A new approach to children's education quarterly

A new approach to children's education quarterly

The Relationship between Identity Styles, Mentalization and Thematic Relationships with Psychological Distress in Second Year High School Students

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Islamic Azad University Factuality of Psychology
2 Associate Professor, Faculty Member, Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Background and Objective: The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between identity styles and thematic relationships with psychological distress in second-year high school students. Research Method: The present study was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of the study included second-year high school students in Tehran in the academic year 2023. The statistical sample consisted of 260 students who were selected using the convenience sampling method. To collect information in the present study, the psychological distress questionnaires of Lavibond and Lavibond (1995), Berzonsky's identity styles (1992), and Bell's thematic relationships (1995) were used. Results: The results showed that there was a negative relationship between informational identity style (r=-0.138; p<0.05) and normative identity style (r=-0.404; p<0.01) with psychological distress, and there was a significant positive relationship between confused identity style (r=0.367) with psychological distress (p<0.01). There was also a significant positive relationship between the components of subjective relationships including social incompetence (r=0.329), egocentric style (r=0.365), insecure attachment (r=0.366), and alienation (r=0.498) with psychological distress (p<0.01). Also, the variables of identity styles and subject relations were able to explain 20.8 and 27.4 percent of the changes in psychological distress, respectively (F=17.92, F=25.32, and p<0.01). According to the results of this study, the alienation component (0.485) of the subject relations components has a positive effect, and the normative identity style (-0.396) has a negative effect in explaining the variance of the psychological distress variable. Conclusion: The psychological distress of students can be improved by managing identity styles and subject relations.
Keywords

Subjects


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  • Receive Date 21 February 2025
  • Revise Date 09 May 2025
  • Accept Date 15 June 2025
  • First Publish Date 15 June 2025
  • Publish Date 22 November 2025