Does Trauma Shape Identity? Exploring the Links Between Lifetime Trauma Exposure and Identity Status in Emerging Adulthood

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Inga Truskauskaite-Kuneviciene¹  Julia Brailovskaia²  Yuka Kamite³  Gabija Petrauskaite¹  Jürgen Margraf²  Evaldas Kazlauskas¹ 

[1] Center for Psychotraumatology, Vilnius University;Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr University Bochum;Department of Psychology, Hiroshima University

关键词: trauma exposure;    identity status;    emerging adulthood;    sexual trauma;    youth;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570644

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

In emerging adulthood, coherent identity plays a protective role against the development of the disturbed psychosocial functioning and is seen as one of the defining characteristics of positive youth development. The factors that shape the identity are still understudied and little quantitative research has addressed, how trauma exposure is linked to emerging adults’ identity. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate how exposure to traumatic experiences over the lifetime is associated with current identity status among emerging adults in an academic environment and to explore links between different types of traumatic experiences as well as the severity of exposure to trauma and identity statuses. The study sample consisted of 1,614 first-year undergraduate students from Lithuania with the age range of 18–29 years ( M = 19.09, SD = 1.05, 68.28% female). The three distinct identity profiles were identified using the Latent Class Analysis, representing diffused , undifferentiated , and coherent identity statuses. The results provided no clear evidence of links between traumatic experiences and identity status for overall exposure and most types of traumatic events. However, our study concerns the potential importance of severe traumatic experiences, such as sexual trauma, on identity.

【 授权许可】

CC BY