Introduction

The transition from secondary to tertiary education could be considered as an opportunity for psychological growth and might play a meaningful role in educational identity development during adolescence. In the present study, we aimed to examine how adolescents differ in their educational identity development across the normative transition from secondary to tertiary education in the Netherlands, and if differences between classes could be described at the socio-demographic, academic, individual, and relational level.

Method

The present study conducted parallel process piecewise Latent Class Growth Analyses in a sample of 685 Dutch participants (47.0% girls, M_age = 17.29 years old at the time of transition). Longitudinal data from adolescent (bi)annual surveys were centered around the final year of secondary school, with 4 years before the final year and 4 years after.

Results

Heterogeneity in the development of identity commitment and reconsideration across the transition was best classified by a 4-class solution. These four classes were labelled Increasing Self-Certainty, Stable Self-Certainty, Post-Transition Uncertainty, and Enduring Uncertainty. Adolescents’ patterns of identity development were meaningfully associated with sociodemographic, academic, individual, and relational characteristics.

Conclusion

The present study discusses the merits of taking a person-centered approach, which indicated adaptive development for the majority of adolescents but also captured distinct patterns of struggles in educational identity development across the transition for a sizable minority.

中文翻译：

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从中等教育到高等教育过渡的身份发展：9 波纵向研究

介绍

从中等教育到高等教育的过渡可以被视为心理成长的机会，并可能在青春期的教育认同发展中发挥有意义的作用。在本研究中，我们旨在研究在荷兰从中等教育到高等教育的规范转变过程中青少年在教育身份发展方面的差异，以及是否可以从社会人口、学术、个人和关系方面来描述班级之间的差异等级。

方法

本研究对 685 名荷兰参与者（47.0% 的女孩，M_年龄 = 17.29 岁过渡时）的样本进行了并行过程分段潜在类增长分析。青少年（双）年度调查的纵向数据集中在中学最后一年，即最后一年前 4 年和后 4 年。

结果

在整个过渡过程中，身份承诺和重新考虑的发展中的异质性最好通过 4 级解决方案进行分类。这四类被标记为“增加的自我确定性”、“稳定的自我确定性”、“过渡后的不确定性”和“持久的不确定性”。青少年的身份发展模式与社会人口学、学术、个人和关系特征有意义地相关。

结论

本研究讨论了采取以人为中心的方法的优点，这表明大多数青少年的适应性发展，但也捕捉到了相当多的少数人在过渡期间教育身份发展的不同斗争模式。