Narrative Identity Development In Adolescents And Young Adults: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Objective:

Adolescence is a vulnerable phase of life, especially in relation to the development of personal identity. Researchers and clinicians must pay close attention to how the perception of time, the organization of events and information into a coherent narrative, and the development of self-representations unfold during this period of life. Aim of the present review is to summarize the research evidence about narrative identity development in healthy adolescents and discuss this in the framework of contemporary socio-cultural changes.

Method:

Conducted as a scoping review following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a literature search was performed in PubMed without predefined restrictions. Eligibility criteria included original human studies in English, involving non-clinical participants aged 11–22 years. Twenty-six studies met inclusion criteria and were analyzed regarding narrative coherence, narrative self-awareness, and developmental trajectories.

Results:

Among the included studies we identified two main areas of investigation, that are narrative coherence and narrative self-awareness. Studies about narrative coherence generally show an age-related increase. Narrative self-awareness development was found to be related to the influence of the environment and to psychological well-being from adolescents to adulthood.

Conclusions:

Anomalies of narrative identity have been studied in psychopathological contexts but are understudied in healthy adolescents. Given that narrative identity development is influenced by the environment, and in light of rapid socio-cultural changes (e.g., digitalization and episodic temporal modes), more research is needed to explore how contemporary conditions affect identity construction in adolescents. The findings highlight developmental patterns in narrative identity that reflect both maturational processes and socio-cultural influences. Refining our understanding of these dynamics can guide future longitudinal studies and inform identity-focused interventions in adolescent mental health.

Introduction

Adolescence is an extremely delicate period in the life of every person, due to both biological and psychological changes (Sebastian et al., 2008). During adolescence the person moves away from the family unit, and comparison with peers becomes more significant, bringing with it challenges adapting and negotiating social and cultural expectations (Delgado et al., 2022). From an identity perspective, it could be said to represent the pivotal stage in the task to “become what you are” (Nietzsche, 2018), in which persons are called to take the first steps in delineating their identity representation.

Adolescence is known to be a particularly critical moment in the identity-formation process, in which the Self undergoes profound transformations (Sebastian et al., 2008; McAdams & Olson, 2010). Identity development in adolescents is a process of integration between self-representations, which is strongly affected by the context in which it occurs (Branje, 2022). It is often accompanied by a period of identity crisis, characterized by questioning, exploration of alternative identities, and the formation of commitments (Erikson, 1968; Lichtwarck-Aschoff et al., 2008). This developmental vulnerability explains why adolescence is at higher risk for psychological distress (Anyanwu, 2023), as well as for the onset of psychopathological disorders, ranging from mood disorders to schizophrenia to personality disorders (Solmi et al., 2022). In nonclinical samples, the crisis is generally followed by a new “synthesis” (meant as combination of components or elements to form a connected whole), in which identity representations become more coherent and stable over time (Crocetti, 2017).

Notably, identity development process is strongly influenced by the way adolescents experience time. In particular, narrative identity emerges through a diachronic temporal synthesis achieved by unifying the memory of the past (retentio), present experience (praesentatio) and anticipation of the future (protentio) (Husserl, 1962), producing a coherent narrative (Schechtman, 2011). Some theoretical proposals have underlined the existence of a variety of ways of experiencing time, not all of which take place in the name of diachrony. Strawson (2004), for instance, criticized the centrality that the concept of narrativity has in the contemporary world, arguing that there is identity construction even beyond narrativity, that is, regardless of a diachronic synthesis of the episodes of one's life. Although some “episodic” tendencies have been associated with specific psychopathological conditions such as borderline personality disorder (Faggioli et al., 2024; Vanderveren et al., 2021), recent contributions have highlighted that variations of the experience of time may not entail clinical conditions (Muscelli & Stanghellini, 2012). Stanghellini (2024a) proposed distinguishing two types of persons depending on the way they experience time: persons with a narrative mode of temporality, who experience time in a diachronic way, and persons with an episodic mode of temporality, who experience time in a synchronic (here-and-now) way. Persons with an episodic mode of temporality are characterized by the tendency to experience oneself fragmentarily, outside of the narrative representation of oneself (Stanghellini, 2024a).

