Life stories and group identity in adolescence

Abstract This study’s aim was to track the impact of adolescents’ life stories on group identification and fusion. Aspects of life stories, especially autobiographical reasoning (in which the shared past is linked to present self), are predicted to lead to identity fusion by mid-adolescence. Participants ( N = 63; 57% NZ European; 49% girls; 9–12 years or 16–17 years) completed a life-story chapter task (coded for coherence), narrated turning points (coded for autobiographical reasoning), and reported on identification and fusion with a formal group (club/team) and a family/friend group. Life-story coherence and autobiographical reasoning showed age-related increases. Life-story coherence correlated with greater fusion to family/friends for both young and mid-adolescents, but autobiographical reasoning correlated with greater fusion to family/friends only for mid-adolescents. Autobiographical reasoning did not correlate positively with group identification. Delineating developmental pathways to fusion can elucidate the process by which identity fusion can lead to extreme pro-group behavior.