Cultural self-construction and identity formation in emerging adulthood: a study on Japanese university students and workers

Cultural pathways of identity formation have been largely unexplored. In many Asian cultures, youth are expected to concentrate on adaptation to their groups or relationships rather than pursuing their own uniqueness. Then, how do they develop a sense of identity while considering groups or relationships to be important? The purposes of this study were (a) to examine relationships between cultural self-construction (i.e. independence and interdependence) and identity processes (i.e. commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) in both societal and relational domains, and (b) to analyze the relationships of self-construction and identity processes with well-being, using a sample of Japanese emerging adults (i.e. university students and workers) aged 18–25 years. The findings indicated that relational identity was related to both independence and interdependence, whereas societal identity was mainly related to independence. Moreover, independence and identity in both societal and relational domains was positively related to well-being. Furthermore, the patterns of relationships among self-construction, identity, and well-being were found to be similar between university students and workers. These findings imply that while Japanese emerging adults have developmental needs to express one's own uniqueness, they are also directed to form a sense of identity emphasizing the maintenance of harmonious relationships with others.