Narrative identity informs psychological adjustment: Considering three themes captured across five time points and two event valences

Objectives: How narrative identity and well-being are intertwined as emerging adults process their lived experiences remains a critical theoretical and empirical question. We studied narrative identity among US emerging adults in a multiphase study. We aimed to test (1) if and how narrative identity themes (i.e., coherence, agency, growth) change rapidly across repeated narrations; (2) are related to reports of psychological adjustment (i.e., well-being, recent stress) over time; and (3) whether the valence of the autobiographical event nuanced the ways narrative identity and adjustment co-evolve.

Methods: In a mini-longitudinal study conducted over three months, 300 adults aged 18-to-29-years (M age = 24.39 years; 60% women) provided autobiographical narratives about high-point and low-point (LP) life events at five time points, as well as repeated reports on well-being and recent stress.

Results: Overall, coherence showed (1) the most consistency across time and valence than other narrative themes and (2) the most consistent associations with adjustment. In multilevel models, LP coherence and LP growth coincided with higher levels of adjustment.

Conclusions: Findings reinforce the ways narrative identity reflects dynamic processes of understanding the events of one's life, and the ways individual differences in framing and reasoning about life are important for psychological adjustment.