Identity consolidation and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors in early adolescence

Externalizing and internalizing problems as measured on the Youth Self Report (YSR; Achenbach, 1991a) among early adolescent boys and girls were related to the conceptual level (CL; Blatt, Chevron, Quinlan, Schaffer, & Wein, 1988) with which children described their mothers and fathers. Scoring of these descriptions using the Children's version (CORI; Waniel, Besser, & Priel, 2006) of the Object Relations Inventory (ORI; Blatt et al., 1988) indicated that higher CL in descriptions of mother than of father was significantly related to the intensity of externalizing problem behaviors in boys. Conversely, higher CL in descriptions of father than of mother was significantly related to the intensity of internalizing problems in girls. These results are discussed in terms of the process of identity consolidation and its relationship to the emergence of problem behaviors in early adolescence.