Abstract
The present study was an attempt to classify and estimate the moratorium states of university students in Japan. The Moratorium Scale was developed and administered to 369 sophomores. In order to investigate the characteristics of the Moratorium Scale which had 4 subscales (AVOIDANCE, DIFFUSION, POSTPONEMENT, EXPLORATION) the relations between the Moratorium Scale and the Vocational Decisiveness Scale were examined by multiple regression analysis as well as the relations between the Moratorium Scale and the Identity Scale. These examinations proved the constructive validity of the Moratorium Scale. The relations between the Moratorium Scale and the Basic Identity Scale were also examined to inspect the developmental meaning of the moratorium states. The result suggested that the moratorium states such as AVOIDANCE and POSTPONEMENT could not be explained by the traditional psychoanalytic development theory on adolescence.
