Identity Formation: Role of Social Support and Self Esteem among Indian Adolescents

Abstract

The term identity is very important for adolescents. Adolescence is a time to sum up one’s past and current experience to arrive at a sense of identity, which in turn will guide one’s future plans. Adolescence has been considered as a period marked with identity crisis. Who am I all about? What am I going to do with my life? What is different about me? How can I make it on my own? These questions are usually considered in adolescence. Adolescents are keen for solutions to questions of identity. Identity has been called a “sense” an “attitude” a “resolution” and so on. The term social support means the person seeks help and support from friends, the term self esteem means the belief about their own self. Self-esteem is a socio psychological construct that assesses an individual’s attitudes and perceptions of self-worth. For this purpose a sample of 150 adolescents (75 boys and 75 girls) ranging in age from of 14 to18 years, were selected from various schools of Hisar, Haryana (India).They were administered (EOMEIS-2; Bennion and Adams, 1986), Perceived Social Support Assessment (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988), Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The result has been discussed and shown in tables.