Does Identity Status Influence Marriage Readiness Among Early
Adults in Bandung City?
Ifa Hanifah Misbach, Syahnur Rahman and Lira Fessia Damaianti
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Identity Status, Marriage Readiness.
Abstract: This study aims to identify the influence between identity status toward marriage readiness among early adult
in Bandung, West Java. This study used quantitative method. The sample selected by purposive sampling
technique with 118 subjects between 21-45 years old. The instrument used to collect the data of identity status
was Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ) and marriage readiness was Personal Readiness Scale (PREP-
M). The data analysis used in this research was Multiple Regression technique. Results of this study show
influence between identity status toward marriage readiness with coefficient correlation of 0.399 (F=10.888,
p<0.05), thereby, marriage readiness variation explained by identity status are 15.9% (r2 = 0.159). Then, there
was a difference found between marriage readiness and identity status with sex.
1 INTRODUCTION
The process of individual development in the
adult period as a whole emphasizes the formation of
identity status and performs a new social role, one of
which is the ability and readiness in establishing a
stable intimate relationship or marriage readiness.
These two criteria are known as factors that determine
the individual in achieving psychological maturity in
the early adulthood (Erikson, 1968, Arnett, 2004;
Padilla-Walker et al., 2012). Building an intimate and
stable bond with others to have a child is one of the
major developmental tasks of early adulthood (Rauer
et al., 2013). Individual readiness to engage in bonds
is influenced by the process of identity formation,
because bonding requires an image of the identity of
a strong self, and a coherent identity within the self
makes individuals ready for gaining and maintaining
interpersonal commitment (Erikson, 1968;
Adamczyk and Luyckx, 2015). Previous studies have
proven the role of identity, identity formation process
towards individual initiation in achieving
housekeeping commitment (Arnett, 2004; Zimmer-
Gembeck and Petherick, 2006).
Marcia (1966) defines identity as 'the internal self-
structure which includes self-built constructs, the
organization of dynamic impulses, abilities, beliefs,
and individual life history'. Constitution of identity is
a development towards a steady individuality or can
be called a restructuring process. This self-
reconstructive process is assumed to strengthen the
process of the individual ego so as to be able to deal
with the various tasks of greater development. This
process links all previous identification and self-
image, in which earlier identity citations are
processed in future perspectives to deal with. The
establishment of identity as a fundamental
developmental task in the transition to adulthood
requires exploration of different alternatives in life
before the individual is committed to the chosen
device he sets (Adamczyk and Luyckx, 2015).
Exploration shows several periods experienced
individuals to think again, choose, and try various
roles and life plans that will be lived. The exploration
period is the time when the individual actively
chooses various meaningful alternative alternatives.
This is done by searching and exploring information
or alternatives as much as possible to compare. From
the results of comparison, the individual chooses or
makes a commitment to which alternative is most
profitable for himself in the future. Creation of
commitments is the level at which individuals make
choices about important issues of identity. When
commitment is made, the individual can be said to
have evaluated and proved that his choice is
congruent to his standards, expectations, and abilities.
Identification with commitment is an important
component in which individuals are confident and
386
Misbach, I., Rahman, S. and Damaianti, L.
Does Identity Status Influence Marriage Readiness Among Early Adults in Bandung City?.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 1, pages 386-391
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

internalize the decisions that have been made
(Marcia, 1993; Adamczyk and Luyckx, 2015).
In the process, individuals will begin without
awareness of a clear identity (moratorium-no
exploration and commitment). As long as the
individual goes through the process of maturity, the
social demands create or force the state of the crisis
to ultimately make choices concerning survival, one
of which is marital issues. The crisis sometimes
generates a period of exploration of alternatives
identity (moratorium-the existence of uncommitted
exploration), after which it is expected to be able to
determine the choice of life as well as further solidify
the chosen identity (achievement-exploration
followed by commitment). However, there are
individuals who do not go through the exploration
process, where they tend to internalize expectations
of authority figures or social demands and norms in
their respective cultures, adopt goals, roles, and
beliefs about the modeled world without searching
and self-determination (foreclosure-a commitment
without exploration) (Marcia, 1993; Berman et al.,
2011).
The high level of exploration and commitment
indicates an increasingly mature or mature individual
identity, the more mature the identity is associated
with the high level of intimacy and individual
readiness in establishing a firm commitment with
others (Tesch and Whitbourne, 1982; Adamczyk and
Luyckx, 2015). When adults explore and then commit
to possibilities in every area of identity, they gain
awareness not just about who they are but focus on
their future role assignments. In other words, the
process in adulthood involves the adjustment of a new
social role into its identity (Crocetti et al., 2012;
Shulman and Connolly, 2013).
