The Longitudinal Influence of Parenting and Parents' Traces on Narrative Identity in Young Adulthood

• Published in: Developmental psychology 2021-11, Vol.57 (11), p.1991-2005
• Main Authors: Camia, Christin, Sengsavang, Sonia, Rohrmann, Sonja, Pratt, Michael W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Autobiographical Memory; Autobiographies; Biographical Data; Child Development; Child Rearing; Emerging Adulthood; Emotional Response; Emotions; Family Relationship; Female; Foreign Countries; High School Students; Human; Humans; Identification (Psychology); Identity; Late Adolescents; Life history; Male; Measures (Individuals); Memory; Narration; Narratives; Parent Child Relations; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Influence; Parenting; Parenting Styles; Parents; Parents & parenting; Predictor Variables; Recall (Psychology); Reminiscence; Young Adult; Young Adults
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/dev0001242

This longitudinal follow-up studied continued effects of parental influences on narrative identity in young adulthood. Decades of research have shown the importance of parental shared reminiscing and positive parenting for the development of children's and youths' autobiographical memory and narrative identity. Yet, research on long-term influences of parenting on narrative indices in adulthood is scarce, even though parents' traces remain a part of narrative identity throughout the life span (Köber & Habermas, 2018). Therefore, in this study, 118 individuals (at time 1: Mage = 17.3 years, SD = .77, 73% female, 82% White) reported at age 17 on their perceived positive parenting. As emerging and young adults, as part of follow-ups at ages 26 and again at 32, participants provided life story interviews. First, it was tested whether earlier positive parenting longitudinally predicted parents' traces in later life stories. Second, we studied the joint long-term prediction of parenting and parents' traces to several narrative features of these young adults' life stories, including emotional tone, coherent positive resolution, and narrative complexity. Results replicated prior research on parents' traces and showed moreover that perceived parenting shape offspring's narrative identity well into young adulthood. These long-term findings are consistent with the notion that narrative identity in adulthood is rooted in the family, and continuously shaped by experiences with parents.