Longitudinal Relations Between Identity Development and Psychological Adjustment Among South Korean Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Identity development can be both a resource for and an outcome of psychological adjustment during young adulthood. In particular, South Korean youth generally face strong academic competition and, in 2020, experienced extreme social distancing policies, both of which may have had implications for their identity development and adjustment. To understand how these contexts influenced South Korean young adults, we investigated whether a mutual relation between identity development and adjustment could be found among them in 2020. Ninety-nine participants were surveyed at three time points in 2020, measuring dimensions of identity development processes and indicators of psychological adjustment (psychological well-being and depressive symptoms). Cross-lagged panel models showed that pre-pandemic psychological well-being significantly predicted stronger identity commitments and adaptive exploration, and depressive symptoms predicted the reverse. After the onset of the pandemic, psychological well-being predicted identity commitments but not exploration. In the reverse direction of relations, engaging in more mature identity development processes particularly contributed to lower depressive symptoms after the pandemic onset. The findings indicate that South Korean youth may be experiencing delayed development of identity commitments and that, in uncertain times, developed identity may have become a source of adjustment.