The present study was designed to identify the
entire identity dimensions which playing a role in the
marriage readiness of emerging adults. Previous
research has explored a number of issues in identity
development and relationship beliefs and formation,
but there are almost no finding research to date has
include the whole dimensions of identity
development and marriage readiness, it is found that
much of those research has explored only specific
dimensions such as achievement and variables such
as intimacy, attachment, premarital, short-term
beliefs and concurrent behaviors (Adamczyk and
Luyckx, 2015; Årseth et al., 2009; Askham, 1984;
Beyers and Seiffge-Krenke, 2010; Brzezińska and
Piotrowski, 2010). Most of the previous research also
conducted the study in Western cultures, which
makes the present study investigate how the culture
differences especially in East culture influenced the
identity formation and marriage readiness of
emerging adults.
2 METHODS
Participants in this study amounted to 118
respondents, who were early adults aged 21-45 years
(average age = 23.4 years), unmarried, and domiciled
in Bandung. 76% percent of the sample are female.
Researcher use non-probability sampling that is
purposive sampling, it involves selecting candidates
across a broad spectrum relating to the topic of study,
the idea is to focus on the precise similarity and how
it relates to the topic being researched thereby
achieving a greater understanding, thus, the sample is
selected to include people of interest and exclude
those who do not suit the purpose (Etikan et al,,
2016).
The instruments used to measure identity status
are Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ)
proposed by Balistreri et al. (1995) to identify the
identity status of respondents. This scale consists of 2
sub-scales of commitment and exploration, which
consists of 32 statement items with 6 choices of
answer categories. Cronbach's α internal reliability
for the commitment dimension is 0.80 and for
exploration dimensions of 0.86 with test-retest
reliability of 0.90 for commitment dimensions and
0.86 for exploration dimensions (Balistreri et al.,
1995). In this research Cronbach's internal reliability
for the dimension of commitment of 0.76 while for
the exploration dimension of 0.57.
The instrument used to measure marriage
readiness is Personal Readiness Scale (PREP-M)
proposed by Holman, Busby, and Larson (1989) is a
measurement scale that measures the dimensions of
emotional health, emotional maturity, empathic
communication behavior, open communication
behavior, self- disclosure communication behavior,
self-esteem, drug abstinence, independence from
family of origin, overall readiness for marriage, age,
and religious activity. This scale consists of 36
statement items with 5 choices of answer categories.
Cronbach's α internal reliability of this instrument is
.86, whereas in this study is .75This research uses
correlation analysis of Multiple Regression and
Spearman correlation.
Does Identity Status Influence Marriage Readiness Among Early Adults in Bandung City?
387

3 RESULTS
Figure 1: Identity status frequency.
Based on figure 1, then obtained data that
frequency of commitment most is in low category
with percentage equal to 51%, so also with frequency
of exploration aspect mostly in low category with
percentage equal to 58%.
Figure 2: Identity status frequency.
The figure 2 shows the frequency of the
proportion of each type of status on the identity of the
respondent, which found that the most dominant or
most of the respondents are of high priority
foreclosure identity 35.6%, followed by the identity
of the moratorium (27.1%), diffusion (23.7%), and
achievement (13.6%).
Figure 3: Frequency of marriage readiness.
Based on figure 3, the data obtained that the
frequency of most marriage readiness is on the high
category with a percentage of 59%.
Table 1: Correlation of Identity Status to Marriage
Preparation.
Spearman's correlation coefficient in table 1
shows a significant relationship between the status of
identity and the preparedness of marriage (r = .256, p
<.05), the results indicate that the more mature
individual identity is associated with the readiness of
marriage in early adulthood.
Table 2: Influence of identity status on marriage readiness.
Table 3. Influence coefficients identity status and
exploration commitment to marriage readiness.
The results in table 2 and 3 showed that
individuals who engage in exploration (β = 0:42, p
<.05) and a commitment (β = 0:56, p <.001) also have
the readiness to marry with a correlation coefficient
(r = 0388) and the determinant coefficient of
readiness describe marriage can have described by the
identity status of 15.9% (R ² = .159).
Table 4. Comparison of status of identity of men and
women.
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388

There is a difference in table 4 between the status
of male identity and status of women's identity. Score
identity status of women (t = 135 298, p <.001) were
significantly higher than men (t = 67 479, p <.001).
