Do adolescents compromise their identity when chatting on the Internet?

Abstract

This research project intended to explore the relation between internet chat room use and adolescent identity. The subjects of this research project were 124 first‐year university students of the Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, Chile. State of identity was measured by the Identity Consolidated Inventory (ICI) and identity‐compromise in chat rooms by the Phase Completion Test (TCF) scale. Gender differences were analyzed and men showed higher total scores in both instruments. The relation between identity‐integration and identity‐compromise project in chat rooms was confirmed. Some 11.3% of the subjects who had identity‐diffusion also compromised their identity while chatting. The causal relation between the two variables needs further research, and new definitions of identity require more study. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.