This thesis examines the way in which youth between the ages of sixteen and eighteen envision their future possible selves with respect to their possible careers and roles in the community. The youth were recruited from members of the Fusion Youth Activity and Technology Centre (a.k.a. Fusion) in Ingersoll, Ontario; population 12,146 (Statistics Canada, 2011). Situated in the context of small-town youth who attend afterschool activities aimed at providing skills in business, the arts, media and technology, the study asked youth to consider what their future possible selves would look like ten years from now. Using Q-methodology, the participating youth were asked to complete a 55-statement Q-sort with statements relating to careers and community roles generated by a focus group of Fusion youth and from the relevant literature. Using identical statements, the sort was conducted under two conditions of instruction; thinking of your hoped-for self in the future and; thinking of your feared self in the future. Factor analysis was conducted on both sets of Q-sorts (hoped-for and feared) and three factors were extracted for each. In keeping with Q-methodology, composite sorts were generated giving three distinct profiles of statement placement for each of the hoped-for and feared selves. Hoped-for profiles included community-minded professionals, independent creatives and no-plan dreamers. Feared self profiles included, disengaged problem citizens, trapped labourers and unhappy average citizens. These six different viewpoints of their possible futures indicate that youth see their futures (both good and bad) very differently and that their career foci and community involvement hopes and fears are far from homogeneous. This opens an opportunity for youth programs like Fusion to develop programming specific to these groups that may help to make hoped-for selves the more probable outcome.

This study explored the racial identity development of White corporate trainers who deliver training in racially diverse organizations. The purpose of this study was to acquire an understanding about the various factors that affect the racial identity development of White trainers as well as to distinguish ways in which racially diverse organizations support the creation of culturally responsive training. The study sought to identify aspects that affect White trainers’ identity and the role of the organizations in defining, or impacting, competencies related to culturally responsive training. A basic qualitative design guided the study and data was collected through two face-to-face interviews and a written reflection in response to their own completed interview transcripts. The participants included six White females and one male and were employed in organizations in the areas of oil and gas, real estate, retail, and consulting. The participants were identified by their connection to Texas A&M University students and faculty, the Academy of Human Resource Development, or the American Society for Training and Development. The findings of the study indicated that White corporate trainers develop their racial identity through a variety of experiences in their personal and professional environments. The White trainers’ perceptions of racial identity were impacted through environmental influences and their construction of Whiteness. Their racial consciousness was further developed through their work within racially diverse organizations and cultural diversity within the training environment exposed the trainers to their weaknesses and areas for growth. The process of becoming more culturally responsive trainers was a constant evolution that took place through self-reflection and the acknowledgment of race as an important component related to identity and their work.

Changes in the workplace and impending shortages of organizational leaders make it imperative that HRD professionals develop a better understanding of the developmental processes of emergent leaders entering the workplace. While leader development research within the field of HRD has typically focused on established workers, the research in this study assumes a lifespan approach to leader development. This study contributes to the development of the field by examining the leadership experiences of 18 to 20 year olds who were leaders of organizations in high school and how these experiences shaped the identities of these emergent leaders. Themes that emerged related to their experiences included their relationships with others, how they led by example, the development of authentic leadership qualities, and their motivation to lead in new venues. Implications for practice and future research are identified.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the identity of teenagers is affected by the loss of a parent as well as what coping strategies support identity development. The reactions the teenagers exhibit, in such circumstances, will also be examined. To accomplish this,  a theory package was created, comprising theories in developmental psychology, identity work, coping and theory of grief reactions of children and teenagers. This package provided a broad perspective, which facilitated the analysis. Furthermore, it made it easier to address the purpose and the issue of the analysis. In this study, three fictional books, that deal with the subject, have been used. In the books, the teenagers share their experiences and life stories. By doing a content analysis, the centeral themes and events could be identifyed. The themes of the books were hermeneutically interpreted. The conclusions from this study are that the fictional teenagers feel as if they have lost a part of themselves after the event of death. The most frequently exhibited reaction is that they refuse to believe that one of their parents is dead, through preservation coping. When the teenager realizes that this preservation coping strategy fails, he or she is forced to change strategy. The development of the teenagers identity is stalled; there is a risk that the teenagers sorrow interferes with various developmental stages during adolescence. For this development to resume, the teenager has to decide which coping strategy to use to cope with the loss of a parent.