From a socio-cultural point of view, Hartog (2016) had already argued that we are witnessing an epochal change in the way of experiencing time, called “presentism”: an expansion of the present that is experienced as interminable and eternal, preventing diachronic development. Also, according to Han (2024), we are undergoing a crisis of narrativity: the speed of the digital world and consumerism would have imposed not only social but identity changes, making persons less capable of waiting, of tolerating frustration, of patient diachronic integration. The result is an identity change that has its roots in social transformation, and which sees persons more inclined to experience synchronicity, episodicity, intermittency (Muscelli & Stanghellini, 2012). Persons with an episodic mode of temporality live in the present and are at odds with representing themselves in continuity with their past and future experience (Stanghellini, 2024a).

It seems obvious to underline how these changes, also described in the adult population, are particularly relevant in adolescents (Stanghellini, 2024a). Firstly, because adolescents are in a phase of their life during which they have to shape their identity, and this makes them extremely sensitive to external influences. Secondly, because adolescents are particularly exposed to the digital world, which is characterized by a flow of short-form and mostly disjointed information (Granic et al., 2020). It has been described that one of the most distinctive characteristics of contemporary adolescents is an episodic way of experiencing time (Stanghellini, 2024a). Indeed, deviations from shared narrativity have been identified as a fundamental phenomenon in identity development also in healthy adolescents (McLean et al., 2018; Shiner et al., 2021).

Despite these theoretical insights, gaps remain in the literature. While the connection between temporal experience and identity development has been hypothesized, there is a lack of empirical synthesis focused specifically on healthy adolescents. It is not yet clear how widespread episodicity is in normative adolescent populations, nor how it interacts with psychosocial risk and resilience factors. Moreover, there is a lack of interdisciplinary synthesis that brings together phenomenological, developmental, and sociocultural perspectives on adolescent identity.

The present review aims to address these gaps by examining the relationship between adolescents’ experience of time and their identity development. Specifically, it explores how different modes of temporal experience — diachronic versus synchronic — inform the construction of the self in adolescence. In doing so, it seeks to clarify whether episodicity mode represents a developmental variation, a risk factor, or an adaptive response to contemporary social conditions.

Methods

The present study has been designed as a scoping review, according to PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines (Tricco et al., 2018). Our aim was to synthetize available research on the development of narrative identity in healthy adolescents, exploring emerging themes, developmental trajectories, and influencing factors.

A systematic literature search was conducted in the PubMed database without predefined date restrictions. The search strategy included the term “adolescen*” combined with key concepts related to narrative identity: "self consciousness" OR "narrative identity" OR "narrative coheren*" OR "autobiographical narrative" OR "autobiographical coheren*".

Eligibility criteria consisted of: (a) article available in English language (or with an English translation); (b) original studies on human samples; (c) sample of adolescents and young adults, aged 11-22 years (where the age range was wider, the study was included if the mean age was between 11 and 22 years); (d) nonclinical sample. The decision to include young adults up to the age of 22 was motivated by the intention to examine the chronological trajectory of identity development across a narrow age range — from adolescence to early adulthood. It was justified based on literature conceptualizing emerging adulthood as a transitional phase contiguous with late adolescence in identity development (Arnett, 2013). Exclusion criteria consisted of: (a) review; (b) case report and case series; (c) clinical conditions, pertaining both psychiatric, neurological and physical illnesses.

Two authors (CME and GS) independently screened titles and abstracts for eligibility. Potentially relevant articles were retrieved in full text and assessed based on inclusion criteria. Discrepancies were resolved through discussion. A PRISMA-ScR flowchart (figure 1) summarizes the selection process. Briefly, starting from 395 articles screened, 26 articles were finally included in the review. The research was finalized on November 7th, 2024. No automatic software was used for article removal.

Figure 1.

Prisma flow diagram for reviews

Legend: ordinates: frequencies of mental states; abscissae: type of mental states

Characteristics of the included articles have been summarized in table 1. For each included article, the following data were extracted and tabulated: general information (authors, year, country), study design, sample characteristics (including age range), diagnostic status, task or measure employed, investigated area (e.g., narrative coherence, narrative self-awareness), main findings.

Table 1.

