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September 2010 2011 26: 200 originally published online 8Journal of Adolescent Research

Ann Frisén and Maria WängqvistWork, and Family

Emerging Adults in Sweden: Identity Formation in the Light of Love,

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Emerging Adults in Sweden: Identity Formation in the Light of Love, Work, and Family

Ann Frisén1 and Maria Wängqvist1

Abstract

In this study, the identity formation of emerging adults in Sweden was investigated in order to discover how identity issues concerning love, work and family are handled. The study group comprised 136 24- to 26-year-olds. The results revealed differences between men and women with regard to their position in the identity formation process. While women were more likely to have made identity-defining decisions after a process of active exploration (identity achievement), men were less likely to explore identity issues and lacked identity-defining commitments (identity diffusion). The position in the identity formation process was related to romantic relationships and occupational contexts. The results are discussed in relation to the sociocultural context of emerging adults in Sweden.

Keywords

identity formation, emerging adulthood, gender differences, romantic relationships, occupational contexts

At the beginning of the1950s, Erikson (1950) introduced identity develop-ment as the primary psychosocial task of adolescence. In subsequent years, the transition to adulthood has, in industrial and postindustrial societies, become increasingly delayed (Arnett, 1998; Shanahan, 2000) resulting, as a

1University of Gothenburg

Corresponding Author:Ann Frisén, University of Gothenburg, Box 500, Gothenburg 405 30Email: [email protected]

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Frisén and Wängqvist 201

consequence, in a prolonged process of identity exploration (Arnett, 2006). The task of identity formation has therefore been expanded to apply not only to adolescence, but also to emerging adulthood (Schwartz, 2002). It is for this reason that, in the present study, we explore the identity formation of emerg-ing adults in Sweden in order to shed light upon the ways in which they handle identity issues, particularly in relation to love, work and family. The participants in this study are closer to the end of the period emerging adult-hood than to its beginning, and the participant group comprises individuals from various contexts (not just the university environment). In addition to adding to knowledge about identity formation in the Swedish sociocultural context, the study also provides a contribution in developing an understand-ing of identity formation processes among older emerging adults from diverse contexts.

Identity Formation in the Swedish Socio-Cultural ContextTo our knowledge, only a few studies focusing on identity have been per-formed in Sweden. While two used Marcia’s identity status model (Bergh & Erling, 2005; Schwartz, Adamson, Ferrer-Wreder, Dillon, & Berman, 2006), in questionnaire studies of adolescents, the others (Adamson, Hartman, & Lyxell, 1999; Adamson & Lyxell, 1996) studied identity using a theoretical model based on self-concept and introject. In Scandinavian studies (Bergh & Erling, 2005; Jensen, Kristiansen, Sandbekk, & Kroger, 1998; Schwartz et al., 2006; Stegarud, Solheim, Karlsen, & Kroger, 1999) the EOM-EIS-II (Bennion & Adams, 1986)—a questionnaire-based measure of identity status—was used and similar patterns as in various American samples were revealed. Nevertheless, a number of differences between studies conducted in the Scandinavian countries using the EOM-EIS-II and those conducted in the U.S. have been noted. For example, on the continuous scales of identity status that can be calculated from the EOM-EIS-II, mean identity scores lower than those obtained in American samples have been found for all of the identity statuses, indicating thus that individuals in the Scandinavian studies tend to score lower on items designed to measure each of the four identity statuses (Jensen et al., 1998; Schwartz et al., 2006; Stegarud et al., 1999).

One explanation for these differences may be that the EOM-EIS-II items of dating and religion hold a different meaning in a European context (Goos-sens, 2001). In fact, Sweden stands out as one of the most secularized coun-tries in the world (Inglehart & Baker, 2000), and in a focus-group study



202 Journal of Adolescent Research 26(2)

Frisén and Bergh (2006) found that both religion and dating were not consid-ered to be important identity-defining domains in Sweden. In a study from Finland, Fadjukoff, Pulkkinen, and Kokko (2005) also found low salience for the domain of religion. With regard to dating, Trost (2006) pointed out that, in its North American sense, dating is not customary in Sweden, Bergh and Erling (2005) described how, in Sweden, dating is usually very informal without any particular “rules” relating to its procedures. Nevertheless, Bergh and Erling (2005) still suggested that romantic relationships are an important area for identity formation for young people in Sweden, although not in the form of dating. In a Norwegian study (Danielsen, Lorem, & Kroger, 2000) it was found that occupation was rated as an important identity domain by nearly all participants, a finding that corresponds well with the results of other Scandinavian studies (e.g., Bergh & Erling, 2005; Fadjukoff et al., 2005; Frisén & Bergh, 2006).