This qualitative study examined how the racial identity of Black/White biracial college students shaped their college choice process, and the extent to which these students explored their racial identity at the University of Arizona. Sixteen self-identified Black/White biracial students were interviewed to learn what factors they considered during their college choice process. Additionally, these students were interviewed to understand how the context of this particular institution facilitated or hindered their racial identity exploration. This study found that Black/White biracial students approached their college choice process from a color-blind orientation which had unintended consequences on how these students explored and understood their racial identity in the context of a PWI. The predominantly White precollege contexts these students came from decentralized their racial identity early on; however, on campus Black/White biracial students were continuously confronted with messages that placed an emphasis on race. Implications for student services and for addressing the needs of Black/White biracial students are presented.

Bakgrund: Goda sociala relationer är i viss mån grundläggande för ungdomars identitetsutveckling. Utveckling av deras sociala förmågor har även positiva effekter på deras psykiska hälsa. För ungdomar med hörselnedsättning kan sociala relationer bli svåra eftersom de lever i ett samhälle där hörande kommunicerar med talad svenska och döva kommunicerar med svenskt teckenspråk. Ungdomar med hörselnedsättning har inte samma förutsättningar som hörande och det kan därför vara svårt för dem att hänga med i sociala samspel och skapa sociala relationer till andra. Om ungdomar med hörselnedsättning inte kan teckenspråk har de inte heller förutsättningar för att hänga med i det sociala samspelet som finns i dövsamhället. Den teoretiska inramningen för studien är James Marcias teori om identitetsutveckling och socialkonstruktionistisk teori. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur ungdomar med hörselnedsättning upplever sin psykosociala hälsa utifrån sina sociala relationer och hur de påverkar deras möjligheter till identitetsutveckling. Metod: Kvalitativ metod användes i studien och data samlades in med nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med ungdomar med hörselnedsättning i åldrarna 12–16 år. Resultatet har analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat och slutsatser: Under analysen framkom två kategorier; kompisar är viktiga men det är svårt och kommunikation är bra men den fungerar inte alltid. Ungdomarna upplevde att de hade kompisar men att de fanns i skolan och att de inte umgicks med dem på fritiden. De berättade också om hur kommunikationen påverkade deras möjligheter att kunna hänga med i det sociala samspelet. Ungdomarna undvek vissa situationer och höll sig tillbaka på grund av att de inte hörde allt som sades vilket de upplevde som pinsamt, jobbigt eller att de såg dumma ut. På grund av olika kommunikationssätt kan ungdomar med hörselnedsättning bli begränsade och få mindre möjligheter till sociala relationer och på så sätt kan de ges mindre utrymme till utveckling av sin identitet, sina sociala förmågor och att få en bra psykisk hälsa. Resultatet visar att samhällets strukturer begränsar vilka möjligheter till utveckling av identitet och sociala relationer som ungdomar med hörselnedsättning får. / Background: Good social relationships are a fundamental part of adolescents identity development, development of their social skills and have positive effects on their mental health. For adolescents with hearing impairment, social relationships can be difficult because they live in a society where hearing people communicates with spoken Swedish and deaf people communicates with sign language. Adolescents with hearing impairment don´t have the same ability as hearing people and it can for that reason be difficult to keep up in social interaction and create social relationships with others. If adolescents with hearing impairment don´t know sign language they also have no prerequisites for the social interaction that exists in the deaf community. The theoretical framework for the study is James Marcia's theory of identity development and social construction theory. Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate how adolescents with hearing impairment experience their psychosocial health based on their social relationships and how they affect their opportunities for identity development. Method: Qualitative methodology was used in the study and data was collected with nine semi structured interviews with adolescents with hearing impairment aged 12-16 years. The result has been analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions: During the analysis two categories emerged; friends are important, but it is difficult, and communication is good, but it does not always work. The adolescents experienced that they had friends but that they were at school and did not spend time with them in their spare time. They also talked about how communication affected their opportunities to be able to keep up with social interaction. The adolescents avoided certain situations and retreated because they did not hear everything that was said which they felt as embarrassing, difficult or that they looked dumb. Due to different communication needs, adolescents with hearing impairment can be limited and have less opportunities for social relationships, thus providing less space for the development of their identity, social skills and good mental health. The results show that society´s structures limit what opportunities for development of identity and social relationships that adolescents with hearing impairment may have.