Summary of the included studies

General information	Study design	Nation	Sample characteristics	Diagnosis	Task	Investigation area	Main results
Lechner & Rosenthal, 1984 A	Cross-sectional	USA	60 adolescents (50% females) at each of three grade levels, 8, 10, and 12, and 26 adults (57.69% females)	Non-clinical sample	Adolescent Social Behavior Scale (ASBS)	Narrative self-awareness, public individuation (imaginary audience)	Younger adolescents gave more imaginary audience behavior and externally self-aware responses than older adolescents, while only moderate age differences were apparent for internally motivated self-awareness. High anxiety was generally associated with high self-awareness of both types, but not with imaginary audience behavior.
Franzoi & Davis, 1985 A	Cross-sectional	USA	350 adolescents aged 14-18 years (high school students)	Non-clinical sample	UCLA Loneliness Scale, measures of interpersonal reactivity and introspective self-awareness.	Narrative self-awareness, public individuation	Indirect relation between introspective self-awareness and loneliness via peer self-disclosure: high introspective self-awareness adolescents' greater willingness to self-disclose to peers resulted in their feeling less lonely.
Davis & Franzoi, 1986 A	Longitudinal (2-years)	USA	406 adolescents aged 14-18 years (high school students)	Non-clinical sample	UCLA Loneliness Scale, measures of interpersonal reactivity and introspective self-awareness.	Narrative self-awareness, public individuation	Introspective self-awareness leads to greater self-disclosure to peers, but not vice versa. Greater loneliness reduces self-disclosure.
Rosenthal & Simenonsson, 1989 A	Cross-sectional	USA	Early and late adolescents	Clinical and non-clinical sample (here results only of the nonclinical sample)	Imaginary Audience Scale	Narrative self-awareness, public individuation (imaginary audience)	Narrative self-awareness decreased with age in non-clinical adolescents.
Workman & Beer, 1992 A	Cross-sectional	USA	134 adolescents aged 14-18 years (high school students)	Non-clinical sample	Self-consciousness Scale	Narrative self-awareness	Adolescents of divorced parents scored significantly higher than those of nondivorced parents on aggression, introspective self-awareness, and general self-awareness. Aggression scores were significantly and positively correlated with those on the alcohol and private self-consciousness scales.
Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994 A	Cross-sectional	USA	850 adolescents in the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 12th grades	Non-clinical sample	Imaginary audience evaluation	Narrative self-awareness, public individuation (imaginary audience)	Imaginary audience inhibits public individuation and represents a critical form of public self-awareness. The imaginary audience is a normal aspect of early adolescent development that diminishes in the context of secure parental relationships by late adolescence but remains salient if these relationships are insecure.
McLean, 2005 A	Cross-sectional	Canada	185 late adolescents	Non-clinical sample	Written self-defining memories	Authobiographical memories, public individuation	Meaning was infrequently reported for the entertainment function in comparison with the self-explanation function. At later ages, adolescents' audiences were more likely to be peers, and at earlier ages, adolescents' audiences were more likely to be parents.
Dykas et al., 2006 B	Cross-sectional	USA	Adolescents	Non-clinical sample	Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)	Narrative coherence	Adolescents possessed a general script for mother and for father, and that they drew upon these scripts across different contexts. Adolescents' scripts for mother and for father were related, but only the scripts for mother predicted unique variance in adolescents' scripts for nonspecific others. Greater attachment security was linked to greater access to and knowledge of secure base scripts for mothers, fathers, and nonspecific others. Only mother scripts predicted unique variance in adolescents' AAI coherence of mind scores.
Pasupathi & Hoyt, 2009 A	Cross-sectional	USA	220 late adolescents	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives	Autobiographical narratives, public individuation	Late adolescents and early adults construct more meaning-laden, interpretive accounts of their everyday experiences when they converse with responsive friends. age-related increases in the factual content of personal memories.
