Adolescent Self-Construal Across Cultures: Measurement Invariance of the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire-IV in 30 Countries

Citation

Roberts C (2025) Adolescent Self-Construal Across Cultures: Measurement Invariance of the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire-IV in 30 Countries. Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Abstract
Over the past several decades, research on adolescent identity has predominantly focused on identity processes, aiming to elucidate the dynamics of identity development in adolescence (e.g., Branje et al., 2021). This line of research has been enormously fruitful and has resulted in several influential identity formation models validated in different cultural contexts (e.g., Crocetti, 2017). In contrast, there has been a dearth of studies, especially cross-national ones, in the field of identity content (what identity is; that is, which self-attributes are used to define identity) (McLean et al., 2016). This process/content imbalance and a lack of cross-national studies of identity content hinder a more comprehensive understanding of adolescent identity for at least two reasons. First, both processes and content are key to identity formation—an essential developmental task in adolescence. As argued by Galliher et al. (2017), investigating identity processes without knowing what is developing leads to a fragmented understanding of identity because it ignores the role of cultural, historical, and contextual factors in identity development. Furthermore, Galliher and colleagues call for a developmental approach to identity content as the value placed on different aspects of identity changes across the lifespan. For example, the transition into adolescence is marked by the increasing importance of peer context for the relational self, with self-descriptions becoming more differentiated as adolescents experience an increasing range of social contexts and develop the capacity for abstract thinking (Van der Aar et al., 2018). Second, identity content, no matter how conceptualized—via broader dimensions of self-construal or specific domains such as gender roles, ethnicity, religion, friendships, and romance—is culturally grounded (Galliher et al., 2017). Despite this recognition, a cross-national perspective on identity content in adolescence remains understudied. The present study, incorporating thirty countries, aims to contribute to the cross-national understanding of identity content in adolescence by evaluating the cross-national validity of the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire-IV (AIQ-IV), a measure of self-construal developed within the tetrapartite model of the self (Cheek & Cheek, 2018).