Thus, in the process of identifying interview domains likely to be of importance for the sample in the present study, close attention was paid to the Scandinavian findings outlined above (Bergh & Erling, 2005; Danielsen et al., 2000; Fadjukoff et al., 2005; Frisén & Bergh, 2006) as well as to knowl-edge about Swedish society in general. This resulted in the choice of the life-areas of occupation, romantic relationships, parenthood and work/family priorities. Interviews were conducted using the Ego Identity Status Interview (Marcia, 1966; Marcia, Waterman, Mattesson, Archer, & Orlofsky, 1993). This decision was based on the belief that the semistructured interview for-mat is more sensitive to cultural influences in that questions can be reformu-lated to better suit the cultural context and the person being interviewed.

Gender Issues in the Swedish Socio-Cultural ContextCertain features in the Swedish sociocultural context can be assumed to have an impact on the identity formation of emerging adults facing the task of choosing a direction in their lives for love, work and family. For instance, based on several measures Guiso, Monte, Sapienza, and Zingales (2008) classify Sweden as one of the more gender-equal countries in the world. The dual-breadwinner norm—where both parents work and together care for the family—is well established in Sweden (Sommestad, 1997). Furthermore, a radical notion of the family in which men and women share an equal respon-sibility for child care and for providing family income (Björnberg, 2000) has been extremely influential in the continued gender-equality debate in Sweden. In line with this radical family ideal, the Swedish government provides active




support for working parents. As an example, employers are required by leg-islation to facilitate the combination of work and parenthood for both female and male employees. Furthermore, the Swedish parental leave system, where parents receive generous financial benefits, is so designed that both men and women should be able to combine work and parenthood (Haas & Hwang, 2000). In terms of the effects of the gender equality ideal, men, it has been shown, are increasingly more interested in being active in the family sphere (Härenstam & Bejerot, 2001).

These aspects of Swedish society doubtless exert an influence on the iden-tity formation of women and men, thus making Sweden an interesting con-text for the investigation of the ways in which young men and women handle identity-issues such as love, work, and family, and in particular, the process of weighting priorities of work and family. However, in spite of a clear politi-cal agenda and, in many areas, observable increases in gender equality, the conditions for men and women in Sweden have still not reached a level of parity. This is true for the life-areas of both work and family and for their interrelations. For example, occupations dominated by women generally have a lower status than occupations where men are in the majority, and, furthermore, men’s salaries are, in the majority of occupations, higher than those of women (Statistics Sweden, 2008). For a more extensive review of Swedish statistics, see Trost (2006).

Identity Formation and GenderIn a narrative overview Kroger (1997) found few studies that reported gender differences in global identity status ratings. While gender differences in spe-cific life-areas were frequent, the consistencies found across all of the studies were with regard to higher frequencies of women in the moratorium and identity achievement groups for work/family priorities and for sexual values. However, some findings (e.g., Fadjukoff et al., 2005; Lewis, 2003; Pastorino, Dunham, Kidwell, Bacho, & Lamborn, 1997) indicate that there could be gender differences in the identity status distributions and that these differ-ences would not be the same for all domains. Additionally, differences in global identity status were found in a study of Swedish adolescents’ identity formation, where women were more likely than men to be categorized to moratorium, and men more likely than women to be categorized to identity diffusion (Bergh & Erling, 2005). Based on these previous findings we con-sidered the analysis of both global and domain-specific identity statuses to be of importance for the purpose of this study.




Identity Formation and Aspects of Love and Work

When it comes to identity formation (exploring alternatives and making commitments) in the areas of love, work and family, a individual’s position in this sense can be thought to be closely associated with the actual position (e.g., working or being a student or being in a relationship or not). Therefore, in this study, identity formation was related to romantic relationships and occupational contexts. Previous findings concerning the relationship between identity formation and the aspects of love and work are discussed in the fol-lowing sections.

Romantic relationships. Establishing close romantic relationships is seen as an important developmental task during the transition to adulthood (e.g., Arnett, 2000; Erikson, 1980; Kroger, 2007a) and love is thus an important area for identity explorations in emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000, 2006). In Sweden, many young people are involved in more or less stable romantic relationships (Swedish Youth Board, 2007). Consequently, our aim was to focus on and investigate the ways in which involvement in a long-term romantic relationship was related to identity formation. Thus, in the current study, the focus is on actual involvement in a long-term romantic relationship (which, in an effort to ensure that the relationship involved serious commit-ments, we have chosen to define as one that has endured for at least a year prior to the interview).