Rathbone et al., 2011 C	Cross-sectional	UK	40 adolescents aged 18-24 years (Mage=19.43; 92.5% females) (undergraduate students)	Non-clinical sample	Autobiographical memories (AMs) task, future thinking task.	Autobiographical narratives	AMs and future events both clustered robustly around periods of self-development.
Chen et al., 2012 B	Cross-sectional	New Zealand	Adolescents aged 12-21 years	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives	Narrative coherence	Age-related increases in narrative coherence. Age and gender moderated the associations between narrative coherence and psychological functioning. Higher levels of coherence were significantly associated with prosocial behaviour only for older adolescents. Higher levels of narrative coherence were associated with lower levels of wellbeing among adolescent boys, but not among adolescent girls.
McLean & Jennings, 2012 A	Cross-sectional	USA	22 adolescents (Mage=13 years)	Non-clinical sample	Past event conversations between adolescents and their friends / their mothers	Identity narrative development, public individuation	Friends showed less frequent explicit scaffolding of narrative identity than mothers, although listener scaffolding behavior was associated with adolescent meaning-making for both friends and mothers. Friends may be more engaged in scaffolding the self-presentational aspects of narrative identity, as well as providing a safe arena for exploration away from mothers.
Somerville et al., 2013 A	Crosssectional	USA	69 adolescents aged 8,0-22,9 years	Non-clinical sample	Emotions, skin conductance, neuroimaging	Identity narrative development, public individuation	Adolescents' narrative self-awareness is related to age-dependent sensitivity of brain systems critical to socioaffective processes.
Sumner et al., 2013 C	Cross-sectional	USA	55 adolescents aged 17-21 years (Mage=19.2, SD=0.9; 56.36% females) (undergraduate students)	Non-clinical sample	Auto-biographical Memory Test (written life narra-tives)	Authobiographical narratives	Greater autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) in self-defining memory narratives correlated with greater AMS in performance, and the patterns of relationships between the different AMS measures were generally similar in low and high dysphoric participants. AMS in self-defining memory narratives was prospectively associated with depressive symptom levels.
Nie et al., 2014 A	Cross-sectional	China	1202 adolescents ages 11-19 years (Mage=14.91, SD=1.89; 49.58% female)	Non-clinical sample	Adolescents' Self-Consciousness question-naire (ASC), scales about internalizing or externalizing problems	Narrative self-awareness	Some lower-order factors (i.e., sense of satisfaction, sense of anxiety, social self, self-restraint, self-esteem, and self-monitoring) and higher-order subscales (i.e., self-evaluation and self-experience) of self-awareness significantly predicted internalizing problems- Externalizing problems were predicted by several lower-order factors (i.e., self-restraint, sense of satisfaction, and self-monitoring) and higher-order subscales (i.e., self-control and self-experience).
Waters & Fivush, 2015 B	Cross-sectional	USA	103 adolescents aged 18-28 years (Mage=18.87, SD=1.41; 54.37% females)	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives, Self Function Scale	Narrative coherence, reflective function	Constructing coherent autobiographical narratives is related to psychological wellbeing. This relation was moderated by the narratives' relevance to identity and held after controlling for narrative ability more generally (i.e., coherence of generic/recurring events).
Reese et al., 2017 B	Cross-sectional	New Zealand	263 adolescents aged 12-21 years, of which 80 younger adolescents (aged 12-14; 48.75% female), 92 mid-adolescents (aged 15-17; 56.52% female), and 96 older adolescents (aged 18-21; 53.13% female)	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives	Narrative coherence, autobiographical narratives	Older adolescents with higher causal coherence reported better well-being. Younger adolescents with higher causal coherence reported poorer wellbeing. Negative expressivity, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness were also linked to well-being.
Graci et al., 2018 B	Cross-sectional	USA	224 adolescents (Mage=19.2 years, SD=2.1; 49.11% females) (undergraduate students)	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives, psychological questionnaires	Narrative coherence	There appear to be four distinct, but related, factors of narrative meaning-making for memories of stressful events: positive processing, negative processing, integrative meaning, and structure.
