How do vocational and relationship stressors and identity formation affect adolescent mental health?

Purpose This article examines the effects of stressors in both the vocational and relationship career of youngsters in the formation of their identify; the effects of identity formation on adolescent mental health; the influence of career stressors on mental health, directly or via identity, and differences in these effects on boys and Methods: Data were used from the Dutch national panel study, Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development, a study of developmental processes as they occur in the life course ol: young people during the 1990s. Using LISREL, we tested hypotheses on two waves of a sample of 1222 respondents between 15 and 24 years of age in Wave 1(1991). Results: The correlation between relationship stressors and relationship identity can be neglected, while vocational stressors lead to a less achieved vocational identity, particularly in boys. Occupational and relationship identity have similar effects on mental health (i.e, the more achieved the identity, the better the person's mental health). Vocational and especially relationship stressors lead to poorer mental health, but did not affect the mental health of boys and girls differently. The same goes for the influence of relationship and vocational identity formation on mental health. Conclusions: Career stressors, especially stressors in the relationship domain, appear to have significant long-term effects on adolescent mental health. Vocational and relationship identity formation are also significant predictors for adolescent mental health. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 1999.