Identity Development
The issue of developing a stable sense of identity is central to the college years.

Adolescence and young adulthood is a time of life filled with thinking and reflection on the core elements that form one’s sense of self: personal strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and beliefs and values.

Who am I? What do I value? What do I believe?
One of the most valuable aspects of attending a university like Iowa is the opportunity that students have to learn about subjects they may have never been exposed to before and discuss ideas and viewpoints that may differ a great deal from their own.

This will inevitably lead students to question their own belief systems. What do I believe and why do I believe it?

Learning outside the classroom
The learning that takes place outside of the classroom is just as valuable to the development of a student’s identity as what goes on inside the classroom.

• As new students interact with their peers, they’ll find that some of them have brought a completely different set of life experiences to college.
• They’ll spend hours talking about every topic imaginable, and they are going to find that people hold many different opinions on an issue.
• This interaction will require students to think a great deal about their own opinions and beliefs, and may lead them to openly question why they have felt a certain way about an issue.

Exposure to new ideas
For many students, attending college away from home provides the comfort zone they need to experiment with their identities and think of themselves in different ways than they may have in the past.

• The exposure to so many new intellectual areas of study and opportunities for involvement outside of the classroom will open doors they never knew existed.
• For some students this is exhilarating, and they want to experience as many new things as they can.
• For others, having too many options and choices is an unsettling experience. They may feel lost and overwhelmed by the personal decisions they have to make, and concerned that making one choice will eliminate other possibilities that might be an even better fit with who they are as people.

Advice for parents
Here are some things you can do to help:

• Take a few deep breaths, and count to ten! The fact that your child is asking these internal questions means that you have done a great job raising your son or daughter!
  • A certain degree of confusion and disorientation is normal, as young people begin the process of consolidating their self-understanding.
  • To foster the exploration that is central to identity development, encourage your student to try new things and participate in diverse activities that he or she may never have had the chance to try before.

• Do not be surprised if the student who was so certain that she wanted to major in psychology, suddenly changes her major…or the son who professed to be very conservative politically now tells you that he supports the Green Party. These sorts of changes reflect what is going on internally, as your child works through the process of regaining a sense of personal equilibrium.
  • Of course, not all students will undergo the kinds of transformations described above.
  • Some appear to change very little, and have a relatively easy time incorporating the things they’re learning.
  • For other students, however, attending college can trigger a significant change in their identity and the way they think about themselves.

• It’s understandable for you to feel a certain amount of anxiety as you see the changes in your child. What happened to the person I knew? He seems so different and we don’t seem to have anything in common! While it might appear as though your child is rejecting the values you instilled from a young age, many studies of adolescents and young adults have shown that the value systems of individuals in their mid- to late-20s most closely mirror those of their families.That gives proof to the saying that the apple never falls far from the tree!

• Trust in the manner you raised your child, and know that these core values will ultimately change the least as your child becomes a young adult.