中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: Erik Erikson postulated that identity formation is the most important developmental task during adolescence. Erikson was also particularly interested in relating identity formation to developmental psychopathology. Our previous studies, which apply the Eriksonian framework, have been devoted to differentiating the measurements of identity importance, identity firmness, and identity discrepancy as well as their aspects in personal, social, and image identity. The developmental trend (Chen, Lay, & Wu, 2005) as well as the relations between the three identity concepts and mental health (Chen, Lay, & Wu, 2003a, b; Chen, Lay, Wu, & Yao, 2007) have also been documented. The goal of the present study is to develop a self-identity intervention program to promote adolescent positive mental health. Methods: The Adolescent Individual Identity Intervention Program (AIIIP) combines the three identity concepts with cognitive behavioral therapy. We administered the AIIIP to a high-risk college sample (the treatment group) of 8 college students (5 males & 3 females, mean age = 22.61) who solicited help from two university student counseling centers (mean number of therapeutic sessions = 10.55, range = 8-14). To verify the manipulation effect and evaluate the therapeutic outcome, we compared the identity concepts and mental health indices before and after treatment with indices from two other samples. Specifically, the drop-out group consisted of 12 students (5 males & 7 females, mean age = 22.99) who had solicited help from the same counseling centers but did not finish all AIIIP sessions. The normal group consisted of 272 college students (103 males & 169 females, mean age = 20.54) from the general population of the same universities. Results: The analysis of the manipulation effect demonstrated that in the treatment group, personal identity firmness significantly increased and all three aspects of identity discrepancy decreased after completion of the AIIIP. Examination of the therapeutic effect revealed that the score of Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale significantly increased, and almost all indices of psychological symptoms indicated in SCL-90R improved after completion of the AIIIP. The treatment group’s scores after attending the AIIIP were even marginally significantly better than the normal group on several indices of mental health (e.g., somatization, OCD, interpersonal sensitivity). Conclusions: The AIIIP is effective in facilitating adolescent self-identity as well as positive mental health. The maintenance effect of the AIIIP and its application to different psychological problems remain to be examined in future studies.