Borelli et al., 2019 B	Longitudinal (8-years)	USA, Bergamo?	79 adolescents (Mage=14.6 years, SD=3.5)	Non-clinical sample	Adult attachment interview (AAI)	Narrative coherence, reflective functioning (RF)	Both adolescent narrative coherence and RF were significant predictors of almost all indices of wellbeing at T2 in adulthood. Both narrative coherence and RF indirectly linked inferred loving parental care and T2 well-being. When included in the same model, RF was a significant indirect effect linking inferred loving parental care and T2 wellbeing.
Smetana et al., 2019 B	Cross-sectional	USA	131 early, middle, and late adolescents (M=12.74, age15.81, and 20.40 years, respectively)	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives regarding experiences of disclosure, concealment, and lying to parents	Narrative coherence	Greater psychological elaboration in narratives and, when directly probed, more evidence of psychological growth and positive lessons about parents, were observed when teens disclosed than concealed or lied. There was less factual elaboration when youth narrated about concealment than disclosure or lying, particularly among early adolescent males as compared to older males and same-age females.
Van Doeselaar et al., 2020 C	Cross-sectional Longitudinal (2-years)	The Netherlands	1580 adolescents (Mage=14.7 years; 56% female) Subsample: 242 adolescents (Mage=14.7 years, 62% female)	Non-clinical sample	Online questionnaire, written life narratives	Autobiographical narratives, narrative agency	Autobiographical reasoning was positively associated with the commitment and more adaptive exploration processes. Agency was positively associated with the commitment processes and exploration in depth. Commitment strength remained stable but exploration increased across middle adolescence. A stronger increase in identification with commitment and adaptive exploration was predicted by a higher degree of agency in adolescents’narratives.
De Moor et al., 2021 A	Cross-sectional Longitudinal (1-year)	The Netherlands	1087 adolescents (M=14.8 years) age	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives, perceived friendship quality	Narrative identity development, public individuation	Perceived friendship quality was associated with the presence of redemption sequences and self-event connections within time points, but not longitudinally.
De Silveira & Habermas, 2011 B	Cross-sectional	Germany	102 adolescents aged 8-20 years, gender-balanced	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives	Narrative coherence, narrative agency	Narrative grading of responsibility, serendipity, and turning points increased throughout adolescence. The relative frequency of narrative agency, in contrast, remained constant across age groups.
Ramsgaard & Bohn, 2021 B	Crosssectional	Denmark	142 children and adolescents aged 10-14 years, of which 50 fourth graders (28 boys; Mage=10.53, SD=0.29), 35 sixth and seventh graders (18 boys, Mage=13.17, SD=0.66) and 57 eight graders (26 boys, Mage=14.70, SD=0.35)	Non-clinical sample	Written life narratives about past and future life stories and cultural life	Narrative coherence, autobiographical narratives	Age-related development of life story coherence in both past and future life stories. Cultural life script typicality was linked to life story coherence for bot hpast and future life stories. Future life stories were more positive in overall emotional tone than past life stories and contained a lower percentage of negative events than past life stories. Main effects of time on length and coherence of lifestories: past life stories being longer and more coherent than future life stories across all age groups.
Glynn et al., 2022 B	Cross-sectional	New Zealand	58 adolescents aged 13-15 years (54.5% female)	Non-clinical sample	Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) paradigm for self-generated life narratives	Narrative coherence, autobiographical narratives	RIF for narrative coherence was demonstrated in children, but not adolescents. RIF do not occur for nonepisodic details for either children or adolescents. RIF for episodic detail was found for both children and adolescents.
Booker et al., 2024 C	Longitudinal 3-years study	USA	633 adolescents (Mage=18.8 years) (first-year college students)	Non-clinical sample	narratives about the impacts of COVID-19 and reports of mental health concerns, identity de- velopment, well-being	Narrative identity development	Students reported concerns for mental health, identity, and well-being during the first year of COVID-19 impacts. The return to in-person activities predicted broad increases in narrative growth and concomitant decreases in COVID-19 stressors, increases in identity exploration and commitment, and increases in psychological and academic well-being.