In studies of intimacy status (e.g., Kacerguis & Adams, 1980; Montgom-ery, 2005; Orlofsky, Marcia, & Lesser, 1973; Raskin, 1986; Tesch & Whit-bourne, 1982), involvement in a romantic relationship has been one of the criteria for the categories “intimacy” (defined by involvement in a relation-ship that is intimate) and “pseudo-intimacy” (defined by involvement in a relationship that lacks intimacy; Orlofsky, 1993; Orlofsky et al., 1973). In sum, this research has revealed that a higher (global) identity status (morato-rium and identity achievement) has been shown to be associated with a higher intimacy status (Årseth, Kroger, & Martinussen, 2009; Orlofsky, 1993). However, this association appears to be more pronounced for men than for women (Årseth et al., 2009). For intimacy statuses that include involvement in a romantic relationship, an “intimate” status has been mainly related to identity achievement and a “pseudo-intimate” status mainly to foreclosure (Orlofsky, 1993). Årseth et al. (2009), who conducted a meta-analyses of the relationship between identity and intimacy, argued that their findings support the idea that identity and intimacy interact and amplify one another, as opposed to the view that it is necessary to achieve identity prior to the estab-lishment of intimacy.




In addition to studies on identity and intimacy statuses, a number of stud-ies have established a relationship between (global) identity status and romantic attachment (Berman, Weems, Rodriguez, & Zamora, 2006; Hoegh & Bourgeois, 2002; Kennedy, 1999). Although the results from these studies are not entirely unanimous, they nevertheless point to a connection between a secure romantic attachment and identity commitments.

Occupational context. Some previous studies have found differences in identity status between different social contexts. For example Munro and Adams (1977) found that more working youth had an achieved identity than was the case for college youth. In a similar vein, Morash (1980) found lower frequencies of foreclosure and moratorium and higher frequencies of achieve-ment and diffusion for working youth. However somewhat more contradic-tory results can be found in a more recent study by Danielsen et al. (2000) where students primarily categorized with moratorium or identity achieve-ment were compared to late adolescents in employment, for whom foreclos-ure was a more frequent category.

The Present StudyThe purpose of the research reported on here was to examine the identity

formation of emerging adults in Sweden in order to discover how identity issues concerning love, work and family are handled, and how this is related to some aspects of love and work. The following specific questions guided our investigations:

1. Are there any gender differences in the distributions of global and domain-specific identity statuses?

2. Is involvement in a long-term romantic relationship related to global identity status and to identity status in the domains of romantic relationships and work/family priorities?

3. Is a person’s occupational context related to their global and occupa-tional identity status?

MethodParticipants

The 136 participants (68 women and 68 men) were aged between 24 and 26 (M = 24.9 SD = 0.7) and were participants in a longitudinal study of stability and change in psychological development conducted by the Department of




Psychology at the University of Gothenburg. The main focus for the current phase of this long-term project has been on identity. At the outset of the study in 1982, the participants, then aged between 1 and 2 years old, were recruited from waiting lists for public child care facilities in all areas of Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. The participants came from a variety of middle-class backgrounds and all were firstborn children whose parents lived together.

MeasuresBackground interview. To study the aspects of love and work a structured

interview that included questions about the participants’ romantic relation-ships, current occupation, and education was used. In this instrument, the variables used to study the aspects of love and work were specially devel-oped for the purposes of the current study. For romantic relationships, partici-pants were asked if they lived alone or together with someone and, if together with someone, with whom. They were also asked whether they were in a romantic relationship at the time of the survey, and, if so, the extent of its duration. With regard to occupation, participants were asked about their edu-cation, whether they were working, and, if so, with what and for how long. In addition they were also asked whether they had any other current occupation, such as being a student, on parental leave, being unemployed or on sick leave, and, if so, to what extent.

We created three categories of occupational contexts, based on the partici-pants’ record of higher education. These were (1) those who were working and who had not studied at university (this category also included those who had a history of sporadic or incomplete university studies which had not lead to their current occupation); (2) participants who were currently enrolled in university studies (or educational contexts of similar status); and (3) those who had completed their university education (or an education of similar status) and who were pursuing a career corresponding to their higher-level educational attainment. Three participants were excluded from the analyses since the descriptions they gave of their current occupational situation did not fit into any of the three categories. In addition, four participants who were unemployed and the three participants who were on long-term sick leave were also excluded. Participants who were on parental leave were coded into an occupational context based on the occupation that they had prior to the commencement of their parental leave.

