchronously across its domains, thus, the presentation of only global identity conceals\ud the complexity of identity as a multi-faceted concept. This was especially evident in the\ud analysis of the content of political, religious and occupational identities that revealed\ud interesting and varying elements, as well as meaningful and heterogeneous identity\ud types. The significance of identity content and its use in the understanding of adolescent\ud identity is highlighted. Gender and context are integral parts of the developmental\ud stages and the content of adolescents' identities