Findings were synthesized thematically following an inductive approach. Studies were grouped into three main domains: (A) Narrative self-awareness; (B) Narrative coherence; (C) Other aspects of narrative identity development.

Results

A total of 26 studies were included in the review, spanning the period from 1984 to 2024. Among them, 22 utilized a cross-sectional design, 2 were longitudinal, and 2 combined cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches.

All included articles focused on the development of narrative identity, a construct closely related to narrative self. As a preliminary theoretical note, two dimensions of self-experience must be distinguished: the narrative self and the minimal self (Gallagher, 2011). The minimal self represents the immediate, implicit, pre-reflexive, pre-linguistic experience of the self (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2012). Minimal self-awareness is described as a spontaneous and unproblematized experience (Gallagher, 2000). The narrative self is instead the experience of oneself that is produced through the voluntary, explicit and reflexive constitution mediated by language of a coherent and stable identity representation over time (Schechtman, 2011). Narrative identity is a process of continuous reelaboration of one's life experience (Sartre, 2003) – a task, rather than an objective achieved once and for all.

The main topics covered by the studies we found in literature are related to narrative identity in healthy adolescents, including narrative self-awareness and narrative coherence. To facilitate understanding, the presentation of the results has been organized according to these two thematic areas. No studies evaluating the characteristics of the minimal self in healthy adolescents have been found.

Narrative self-awareness (A)

Twelve articles explored the investigation area of narrative self-awareness. Although the term “self-consciousness” is often used in these studies, we have preferred to talk about “narrative self-awareness” to avoid confusion. The dimension of self-consciousness, in fact, is one of the main domains of the minimal self (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2012), which is not explored in these studies since they are essentially concerned with the reflective dimension of the self. Subdomains of self-awareness are investigated, such as “autobiographical awareness”, “introspective self-awareness” and “self-defining memories”. These are all reflexive capabilities, more in line with the narrative self than with the minimal self. Narrative self-awareness is the capacity to reflect on oneself, self-monitoring, self-defining, dialogue with oneself (also called “private self-consciousness”) and with real or imaginary others about oneself (i.e., self-disclosure, “imaginary audience”, public individuation).

Among the included studies, 10 were designed as cross-sectional articles, 1 as a longitudinal study, and 1 as a mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal study. All the articles about narrative self-awareness were written between 1984 and 2021.

Franzoi and Davis conducted first a cross-sectional (1985) and then a longitudinal (1986) study on a sample of American non-clinical adolescents. The cross-sectional study analyzed measures of loneliness, interpersonal reactivity and introspective self-awareness in 350 adolescents aged between 14 and 18 years (Franzoi & Davis, 1985). An indirect relation between introspective self-awareness and loneliness via peer self-disclosure was found, so that adolescents with higher levels of introspective ability resulted in feeling less lonely. In the longitudinal study, the same measures were assessed in a sample of 406 high-school students, highlighting that introspective self-awareness led to greater self-disclosure to peers (Davis & Franzoi, 1986). Furthermore, Workman and Beer (1992), through a cross-sectional study on a sample of 134 high-school students, demonstrated that introspective and general narrative self-awareness was higher in adolescents of divorced parents than in those of nondivorced parents. Introspective self-awareness scales were also related to aggression scores. A cross-sectional study by Somerville and colleagues (2013) demonstrated that adolescents’ narrative self-awareness is related to age-dependent sensitivity to brain systems critical to socio-affective processes.

The analysis of written self-defining memories was the chosen task in the cross-sectional study by McLean (2005), who collected a sample of 185 Canadian adolescents. The results indicated that meaning was infrequently reported for the entertainment function in comparison with the self-explanation function. At earlier ages adolescents’ audiences were more likely to be parents, while at later ages peers. Similarly, Pasupathi and Hoyt (2009) conducted a cross-sectional study on a non-clinical sample of 220 late adolescents, demonstrating that late adolescents construct more meaning-laden, interpretative accounts of their everyday experiences when they converse with responsive friends. An age-related increase in the factual content of personal memories was also found. Furthermore, McLean and Jennings (2012) analyzed past event conversations between adolescents (mean age = 13 years) and their friends or between adolescents and their parents. Listener scaffolding behavior was associated with adolescent meaning-making for both friends (less frequently) and mothers (more frequently). In particular, the authors hypothesized that friends may be more engaged in scaffolding the self-presentational aspects of narrative identity, as well as providing a safe arena for exploration away from mothers. On a sample of Dutch adolescents, De Moor and colleagues (2021) conducted a cross-sectional and longitudinal study, demonstrating that perceived friendship quality was associated with self-event connection within time points, but not longitudinally.

In a cross-sectional sample by Nie and colleagues (2014), the Adolescent Self-Consciousness questionnaire and scales about internalizing and externalizing problems were performed on a nonclinical sample of 1202 adolescents (mean age = 14.91 years). Specific domains of narrative self-awareness were found to be related to internalizing (such as low levels of social self, self-restraint, self-esteem and self-monitoring, and high levels if self-evaluation and self-experience) and externalizing problems (such as low levels of self-restraint and self-monitoring, and high levels of self-control and self-experience).

