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ABSTRACT
The present study inquired if abusive experiences before or during the adolescence contribute to the severity of identity crisis and if parenting style and social support reduce the crisis. Sample of 252 adolescents (82 males and 170 females) were collected from different educational institutions in Palakkad Districts in the state of Kerala, India. Karthika Identity Crisis Scale (Karthika, 2013), Perceptions of Parents Scales (Grolnick, Ryan & Deci, 1991) and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988) were used to measure Identity Crisis, Parental support and social support respectively. A Child abuse checklist was developed to assess the intensity of child sexual abuse. Correlation analysis indicated that identity crisis has a moderate positive relationship with abusive experiences and low negative correlation with perceived social support. As per the regression analysis, abusive experiences in the childhood can contribute to identity crisis, but social support can reduce it.
Key words : Sexual abuse, Identity crisis, Parenting Style, Social Support, Adolescence
INTRODUCTION
Identity development is a lifelong process that begins in childhood and extends till old age. Identity formation has many components - physical, sexual, social, vocational, moral, ideological, and psychological characteristics (Rice, 1999). Many series of conflicts are involved in the process. Adolescence is a period when individuals examine identity as a process of finding out the fidelity in them, with reference to their peers. Orientation about the society they have to survive here gets redefined, from a world of parents and relatives who always attended them, to the world of peers who would attend them in special situations only.
Adolescence is a period when individuals become confused about their personal strengths and weaknesses, and does not have a well articulated sense of self. This temporary instability and confusion, this distress and disorientation, resulting from conflicting pressures and uncertainty about one's self and one's role in society, usually experienced by the individuals during the period of adolescence is called identity crisis (Erikson, 1970). Everyone experiences this crisis during adolescence period, although in many cases this could be unconscious (Erikson, 1963). It is a necessary turning point, a crucial moment, when development must move one way or another, marshaling resources of growth, recovery, and further differentiation (Erikson 1968).
It is in...