Role of Emotional Autonomy and Family Environment in Identity Formation of Adolescents

The purpose of the present research was to study the contribution of family environment and emotional autonomy towards identity formation in adolescents. For this purpose, 200 boys and girls (age-range 19-21 years), belonging to various colleges of city Amritsar, were administered Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status-2 (EOMEIS-2; Bennion & Adams,1986), Emotional Autonomy Scale (EAS; Steinberg & Silverberg,1986), and Family Environment Scale (FES; Moos & Moos, 1986). Correlation coefficients were computed and Step-Wise Multiple Regression Analyses were applied to study the contribution of each variable towards the four identity statuses. Results show that all dimensions of FES have significant correlations with identity achievement and diffusion statuses. It is also revealed that two dimensions of emotional autonomy i.e., individuation and perceiving parents as people, contribute positively towards identity achievement, whereas deidealization of parents seems to predict statuses which lack commitment (moratorium and diffusion). Conflict in the family environment seems to have mixed implications for adolescent identity formation.