Ego identity status interview. Marcia’s Ego Identity Status interview (Marcia et al., 1993) was translated into Swedish and used to study identity formation




in accordance with the identity status model (Marcia, 1966; Marcia et al., 1993). The content areas explored in this study were occupation, romantic relationships, parenthood and family/work priorities.

Based on the extent of exploration of alternatives and commitment to a chosen direction, the participants were assigned to a specific identity status; identity achievement (high exploration, high commitment), moratorium (high exploration, low commitment), foreclosure (low exploration, high commitment) and identity diffusion (low exploration, low commitment) in each of the four domains. Each participant was also categorized to a global identity status that summarized all the information from the interview. In the determination of a global identity status, the guidelines outlined by Marcia et al. (1993) were adhered to.

Due to the fact that insufficient information was obtained in the specific domains, three informants were not assigned to an identity status in the romantic relationships domain, and four were unassigned in the parenthood domain. It was, however, still possible to assign these participants to a global identity status based on the information obtained through the domains of occupation and work/family priorities.

In all cases it was the interviewer who made the assessment of identity status. To obtain a measure of reliability, a random sample of interviews (n = 20 14.7%,) were checked for interrater reliability. The results obtained revealed that, for global identity status, interrater agreement between the first and second raters was 17/20, 85.0% exact agreement, with a kappa of .77, that for the domain of occupation the agreement was 17/20, 85.0% exact agreement, with a kappa of .76 and, finally, for the domain of work/family priorities 16/20, 80.0% exact agreement, with a kappa of .64. For the domains of romantic relationships and parenthood, because the second author single-handedly coded all of the interviews, it was thus not possible to obtain a second rating for these domains.

ProcedureInitially, the participants were sent a letter informing them about the current wave of the research and, thereafter, they were contacted by telephone. For those who indicated a willingness to participate in the study, a meeting with one of the interviewers was arranged. In all, 119 participants were inter-viewed at the Department of Psychology in Gothenburg. For those participants who could or did not want to come to the university, 14 were interviewed in their homes and three were interviewed in public places (two in hotel lobbies and one in a café).




Results

The identity status categorizations that form the basis of the analyses are based on interview data. Thus, in the presentation of the quantitative results, verbal data are used as examples of the voices of the emerging adults them-selves in order to illustrate the results.

Distributions of Global and Domain-Specific Identity StatusesDistribution of men, women and the total group in the four identity status groups in each domain and in global identity status are presented in Table 1. Global identity, occupational identity and work/family priorities all followed the same pattern of identity status distributions (with some differences in the frequencies). That is, identity achievement was the most common identity status, followed by foreclosure, moratorium and identity diffusion.

The life-areas of romantic relationships and parenthood diverged from the other domains in that here there were larger proportions of individuals in foreclosure and very few individuals in moratorium. A young man who talked about why he wanted to get married with the words quoted below may serve as an example of the type of reasoning that was related to foreclosure in the romantic relationships domain:

I come from the type of family where everybody gets married and everybody is really traditional. You get married, and you don’t have children before you are married, and those things. So, somehow, when I was younger I always saw myself getting married at some time, but it hasn’t been something I have given much thought, it has just been obvious. Someday, I will get married. (id. 26, 25-year-old man, global foreclosure).

Gender differences. The patterns of identity status distributions differed between women and men. While identity achievement was the most common identity status for all domains (except parenthood) and for global identity status for women, the most common identity status for men differed across the domains: That is, for the men, for global identity, the most common iden-tity status was foreclosure. For occupational identity it was identity achieve-ment and for work/family priorities it was identity diffusion. For romantic relationships and parenthood it was foreclosure. These gender differences were significant for global identity status, c2(3, N = 136) = 27.52, p < .001, family/work priorities, c2(3, N = 136) = 28.53, p <.001, romantic




relationships, c2(3, N = 133) = 22.11, p < .001 (2 cells, 25.0%, had expected counts of less than 5. The minimum expected count was 2.48), and parent-hood, c2(3, N = 132) = 17.70, p < .01 (2 cells, 25%, had expected counts of less than 4. The minimum expected count was 4.43), but not for occupational identity. Standardized residuals revealed that the differences between men and women in the identity achievement and identity diffusion groups were major contributors to the significant results for global identity, family/work priorities and romantic relationships. For parenthood it was only the gender difference for identity diffusion that was a major contributor to the signifi-cant result.