Three of the included articles deal with the topic of “imaginary audience”, which is defined as the tendency of adolescents to see themselves as objects of others’ attention and evaluation. First, Lechner and Rosenthal (1984) conducted a cross-sectional study on 60 non-clinical adolescents, analyzing narrative self-awareness and social behavior. They found no age-related differences in internally motivated narrative self-awareness, while younger adolescents gave more “imaginary audience” and self-aware responses than older adolescents. Similarly, Rosenthal and Simeonsson (1989) demonstrated that narrative self-awareness decreased with age in a non-clinical sample of American adolescents. Partially confirming these results, a cross-sectional study by Ryan and Kuczkowski (1994) showed that imaginary audience is a normal aspect of early adolescent development, that diminishes by late adolescence in the context of secure parental relationship, but remains salient if these relationships are insecure.

Narrative coherence (B)

Among the studies included, 10 articles explored the investigation area of narrative coherence. By narrative coherence we mean the ability to tell meaningful, coherent stories about oneself and others (Vanden Poel & Hermans, 2019). Among the included studies, 9 were designed as cross-sectional articles, and 1 as a longitudinal study. All the articles about self-consciousness were written between 2006 and 2021.

Results were generally uniform in demonstrating how narrative coherence increases in adolescence as age increases. Dykas and colleagues (2006) performed a cross-sectional study on a sample of non-clinical adolescents, analyzing the narrative coherence through the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Regarding attachment figures, it has been recognized that adolescents possess a general script for mother and for father, which are related to each other. Only mother scripts were found to predict the attachment to nonspecific others, and the coherence of mind scores.

Chen et al. (2012) conducted a cross-sectionally designed study on a non-clinical sample of New Zealand adolescents aged between 12 and 21 years. Written life narratives were analyzed for narrative coherence, identifying an age-related increase in narrative coherence and a correlation to psychological functioning. Higher levels of coherence were found to be associated with prosocial behavior only for older adolescents and with lower levels of well-being among adolescent boys, but not among adolescent girls. Furthermore, Waters and Fivush (2015) published the results of a cross-sectional study among 103 American late adolescents (aged 18-28 years, mean age = 18.87 years). Subjects were asked to write life narratives and to fill the Self Function Scale. The ability to construct coherent autobiographical narratives was significantly related to psychological well-being. Also, Reese and colleagues (2017), through a cross-sectional study on 263 adolescents aged from 12 to 21 years, confirmed the correlation between the ability to produce coherent life narratives and well-being in older adolescents. In addition, Borelli et al. (2019) performed an 8-years longitudinal study among 79 non-clinical adolescents (mean age = 19.2 years), evaluated through Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Confirming the results of previous studies, narrative coherence and reflective function were found to be significant predictors of well-being in adulthood. Interestingly, both narrative coherence and reflective function were found to be indirectly linked to inferred loving parental care.

According to Smetana et al. (2019), the age-related increase in narrative coherence was confirmed by a cross-sectional study on 131 non-clinical adolescents. Analyzing written life narratives, a correlation was found between the ability to psychologically elaborate narratives and the reception of positive lessons about parents, observed more when adolescents disclosed than concealed or lied. Similarly, De Silveira and Habermas (2011) analyzed the written life narratives of 102 adolescents aged between 8 and 20 years, highlighting an age-related increase in narrative coherence, but not in narrative agency.

Ramsgaard and Bohn (2021) performed a cross-sectional study on a non-clinical sample of 142 Danish adolescents (aged 10-14 years). Written life narratives were analyzed, underlining an age-related development of life story coherence and a predominance of positive emotions in future than in past life stories.

A study by Glynn and colleagues (2022) analyzed the retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) paradigm for self-generated life narratives in a non-clinical sample of 58 adolescents aged between 13 and 15 years. On the one side, RIF for narrative coherence was demonstrated in children, but not in adolescents. On the other side, RIF for episodic details was found for both children and adolescents, while RIF for non-episodic details wasn’t found regardless of age.

