Emerging Adults' Psychopathology in Seven Countries: The Impact of Identity-Related Risk Factors

Abstract

The impact of identity-related risk factors on psychopathology was analyzed in 2,113 emerging adults (M = 22.0 years; 66% female) from France, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Peru, Pakistan, and Poland. Identity stress, coping with identity stress, maternal parenting (support, psychological control, and anxious rearing), and psychopathology (internalizing, externalizing, and total symptomatology) were assessed. After partialing out the influence of stress, coping, and perceived maternal behavior, country did no longer exert a significant effect on symptom scores. The effect for gender remained, as did an interaction between country and gender. Rather unexpected, on average, males reported higher internalizing symptomatology scores than females. Potential causes for the higher scores of males are therefore discussed. Partialing out covariates resulted in a clearer picture of country-specific and gender-dependent effects on psychopathology, which is helpful in designing interventions.