THE DIFFERENTIATION OF FIRM AND DEVELOPMENTAL FORECLOSURE IDENTITY STATUSES - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

The present exploratory study was undertaken for the purpose of empirically differentiating ''firm'' from ''developmental'' foreclosure subjects in the Marcia ego identity status model. A total of 131 university students volunteered for the first phase of this study in 1990. Each was administered the Marcia Identity Status Interview, four subscales of the Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence (SITA), and an Early Memories interview Of the participants, 80 were reassessed 2 years later on the same measures. Firm foreclosure subjects (who retained their foreclosure rating over 2 years) had higher nurturance seeking scores than did developmental foreclosure, moratorium, and achieved individuals at the outset of the study. Firm foreclosure participants also had more frequent early memory themes of seeking security at the outset of the study than did developmental foreclosure, moratorium or achieved subjects. The ability to differentiate firm from developmental foreclosure late adolescents holds important implications for theory construction and future research.