Uncertainty and disturbance? Emotional dimensions of the redefinition of identity in emerging adults

The study looks at the construction of identity at the beginning of university, focusing on analysis of student adaptation to university context and identity formation processes and their relationships with the five essential qualities of emerging adulthood. Besides, the study focuses on relational cognitive and emotional dimensions of autobiographical reconstruction of the life story. The participants were 145 volunteers (21% male and 79% female) from a major Italian city (Naples). The mean age of the participants was 20 years (range 19 to 21 years), attending the first two years of university courses. We used four self-report measures: IDEA (Arnett, 1994), DIDS (Luyckx et al., 2007), FIS (Serafini, Maitland, Adams, 2006), SACQ (Baker, Siryk, 1989). In order to explore emotional and cognitive dimensions of identity redefinition, we used a diary (“The diary of significant events”) and an instruction booklet. The results confirm that the beginning of university is experienced as a period of uncertainty and disturbance which activates processes of selfreflection to meet challenges and tasks related to development.