Adolescence is viewed in this article both as a chronological period between puberty and early adulthood and as any time in the life cycle when an individual explores im-portant life-alternatives with the aim of making commitments. Hence, both a 15-year-old and a 30-year-old may find themselves "adolescing." Erikson viewed the chronological era of late adolescence as crucial for the individual's construction of an initial identity: Asense of who one is, based on who one has been, and who one imagines oneself being in the future. I describe individuals as being in 1 of 4 identity "statuses" according to where they are in the process of identity formation: identity achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, or identity diffusion. Identities are not con-structed in a vacuum; they are both facilitated and constrained by social and interpersonal contexts. Furthermore, identity formation is just 1 of 8 psychosocial developmental tasks, all of which involve intergenerational mutuality. That is, adults rely on children to confirm them in their growing sense of generativity, and children rely on adults to aid them in their developmental tasks of trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, and identity. The developmental crises of both parental generativity and ad-olescent/young adult identity are illustrated by reference to one of Assisi's best known families: Pietro, Pica, and Francesco (later to become St. Francis Bernardone.
Tijdschrift beschrijving