Assessing Identity in Adolescence: A Psychometric Study

Identity is one the most critical concepts of the developmental psychology, yet it is quite elusive. This paper explores the structure of identity in a sample of adolescents from a collectivistic culture. The construct of identity was explored from 30 adolescents (15 Boys and 15 Girls) with the age range of 13-18 years through open-ended interviews. A final list of 39 items was piloted on the 20 adolescents. Finally,400 (50% Boys and 50% Girls) with the age range of13-18 years (M=14.37, SD=1.23) adolescents were selected through a stratified sampling and the Identity Scale for Adolescents (ISA), Demographic Performa, the School Children Problem Scale (Saleem & Mahmood, 2011) and the Identity Scale Inventory-V (ISI-V, Berzonsky et al,. 2013) were given to them. Exploratory Factor analysis of ISA yielded three factors Positive Self Identity, Negative Self Identity, and Arrogant Self Identity. Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed the 3 factor solution with 17 items. ISA was found to have a high internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity and split half reliability. Results are discussed in terms of cultural and counseling implications of the construct of identity.