This dissertation explores the lifelong racial and ethnic identity development of Korean transracial adoptees raised in the U.S. Midwest. Using seventy-seven in-depth, semi-structured life history interviews, geographic region, age cohort, gender, and exploration type emerged as the most significant factors shaping adoptees' sense of group belonging. Their unique life experiences as Asian Americans in White families created liminal belonging as "a part yet apart" from White, Asian, and even, at times, Korean adoptee communities. As they aged and encountered new life stage responsibilities and pressures, adoptees in the study experienced greater exposure to racial and ethnic diversity and were generally more willing to explore their identities during early and mid-adulthood. The large population of Korean adoptees in the Midwest, and Minnesota in particular, increased opportunities for exposure to other Korean adoptees and Korean adoptee culture. Involvement typically provided adoptees with a full-fledged sense of belonging that eluded them in traditionally defined Asian, Korean, and White communities. An empowering Korean adoptee identity emerged that was based on explicitly acknowledging adoptees' unique life circumstances in-between non-adopted Asians and Whites and challenged conflations of race, ethnicity, and culture.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Amber V. Vennum / It is known that ethnic-racial socialization messages received by Black youth are critical to their ethnic-racial identity development. Despite recognition that identity achievement is rarely completed by the end of adolescence and Black youth are embedded in larger multicultural familial, communal, and societal contexts, previous studies almost exclusively focus on parents as the isolated provider of ethnic-racial socialization messages during adolescence. Using a sample of 171 Black emerging adults, this retrospective study focused on the influence of four unique types of ethnic-racial socialization messages from diverse ethnic-racial socialization agents throughout adolescence and emerging adulthood on the development of Black ethnic-racial identity during emerging adulthood. Participants reported that although parents, adult family members, and siblings were the most influential socialization agents during adolescence, they became less influential during emerging adulthood as peers gained more influence. Across all developmental periods, emerging adults reported the strongest messages they received were egalitarian and racial pride messages and the weakest messages they received were negative messages. Additionally, seven different profiles of ethnic-racial identity development during emerging adulthood were identified and were predicted by the types of ethnic-racial socialization messages emerging adults received from adolescence through emerging adulthood. These results highlight the importance of receiving racial pride and racial barrier messages along with minimal egalitarian and negative messages from socialization agents in order to foster a healthy and positive Black ethnic-racial identity during emerging adulthood. Clinical implications, family life education implications, implications for diverse socialization agents, and areas for future research based on the findings of the present study are discussed.

In an extension of Louden's work, this study investigated identity development across the lifespan by applying Erickson's and Marcia's identity constructs to two developmental models, the selective optimization and compensation model and a holistic wellness model. Data was gathered from traditionally aged college freshmen and adults older than 60 years of age. Uncommitted identity statuses and work and leisure wellness domains were endorsed across both groups, suggesting that identity for these groups is in a state of fluctuation yet entailing participation as a productive member of society. Emerging adult findings imply that identity diffused and moratorium identity styles are more similar in terms of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional functioning than past literature suggests for this age group. Findings also indicate that identity development is not a process completed by older adulthood, but is an ongoing, lifelong process perhaps driven by contextual factors such as health changes, unpredictable life events, social support group changes, and others. Coping method utilization and overall wellness varied between the two age groups. Conceptually, the SOC model can be viewed as embedded within each of the wellness domains such that selection, optimization, and compensation activities may be carried out within each of the various domains and serve to enhance existing functioning within each domain rather than simply compensating for lost functioning. Possible explanations of the results as well as implications for clinical practice, higher education, and future research are provided.

Convergence among treatment, prevention, and developmental intervention approaches has led to the recognition of the need for evaluation models and research designs that employ a full range of evaluation information to provide an empirical basis for enhancing the efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness of prevention and positive development interventions. This study reports an investigation of a positive youth development program using an Outcome Mediation Cascade (OMC) evaluation model, an integrated model for evaluating the empirical intersection between intervention and developmental processes. The Changing Lives Program (CLP) is a community supported positive youth development intervention implemented in a practice setting as a selective/indicated program for multi-ethnic, multi-problem at risk youth in urban alternative high schools. This study used a Relational Data Analysis integration of quantitative and qualitative data analysis strategies, including the use of both fixed and free response measures and a structural equation modeling approach, to construct and evaluate the hypothesized OMC model. Findings indicated that the hypothesized model fit the data (χ2 (7) = 6.991, p = .43; RMSEA = .00; CFI = 1.00; WRMR = .459). Findings also provided preliminary evidence consistent with the hypothesis that in addition to having effects on targeted positive outcomes, PYD interventions are likely to have progressive cascading effects on untargeted problem outcomes that operate through effects on positive outcomes. Furthermore, the general pattern of findings suggested the need to use methods capable of capturing both quantitative and qualitative change in order to increase the likelihood of identifying more complete theory informed empirically supported models of developmental intervention change processes.