Links Between Vocational, Parental, and Romantic Identity and Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms in Adulthood: A Comparison of Samples From the United States, South Africa, Japan, Poland, and Israel

Abstract

Sense of personal identity plays a key role in shaping life satisfaction and mental health, but our knowledge of this relationship in adulthood is still limited. There have also been no studies on whether these relationships in adulthood are culturally specific or similar across cultures. Thus, the present study aimed to understand better how identity processes in the vocational, parental, and romantic domains are related to life satisfaction and severity of depressive symptoms in adults from five culturally diverse countries: United States ( N = 467), South Africa ( N = 306), Japan ( N = 600), Poland ( N = 456) and Israel ( N = 488). The analysis showed significant differences in the intensity of identity processes between countries, with Japan and Poland having the lowest level of commitment and the highest level of reconsideration of commitment across different domains, whereas the United States and South Africa showed stronger in-depth exploration and commitment. Israel occupied an intermediate position, notable for its high commitment in the parenting domain. Overall, the results showed the rather universal significance of a mature identity – identity commitment was associated with higher life satisfaction and lower depressive symptoms and reconsideration of commitment with lower life satisfaction and higher depressive symptoms in all countries. However, some country differences were also observed, suggesting that social context and cultural values may influence the importance of particular identity domains. The study highlights the importance of integrating cultural context in analyses of identity in adulthood and provides a basis for further research in this area.