Narrative Identity of Adolescents and Family Functioning

• Published in: Psychology of language and communication Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 263 - 279
• Main Author: Cierpka, Anna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Warsaw De Gruyter Open 01.11.2014; De Gruyter Poland; Sciendo
• Subjects: adolescence; Adolescents; development; Families & family life; family relationships; identity issues; Narratives; Psychology; Qualitative research; Self concept; Self evaluation; Teenagers
• ISSN: 2083-8506; 1234-2238; 2083-8506
• DOI: 10.2478/plc-2014-0018

The paper presents research conducted within the narrative psychology paradigm. Its main purpose was to explore the relationships between features of adolescents’ identity narratives and their assessments of family functioning and themselves as family members. The choice of subject was motivated by current reports on identity formation difficulties in adolescence. Adolescents’ narratives were subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. Associations between specific aspects of self-narratives and participants’ perceptions of how their families functioned and how they functioned in the family system were evaluated. The results confirm the hypothesized relationships between the features of adolescents’ narratives and evaluations of their families and self-assessments of their own functioning in those families. Multi-thematic, content-rich and positively evaluated self-narratives are associated with positive assessments of selected aspects of family functioning and adolescents’ own functioning within the family. The following aspects of family assessment are significant: affective expression, level of emotional involvement in the family, level of control, family role performance and communication. Important factors in the self-assessment were: sense of competence in family role performance, assessment of one’s communication, behavior control and affective expression.