The Developmental Significance of the Social Context as an Additional Self-Continuity Strategy: A Comparison of Emerging Adults From Brazil and the United States

Abstract

Self-continuity refers to the strategies individuals use to justify a stable sense of self despite the various changes they experience. Among young adults, in particular, self-continuity over time has been associated with indicators of mental health. The aim of the current project was to identify whether aspects of the social context are measurably distinct from other established strategies of self-continuity. Data were collected from emerging adults from the US Midwest (n = 309) and southern Brazil (n = 285). Self-continuity and its opposite, self-discontinuity, were measured, in addition to essentialism or narrativism and the social context as strategies. Structural equation modeling supported the contention that self-continuity is positively associated with strategies of essentialism, narrativism, and the social context. Models confirmed that the social context was measurably distinct from the other strategies of self-continuity and higher among older emerging adults. Finally, though the factor structure was largely identical between the two samples, some mean differences emerged.