Table 1. Frequencies of Men, Women and the Total Group in the Four Identity Status Groups in Each Domain and in Global identity Status

Identity Status Gender

Women n (%) Men n (%) Total n (%)

Global A 38 (55.9) 15 (22.1) 53 (39.0) M 11 (16.2) 9 (13.2) 20 (14.7) F 18 (26.5) 25 (36.8) 43 (31.6) D 1 (1.5) 19 (27.9) 20 (14.7)Occupational A 32 (47.1) 20 (29.4) 52 (38.2) M 11 (16.2) 9 (13.2) 20 (14.7) F 15 (22.1) 20 (29.4) 35 (25.7) D 10 (14.7) 19 (27.9) 29 (21.3)Work/family priorities A 35 (51.5) 12 (17.6) 46 (34.6) M 14 (20.6) 9 (13.2) 23 (16.9) F 14 (20.6) 20 (29.4) 34 (25.0) D 5 (7.4) 27 (39.7) 32 (23.5)Romantic relationships A 30 (45.5) 10 (14.9) 40 (30.1) M 2 (3.0) 3 (4.5) 5 (3.8) F 30 (45.5) 34 (50.7) 64 (48.1) D 4 (6.1) 20 (29.9) 24 (18.0)Parenthood A 19 (29.2) 11 (16.4) 30 (22.7) M 8 (12.3) 1 (1.5) 9 (6.8) F 36 (55.4) 40 (59.7) 76 (57.6) D 2 (3.1) 15 (22.4) 17 (12.9)

Note: A = achieved identity; M = moratorium; F = foreclosure; D = diffused identity.




As an illustration of these gender differences, where women were more likely to be in the identity achievement group and men were more likely to be in the identity diffusion group, two examples from the interviews will be presented below. In the first, when asked how she wanted to balance work and family in her life one woman in the group with global identity achieve-ment said:

I think that I need to work with something I like in order to feel good, but at the same time, to feel good, I need to be with the people I like. I think it may be hard to get it together sometimes, but I don’t think I will be happy if I don’t work with something I like, and then I won’t be able to give joy to the people I care about anyway. Work is really important to me, but family is even more important. (Id. 23, 25-year-old woman, global identity achievement).

Her answers indicated that she had thought about issues concerning priorities between work and family, and her reasoning seemed to be based on her knowledge about herself and what she valued in life. She also seemed to have come to some conclusion as to how she wanted to balance the areas of work and family in her life, while at the same time she showed an awareness of the complexity of these issues. Her answer implied that she felt that these issues needed attention when thinking about and planning for a future work- and family life. In the second example, a young man in the identity diffusion group gave the following answer to the same question (how he wanted to balance work and family in his life): “It’s hard to say, I don’t really know. I usually handle things as they come a long, if necessary” (id. 230, 24-year-old man, global identity diffusion). For him, the question of work/family priorities did not seem to have much meaning as an identity issue and he did not feel that it was something he needed to think about before any problems relating to it emerged.

Identity Formation and Aspects of Love and WorkRomantic relationships. A majority (64.7%) of the participants were in a

romantic relationship, 54.4% were in a relationship that had endured for more than a year and 49.3% were living with their partner. Comparisons between individuals in the four identity status groups were made on the basis of whether or not they were in a relationship that had lasted a year or more. Being in a long relationship was most likely for individuals in the group with identity achievement (67.9%) and least likely for those in the group with




identity diffusion (30.0%) in global identity. For work/family priorities it was most likely for participants in the moratorium (65.2%) and identity achieve-ment (63.8%) groups to be in a long relationship and least likely for partici-pants in the identity diffusion group (34.4%). The differences between the identity status groups were significant, c2(3, N = 136) = 9.05, p <.05, for global identity and, c2(3, N = 136) = 7.97, p <.05, for work/family priorities. There were no major contributors to the significant results and no differences were found for the domain of romantic relationships.

Thus, for global identity it was most common for the group with identity achievement to be in a long relationship and least likely for the group with identity diffusion. These two groups will therefore be illustrated by examples from the interviews. First, the answers from one woman and one man in the identity achievement group seemed to reflect a serious commitment to their romantic relationship. Also, the answers indicated that the relationship appeared to have the function of a secure base in their lives. When asked what the relationship meant to them the woman said:” it is extremely impor-tant, it is the only security you have besides from your family of origin” (id. 39, 25-year-old woman, global identity achievement). In a similar vein the young man talked about his relationship with the following words:

It is at the same time the person you love and your, it must be, to me, my best friend. It’s like someone you can, someone you can talk to about everything. Yes, put simply, it gives me a sense of security. (id. 3, 25-year-old man, global identity achievement).

