認同重要性及確定性對憂鬱之預測力：青少年期之發展改變

The Predictability of Identity Importance and Identity Firmness to Depression: Developmental Changes across Adolescence

自我認同不但是青少年期主要的發展要務，並為此階段心理病理的重要因子。過去研究已建立了「認同重要性」及「認同確定性」兩向度之測量工具的信、效度及每個向度中各認同內容（個人認同、社會認同、形象認同）之發展特性，並發現這些認同向度與心理適應有關。本研究進一步檢驗這兩個認同向度對不同發展次階段的青少年之憂鬱症狀的預測力，藉此捕捉青少年自我認同與心理適應之間隨發展演變的動態關係。本研究共收取青少年早期之國中生764名、青少年中期之高中生805名、青少年後期之大學生274名之有效樣本，進行認同重要性、認同確定性及憂鬱之評量。在排除性別差異後，先納入認同確定性、再納入認同重要性為預測變項進行階層迴歸分析，結果顯示，青少年早期之三項認同確定性（個人、社會、形象）及兩項認同重要性（社會、形象）皆可顯著預測憂鬱症狀。青少年中期之三項認同確定性及社會認同重要性可顯著預測憂鬱症狀。而在青少年晚期，僅個人認同確定性可顯著預測憂鬱症狀。綜言之，本研究顯示，認同確定性及認同重要性皆為預測青少年憂鬱的重要因子，唯隨著發展，三種認同內容之認同確定性及認同重要性與青少年憂鬱的關係展現出不同的面貌。

Erik Erikson (1950) postulated that identity formation plays a critical role in adolescent psychopathology. This study examined how two features of self-identity -- namely, identity firmness, referring to the sense of sameness and continuity of self-identity, and identity importance, referring to the personal needs for defining oneself -- are associated with depression across three substages of adolescence. A total of 764 junior high school students, 805 senior high school students, and 274 college students filled out questionnaires on identity importance, identity firmness, and depression. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that all three aspects of identity firmness (i.e., the personal, social, and image identity) and the social and image aspects of identity importance corresponded to depressive symptoms in the junior high school sample. All three aspects of identity firmness, but only the social aspect of identity importance, corresponded to depression in the senior high school sample. Only the personal aspect of identity firmness predicted depression in the college sample. This study concluded that, during early and middle adolescence, identity importance significantly explained the variance of depression above and beyond the effect of identity firmness, which has been consistently revealed in prior studies as a robust predictor for adolescent adjustment. The developmental changes of the relation between different aspects of identity importance/firmness and depression across adolescence were also discussed.