The Role of Parenting and Attachment in Identity Style Development

Authors

• Kaylin Ratner, University of Central FloridaFollow

Mentor

Dr. Steven Berman

Abstract

The present study set investigates the role of the parent-child relationship in identity formation using a sample of 264 students collected from two high schools in the central Florida area. Maternal responsiveness fosters both the informational and normative identity style, as well as positive attachment. Such results suggest that a warm and loving maternal figure allows children to feel safe in their environment, which encourages exploration. Furthermore, positive attachment was found to significantly predict a normative identity style. Despite both responsiveness and attachment independently predicting a normative identity style, issues were raised in regards to multicollinearity of the variables utilized in this study. That is, although the measures claim to be measuring two different constructs, attachment and responsiveness do not act differently statistically.

About the Author

Kaylin graduated from UCF in Spring 2013 with a B.S. in Psychology. As an undergraduate, she completed the Honors in the Major program, presented research at two national conferences, and served as an RA, a TA, and president of Psi Chi Daytona Beach. In August 2013, she began the Clinical Psychology M.A. program at UCF, where she has continued work as a GTA and researcher under Dr. Berman. After the M.A. program, Kaylin hopes to attend a Ph.D. program where she may carry on researching aspects related to adolescent identity development.

Recommended Citation

Ratner, Kaylin (2014) "The Role of Parenting and Attachment in Identity Style Development," The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/urj/vol7/iss1/2