A young man from the identity diffusion group described a different experience when he talked about his difficulties in previous relationships. He seemed to feel as though he could not control what role he had and that he failed to be the person he wanted to be when in a relationship:

I have not been the active type in my relationships. I usually get the role of being the one that is taken care of. It is not the way I want it to be, but it’s usually how it turns out. (id. 5, 25-year-old man, global identity diffusion).

Occupational context. The participants were categorized into three different occupational contexts. That is, (1) those working, with no university educa-tion whatsoever (34.9%); (2) students (41.3%); and (3) those who were working having completed university studies (23.8%). Analyses were per-formed to investigate differences in identity status distributions across the three occupational contexts. The frequencies of individuals categorized to




each of the four identity statuses for these three contexts are displayed in Table 2. For global identity, a majority of the participants in the identity dif-fusion and the moratorium groups were in the category of no university edu-cation (66.7% and 50.0%). Only one person in the moratorium group and one in the identity diffusion group had finished their university studies. In con-trast, a majority of the participants in the identity achievement group were university students (50.0%) and only a smaller proportion of them were in the group with no university education (20.0%). The pattern was the same for occupational identity as for global identity.

The differences in identity status distributions across the occupational contexts were significant, c2(6, N = 126) = 17.809, p < .01, for global identity (two cells, 16.7%, had an expected count of less than five with a minimum expected count of 3.81) and, c2(6, N = 126) = 29.377 , p < .001, for occupa-tional identity. For global identity, it was the identity diffusion group with no university education that was a major contributor to the significant result. For occupational identity, the small group of identity achievements with no uni-versity education, and the large group of identity diffusions in this category were major contributors.

It was the identity diffusion group whit no education that stood out in the analyses of identity status and occupational context. This group will there-fore be illustrated by a quote from one man. When asked how he decided to pursue his current occupation he said: “I didn’t really chose it, it was more like it just happened, I ended up here and I liked it.” (id. 11, 25-year-old man, global identity diffusion).

Table 2. Distribution of the Identity Statuses (for Global and Occupational Identity) Across the Occupational Contexts

Occupational context

Global Identity

A n (%) M n (%) F n (%) D n (%)

No university education 10 (20.0) 8 (50.0) 14 (33.3) 12 (66.7)University student 25 (50.0) 7 (43.8) 15 (35.7) 5 (27.8)Completed university

education15 (30.0) 1 (6.3) 13 (31.0) 1 (5.6)

Occupational identityA n (%) M n (%) F n (%) D n (%)

No university education 8 (16.7) 9 (56.3) 8 (23.5) 19 (67.9)University student 26 (54.2) 6 (37.5) 13 (38.2) 7 (25.0)Completed university

education14 (29.2) 1 (6.3) 13 (38.2) 2 (7.1)

Note: A = identity achievement; M = moratorium; F = foreclosure; D = identity diffusion.




DiscussionIdentity Status Distributions

Global and domain-specific identity status distributions. On the global level while identity achievement was the most common identity status, fewer than half of the participants were actually given this rating. This finding is consist-ent with the distributions commonly found in studies with participants in their early twenties (Kroger, 2007b). The distribution of identity statuses for the domains of occupational choice and work/family priorities followed the same pattern as the distribution of global identity status. However, the domains of parenthood and romantic relationships differed from the other domains both in that the identity achievement and moratorium groups were smaller, and that the foreclosure group was larger.

The low exploration found in the interpersonal domains can be understood with reference to the work of Vleioras and Bosma (2005) who suggest that, in interpersonal domains, emotion, rather than exploration, is the most rele-vant process. Consequently, low exploration in these domains can indicate that these commitments are reached through emotions rather than active exploration. Furthermore, that commitment in an actual relationship is more important to identity than commitment to an ideology of relationships has been offered as an explanation by, for example, Grotevant (1987).

The impression gained from the interviews was that while participants who talked about an actual relationship tended to express more elaborate views of what it meant to them and what they expected of their partner, those who only talked about relationships in general terms seemed to offer more succinct and less elaborate responses. This could indicate that an interview that focused more on the here-and-now-, and emotional aspects of relation-ships, rather than on exploration at a more ideological level, would yield different results. In order to obtain a deeper understanding of the meaning of romantic relationships to the identities of emerging adults this requires fur-ther investigation in future research.

