Identity Statuses and Well-Being Among University Students in Türkiye

Identity Statuses and Well-Being Among University Students in Türkiye

Gülşah SEVİNÇ & Tülin ŞENER KILINÇ

ABSTRACT
Emerging adulthood is a critical life stage in which identity development is a prominent task. The main purpose of this study is to find out whether the psychological and social well-being of university students vary depending on their identity statuses, which are derived from the model of Luyckx et al. (2008). 801 university students from different Turkish universities participated in the study. The Dimensions of Identity Development Scale (DIDS), Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB) and Social Well-being Scale were used to gather data. The findings reveal that psychological and social well-being of university students differs significantly based on their identity statuses. Students with diffused diffusion had the lowest scores of psychological and social well-being among all groups whereas their achieved peers scored the highest. Another finding shows that achieved emerging adults manifest higher levels of psychological and social well-being compared to their foreclosed peers despite having similar levels of commitment. Based on the findings on diffusion, one can conclude that carefree diffusion is a more adaptive identity status than diffused diffusion in terms of well-being. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for experts working at university settings.

KEYWORDS: identity status, psychological well-being, social well-being, university, emerging adulthood

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