Recent stressful life events and identity development in emerging adults: An examination of within‐person effects

Abstract Objective To examine longitudinal associations among stressful life events and identity processess in emerging adults while accounting for within‐person and between‐person effects. Background Theoretical perspectives suggest that stressful life events may impact one's identity (i.e., coherent sense of self), but few studies have considered how changes in stressful life events are associated with changes within an individual's identity development over time (within‐person effects). Methods Recent stressful life events (i.e., academic problems, friendship problems, romantic problems, and time pressure) and the processes through which identity develops (e.g., exploring in breadth and depth) were examined longitudinally (T1–T3) in a sample of emerging adults ( N = 1125, M age = 17.96 years). Results Random‐intercept cross‐lagged modeling demonstrated that at the between‐person level, emerging adults with greater academic and friendship problems, as well as more time pressures (relative to their counterparts), tended to engage in greater ruminative exploration. Further, those with more academic problems tended to demonstrate weaker commitment‐making and exploration in breadth and depth (relative to their counterparts). Within‐person increases in romantic problems predicted lower commitment‐making and higher ruminative exploration over time. Conclusion Findings suggest that romantic problems may predict within‐person changes in identity processes, whereas academic problems, friendship problems, and time pressure may be more concurrently related to identity development.