Sociopolitical Identity of Turkish Emerging Adults: The Role of Gender, Religious Sect, and Political Party Affiliation

Vanessa Victoria Volpe

Emerging adults form their political identities through social interaction with their peers, family, and coworkers. While we understand that these identities exist in context, we have yet to explore how they are experienced in a political context. Using Turkey as a unique case, the current study sought to understand emerging adults’ identity formations in a political context that has been paradoxically described as both contentious and harmonious. Data were taken from a larger national study (Political Identity in Conflict Study: PI Selcuk R. Sirin) of diverse Turkish emerging adults (N=1242). Results indicate that the majority of emerging adults in Turkey experience both lower levels of social identity stress and own-group preference while maintaining relatively defined sociopolitical identities. Additionally, the experience of stress, own-group preference, and identity is a factor of gender, religious sect, and political party affiliation. Further studies should seek to understand the adaptive and flexible development of defined emerging adult identities nested within a variety of political contexts.