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Identity Achievement as a?Predictor of Intimacy in Young Urban Jamaican Adults

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Theorists (e.g. Baumeister, Identity: Cultural change and the struggle for self . New York: Oxford University Press, 1986; Marcia, Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159?187). New York: Wiley, 1980) have postulated that a well-integrated identity serves as a precursor to intimacy. This sequential, mixed methods study examines whether identity achievement is a predictor of intimacy in young urban Jamaican adults. The findings showed that this Jamaican sample ( N = 400) had a significantly greater fear of intimacy ( M = 87.59, SD = 21.80) than the US norm ( M = 78.75, SD = 21.82; t (527) = 4.00, p < 0.01, two-tailed). Higher identity achievement was associated with a lower fear of intimacy ( r = ? 0.17, p < 0.01); however, socioeconomic status (SES) was found to have a main effect on intimacy level. The findings contribute towards understanding the applicability of Erikson’s model in the Jamaican population.

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Correspondence to Michele Ann Strudwick-Alexander .

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Strudwick-Alexander, M.A. (2017). Identity Achievement as a?Predictor of Intimacy in Young Urban Jamaican Adults. In: Carpenter, K. (eds) Interweaving Tapestries of Culture and Sexuality in the Caribbean. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58816-2_9

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