Table 5. Comparison of marriage preparation in men and
women.
There is a difference in table 5 between male
marriage readiness and female identity status.
Woman marriage readiness score (t = 102 084, p
<.001) were significantly higher than men (t = 33 582,
p <.001).
4 DISCUSSION
The findings in this study indicate that there is a
significant influence between the aspects of
exploration and commitment to marriage readiness.
The frequency of proportion of foreclosure identity
status and high marriage readiness in this study can
be attributed to the high percentage of female
respondents compared to men, which is in accordance
with previous research results which proves that
women in the early adult period tend to focus on
matters of relation intimate interpersonal or marriage
as well as more family oriented than men. In the early
adulthood to middle adulthood, their openness to the
exploration process appears to have decreased, and
increased in the commitment process so it is said that
this period is characterized by an increase in the
foreclosed intimate relationship identity or foreclosed
identity as a whole (Cramer, 2000; Cramer 2004;
Arnett, 2004; Kroger, 2007; Fadjukoff et al., 2007).
From the results of comparison in this study also
known that the female marriage readiness score is
higher than men, this is because men in the early adult
period tend not to think about marriage as well as
receive less pressure to marry compared with women.
Consistently, women are found to have shorter
waiting periods to get married and better prepared to
step into marriage than men, due to cultural demands
or expectations especially in Indonesia that are more
influential and focusing on women to think more
about marriage than men (Whitehead and Popenoe,
2000; Larson et al., 1998; Oppenheimer, 1988).
Erikson (1968) states that men tend to solve the
problem of some conflicts in identity earlier than
women, but not in the domain of sexual ideology. The
urge for women to think about marriage earlier is due
to a tendency for eligible men as life companions to
reject older women, so the likelihood of competition
among women occurs significantly. This is also
consistent with the ideal age trend for marriage for
women today, at the age of 27 (Whitehead and
Popenoe, 2000, 2004; Larson et al., 1998;
Oppenheimer, 1988).
Individuals in early adulthood are expected to
carry out a new social role where one of the main ones
is their readiness in carrying out marriage
responsibilities. Individuals with strong identity
awareness provide a strong basis for the development
of a mature social role, in which the capacity to
commit without fear of losing his ego (Erikson, 1968;
Beyers and Seiffge-Krenke, 2010). In societies with
high collectively cultures, like Indonesia, individuals
tend to have an interdependent self-construct. In
individuals with Eastern or Asian cultures, more are
found with foreclosure or diffusion identities than
Western cultures, so they are considered to have an
identity status which is considered less mature (less
mature). Exploration represents individuality, a self-
directed approach to developing self-awareness, in
which the approach may be incompatible with the
collectivist and interdependent Asian cultural
context. It is possible that the identity of the Asian
community does not so much pass through processes
that require crisis, exploration, self-discovery, and
commitment, but tend to be more collectively
accepted, which makes the level of commitment and
distress lower than in Western culture. In a communal
Asian culture, the development and awareness of
identity adopt a collective identity that is influenced
by members of the immediate group such as family,
friends, or community environment itself. It is also
said that fulfilling a social role in adulthood does not
necessarily indicate that the individual has maturity
or identity maturity, and does not always lead to
psychological independence. In other studies, it is
mentioned that the social role that is fulfilled in
adulthood is more associated to the age of the
individual than the identity or psychological maturity,
which also states that the responsibility for a
particular role is determined by social norms that
determine the ideal age to take on the role. This has
led to limited exploration that can be done by
individuals (Piotrowski et al., 2013; Yeh and Huang
1996; Markus and Kitayama, 2003; Berman et al.,
2011).
Does Identity Status Influence Marriage Readiness Among Early Adults in Bandung City?
389

5 CONCLUSION
This study proves that the development of identity
plays an important role in the transition to adulthood.
Specifically, the formation of identity is connected to
the readiness of each individual to assume a new
social role in entering the marriage stage. In addition,
it is important to know the identity of what is formed
when entering adulthood. In terms of marital
readiness, it can be stated that horizontal marriages
could not be considered equal in all adult individuals,
and differences in processes and objectives must be
ignored. While most important, this study reveals the
effect of identity formation on individual wedding
preparedness, which helps understand the
implications of various belief variables about
marriage, how the development that occurs during the
adult stage paves the way for success in every role in
adulthood. It provides important knowledge in
understanding how early adulthood individuals
perceive their role in marriage and in understanding
how individual readiness forms in marriage during
the transition to adulthood.
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