Identity processes and well-being: Exploring different types of identity exploration
The identity exploration process includes exploration in-depth, exploration in-breadth, and ruminative exploration, which cover the process of examining multiple potential future plans and directions, investigating them deeply and sometimes ruminatively, before arriving at a committed identity. Each of the three exploration types have demonstrated different associations with various measures of well-being and ill-being in the literature, due to their unique approaches to identity development. The current study investigated the relationship between the two adaptive exploration processes – exploration in-depth and in-breadth – with measures of self-esteem and distress in a diverse US-based sample. We found that both in-depth and in-breadth exploration were positively related to self-esteem. Interestingly, when ruminative exploration was included in the models, thus partialling out the maladaptive component of in-depth or in-breadth exploration, both of these adaptive processes showed a negative association with distress that were not previously present in individual simple linear models. Future research should explicitly control for the cross-correlation patterns among these constructs for a clearer picture of the consequences and correlates of the identity development process.