Objective: The aim of this study is to adapt the Assessment of Identity
Development in Adolescence (AIDA), which is used to distinguish
healthy identity development from identity diffusion in terms of
impaired personality functioning, into Turkish and to examine its
psychometric properties.
Method: The sample consisted of 846 participants. The school sample
consists of 778 adolescents from schools covering three different socioeconomic
levels. The clinical sample consisted of 68 adolescents who were
evaluated at Hacettepe University Department of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry and Mental Health and the Division of Adolescent Medicine.
All participants completed the Offer Self-İmage Scales (OSIQ) and the
AIDA Turkish. DSM-IV-based clinical interview, Scale For Affective
Disorders and Schizophrenia For Kids-Present and Lifetime Version
(K-SADS-PL), and DSM-III-R Structured Clinical Interview For Axis II
Disorders (SCID-II) were applied to the clinical sample.
Results: Exploratory factor analysis showed that the phenotypical factor
structure of the AIDA Turkish was similar to the original. The Cronbach’s
alpha internal consistency coefficient is 0.93 on the total scale, 0.83
and 0.90 on the two primary subscales, and between 0.65 and 0.80
on the subscale level. AIDA Turkish total score identity diffusion was
found to significantly distinguish the clinical sample with diagnosed
personality disorders from the school sample, with a large effect size (d
= 0.9) between the school sample and a clinical sample with diagnosed
personality disorders. Receiver operating characteristic analysis yielded a
clinical cut-off score of 107 (95% CI: 0.66–0.86, p <0.001) providing
81% sensitivity and 84% specificity.
Conclusion: AIDA Turkish is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate
identity development and detect pathological identity diffusion.
Keywords: Adolescence, identity, identity diffusion, personality
disorders, personality functioning