Reminiscence, Identity Status and Well-being in Young Adults

Abstract

Reminiscence therapy for the elderly has drawn considerable attention. However, it is suggested that adolescent also frequently reminisce. This study examines the relationship between daily reminiscence and identity status (Marcia, 1966) in adolescence. A reciprocal causal relationship between reminiscence and well-being is tested. Ninety-three university students, 45 nursing school students, 52 vocational school students (62 male and 128 female, mean age 21.5 years) answered a set of questionnaires which include the Identity Status Scale (Kato, 1983), Reminiscence Scale (Osada & Osada, 1994), Positive and Negative Reminiscence Scale, Revaluation Tendency Scale (Nomura & Hashimoto, 2001), the Japanese version of GHQ28 (Nakagawa & Daibo, 1985) and Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). Results indicate that frequency of reminiscence and negative reminiscence has a positive correlation with the identity crisis. However, results of Cross-lagged path analyses show that the crisis did not predict how much the person reminisces about his or her past. As assessed by GHQ, results also indicate that frequent reminiscing predicted higher levels of psychological disorders, while lower levels of self-esteem encourage frequent and negative reminiscence.