Studying the Differences in Identity Crisis according to Gender and Age among a Sample of Adolescents in the Qatari Society

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify the effect of gender (males/females), and age-level )middle / late adolescence( on two main identity crises: the ideological crisis versus mutual relations or social relations crisis. In other words, the study sought to find out whether there were significant differences in both identity crisis and social relations crisis between males and females on the one hand, and between adolescents in the middle adolescence compared to those in the late adolescence on the other hand. The study employed the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-IES) that was developed by Grotevant and Adams (1984) and later revised by Adams and Benion (1986). The instrument was translated from English into Arabic by Mayssah-El-Nayal and Al Attiyah (2010). The study sample consisted of two groups: the first group represented the middle adolescence (n=319) that had 151 males and 168 females و while the second one represented late adolescence (n=343) that had 169 males and 174 females. The results of the study showed that the males suffered more from identity crisis than the females, as the ealiers scored significantly higher than females on both ideological and interrelations )social identity( scales. The study also revealed that adolescents in the middle adolescence were more vulnerable to identity crisis, while those in the late adolescence were more vulnerable to the mutual identity crisis.