Gender differences. In our investigation the distributions for men and women were substantially different. Overall, the results show that the identi-ties of the women were more often achieved, while those of the men were more often diffused. This was true for global identity and across all life-areas with the exception of occupational identity. Although this finding is, in part, consistent with a some previous findings (Bergh & Erling, 2005; Lewis, 2003; Pastorino et al., 1997) such pronounced gender differences, particu-larly for the global identity status distributions, have not been common (Kroger, 1997).




One could argue that the gender differences found in this study, as well those in some previous studies could be due to the notion that while relational issues are of greater importance to women’s identity formation, occupational and ideological issues are issues of more importance for men. However, in our study there were no statistically significant gender differences in the occupational domain and the idea that this life-area should be more important to men than to women is not supported by our results. Indeed, the trend seems to point in the opposite direction, since the same pattern (more women in identity achievement and more men in identity diffusion) emerged across all life-areas, including the occupational domain.

Given the particular circumstances of Swedish society with regard to advances in gender equality and a radical family ideal which holds that women and men have equal responsibility for supporting and taking care of the family (Björnberg, 2000), we were somewhat surprised by the large gen-der differences that were found. That the identities of women were more often achieved could indicate that the route toward adulthood proceeds at a different pace for women and men, and that it is more prolonged for men than it is for women. However, this idea is based on the assumption that men will, eventually, get to the stage where they could be categorized as identity achieved, a conclusion that cannot be drawn from the current results.

The finding that the identity statuses defined by low exploration were largely populated by men could be a reflection of that, for young men in Sweden today, there are a lack of social factors that stress identity exploration as an important developmental task. Identity exploration is a psychologically challenging and tiring process in which people are unlikely to engage without the perception of some sort of pressure or feeling that such efforts are neces-sary for them. It could be that the dual roles that women hold in Swedish society mean that identity formation is a more pressing issue for young women than it is for young men. Even though in Sweden today men are more involved in the family sphere than ever before, such participation is, never-theless, for many still just an option. Magnusson (2006) found that young couples in the Nordic region had ideals that varied from conservative to radi-cal. Even so, while men are fully able to take on the role of primary bread-winner, for women either staying at home as a housewife (after the conclusion of the period of paid parental leave) or focusing primarily on work and the financial support of the family, are both not only uncommon but indeed con-troversial solutions to the work/family dilemma (the former in particular more so than the latter).

Furthermore there are indeed at least two other possible explanations for the gender differences found in this study: The first is that the life-areas




included in the identity status interview, even though they appear to be of importance for identity definition of young women in Sweden may not be as important for young men. A second plausible explanation is that identity dif-fusion is a culturally adaptive resolution to the identity formation task for male emerging adults in contemporary Sweden. A culturally adaptive diffu-sion was first suggested by Marcia (1989), and it has been suggested that identity diffusion can be functional in emerging adulthood, which, in addi-tion to its inherent instability, is also subject to social and cultural variation (Arnett, 2000). Without firm commitments and with low engagement in exploration, there is not much to lose, and, as a consequence, the individual may be more flexible when presented with new opportunities (Born, 2007). To assess the accuracy of all three of these possible explanations further investigations are needed.

Identity Formation and Aspects of Love and WorkRomantic relationships. A significant difference between the identity status

groups with regard to commitment in the form of an enduring romantic rela-tionship was found. While being in a long-term relationship was most com-mon for the identity achievement group, it was least likely for the identity diffusion group. These results correspond well with Erikson’s theory where intimacy is described as a task to be undertaken subsequent to achieving an identity (e.g., Erikson, 1968). The results also fit well with empirical findings of intimacy status research, which demonstrate the existence of a relationship between an achieved identity and commitment to a romantic relationship (Årseth et al., 2009; Orlofsky, 1993). That there were no differences between the identity status groups in the romantic relationship domain with regard to whether or not informants were in an enduring romantic relationship is intriguing. In seeking a possible explanation for this, the work of Grootevant (1987) and Vleiroas and Bosma (2005) could well be of value. An interview with questions that focus less on an ideology of relationships and more on here-and-now aspects of relationships could well yield different results.

Occupational context. The identity status distributions over the occupa-tional contexts differed. While a majority of the participants in the group with identity diffusion had no higher education, only a minority of participants in the group with identity achievement were to be found in this category. In this sense, the results obtained do not accord well with those found by either Munro and Adams (1977) or Morash (1980) that more working youth had an achieved identity. Instead, our results appear to be more in line with a study




from Norway (Danielsen et al., 2000), where university students were pri-marily categorized with identity achievement or moratorium.

