Ego-identity status and narrative structure in retrospective accounts of parental career influence

In this paper, the relationship between identity status categories and the experience of parental influence on career development is examined. The life stories of 11 young adults regarding significant events through which their parents influenced them were classified by narrative structure based on Gergen and Gergen's macrostructure framework. The resulting narrative types were then assessed in terms of their relationship to each participant's score on the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status. Both observational associations and Fisher's Exact Tests of Probabilities suggest a relationship. Results indicated that narratives of parental influence on career development may be reflective of one's stage of identity formation, that is, to one's progress in exploring and committing to career values and goals.