A large proportion of the identity achievement group in our study was comprised of university students. This could be a reflection of the fact that, once at university, a direction has often already been chosen. This, in turn, could indicate that even if getting a job is delayed, this does not necessarily entail a similar delay in attaining adult identifications (in the form of a work role).

Interestingly, there were fewer persons with identity achievement who had completed university studies than those who were still engaged in pro-grams of study. When entering university in Sweden students decide on a direction that affects the future path that studies take. Any subsequent change of mind is often associated with a number of drawbacks. Thus, as a conse-quence, the possibilities to engage in active exploration after entering univer-sity tend to be limited. For these reasons, the association of university study with identity exploration may well be down to a matter of timing. To have finished your university education at age 25 means that the time open for exploration before settling on a career may not have been very long. How-ever those who are still students at the age of 25 may well have had a gap between secondary school and university, thus meaning that the time open for explorations of different options may have been longer for them. This lends support to the idea that it is in emerging adulthood, and not in adoles-cence, that most identity exploration takes place (Arnett, 2006).

Another reason why more current then former students were categorized as identity achieved might be due to the developed nature of welfare systems in Scandinavian countries, such as Sweden and Norway. Given that the con-sequences of delaying this task are not as great in such societies, this can make the task of planning and starting a career appear less urgent. This can, in turn make the gap between secondary and post-secondary school more or less normative and not taking advantage of this gap may, perhaps, be more associated with firmly held commitments that have been established earlier on in life.

Additionally, it is important to note that in our study the group with no university education was the most heterogeneous of all three, including both those who had settled for an occupation early on and remained there, as well as those with an incomplete university education. Several of the participants categorized to this group indicated that they wanted to start a university edu-cation at some future point in time. All in all, this could imply that, in Swed-ish society, the pressure to start a career is relatively low, even for people in their mid-twenties.




Limitations and Future Research

Although we see great advantages in using interviews to study identity, this is an approach that also involves several methodological limitations. First, since interviews are time-consuming this therefore limits the number of par-ticipants that can be included in any study. The number of participants affects, in turn, the availability of statistical methods on offer. In addition, since, in the current study, the participants are not equally distributed over the four identity status groups which serve as a basis for most analyses in this study meaning, in some of the chi-square analyses (gender differences in romantic relationships and parenthood and differences in occupational context for global identity) the expected frequencies were less than five.

We also see some problems with the categorizations for the romantic rela-tionship variable. In our analyzes of romantic relationships we wanted to capture relationships that involved serious commitment and, in order to achieve this, the decision was made only to include those individuals in rela-tionships that had lasted for a year or more. The advantage of this procedure is that the participants included in this category are likely to be committed to their relationship. However, participants who were in relationships that involved serious commitments but which had lasted for less than a year ended up in the “non-committed” group. For future analyses, another defini-tion of a stable relationship and more profound investigation of the commit-ments involved in the romantic relationships of emerging adults could be fruitful. Also, further investigation of the particular effects of the Swedish university system (particularly the fact that that a very influential decision concerning the path of one’s studies is made at an early stage) on the process of exploring and making commitments is demanded.

All in all, in spite of the problems associated with it, the interview format provides a potentially rewarding avenue for investigations of complex phe-nomena such as identity development. Additionally, identity development is not just a complex phenomenon, but also a process that is profoundly affected by the cultural context. By using an interview, not only general paths, but also the unique cultural and individual meaning of the concept may be explored and illustrated by the words of the participants themselves.

ConclusionThe results of this study reveal that, in a Swedish sample, emerging adult females had more often reached identity commitments after a period of exploration than their male counterparts. This finding could indicate both




that there is a lack of circumstances that necessitate identity exploration for young men in the Swedish sociocultural context, but that this is not the case for young women. In addition, pathways toward adulthood may be different for women and men, or at least are proceeded upon at a different pace. There are, however, other possible explanations and further investigations are needed in order to fully explain these findings. The results also point to a connection between identity formation and the establishment of adult roles, such as a romantic relationship and a career.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

Grants from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research financed this research.

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Bios

Ann Frisén is a professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Gothenburg. Her research interests include adolescent development and the period of emerging adulthood. She has previously conducted work on body image, bullying, and identity.

Maria Wängqvist is a graduate student at the Department of Psychology at the Uni-versity of Gothenburg. Her research interests include identity development, psychological development, the social circumstances of adolescents and emerging adults in Sweden.



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