Finally, Graci and colleagues (2018) analyzed the written life narratives and psychological functioning of 224 adolescents (mean age = 19.2 years) through a cross-sectional study. They identified four factors of narrative meaning-making for memories of stressful events, which are positive and negative processing, integrative meaning, and structure.

Other aspects of narrative identity development (C)

Four articles represent a group of heterogeneous studies which seemed more appropriate not to reduce to the previous schematization. Of them, 2 were cross-sectionally designed, one was longitudinally designed, and one was mixed cross-sectionally and longitudinally designed. They were all conducted between 2011 and 2024.

According to Rathbone et al. (2011), in a nonclinical sample of 40 English adolescents (mean age = 19.43 years) it was possible to demonstrate that autobiographical memories and future events both clustered robustly around periods of self-development.

Sumner and colleagues (2013) conducted a cross-sectional study on a non-clinical sample of 55 adolescents aged from 17 to 21 years. Written life narratives were analyzed, highlighting that greater autobiographical memory specificity in self-defining memory narratives was prospectively associated with depressive symptoms.

In a study by Van Doeselaar et al. (2020), 1580 adolescents were initially cross-sectionally evaluated in written life narratives. Autobiographical reasoning and agency were found to be positively associated with commitment and with “adaptive exploration”, i.e., the search for more adaptive behaviour. Longitudinally, commitment strength remained stable, but exploration increased across middle adolescence. A stronger increase in identification with commitment and adaptive exploration was predicted by a higher degree of agency in adolescents’ narratives.

Finally, a longitudinal study by Booker and colleagues (2024) analyzed the development of narrative identity of 633 adolescents (mean age = 18.8 years), dealing with the impact of Covid-19. During the first year of Covid-19 impacts, concerns about identity were reported, but the return to in-person activities predicted broad increases in narrative growth.

Discussion

Adolescence represents a developmental stage characterized by identity instability, often of crisis, in which parental models are replaced by self-representations that are affected by the comparison between peers, by the socio-cultural context of reference, and by the challenges of the modern era (Erikson, 1968; Sebastian et al., 2008). The identity development process is therefore configured as a task which is strongly influenced by the framework in which it takes place (Branje, 2022). The achievement of a stable identity depends on self-defining memories and the ability to represent and characterize oneself from an autobiographical perspective. The processes of meaning-making, evolution of narrative self-awareness, and improvement of narrative and autobiographical coherence are fundamental in the adolescent's identity development. All these elements are part of a maturational process that mediates the transition from childhood to adulthood. The definition of a stable and coherent self-representation is the primary task, one could say, of adolescence, with the inevitable moments of difficulty and crisis that this implies (Erikson, 1968; Lichtwarck-Aschoff et al., 2008).

The findings of this scoping review confirm that narrative identity develops progressively throughout adolescence through dynamic processes involving reflective meaning-making, autobiographical reasoning, and increasing temporal integration. Unlike prior theoretical works that attempt to conceptualize narrative identity development in adolescence, this review provides a structured synthesis of empirical evidence, highlighting developmental trajectories in two interrelated domains:

1. Narrative self-awareness develops in connection with relational scaffolding, particularly peer interactions, and appears to support emotional regulation and social functioning.

2. Narrative coherence shows a consistent age-related increase, suggesting that the capacity to organize autobiographical experiences into meaningful life narratives strengthens with cognitive, affective, and social maturation.

Additionally, this review emphasizes the emerging relevance of temporal styles (diachronic vs. episodic orientation) as potential moderators of identity processes. While such themes have been discussed in contemporary phenomenological and cultural frameworks (e.g., Han, 2024; Stanghellini, 2024a), empirical studies in healthy adolescents remain scarce, thus indicating a significant gap in the literature that our review aims to begin to fill.

Factors influencing the development of narrative self-awareness. Narrative self-awareness is a complex conglomeration of linguistic abilities that include autobiographical reasoning, meaning-making, identification of self-defining memories, introspective self-awareness and presentation of oneself to others. The available studies, although with some differences among them, agree in highlighting a group of relevant factors in the development of narrative self-awareness. The importance of family references is progressively lost and those of peers increase (McLean, 2005). The process of meaning-making of one's own experience is still at least in part based on the feedback of parental figures, but increasingly on the views of friends (McLean & Jennings, 2012; Pasupathi & Hoyt, 2009). On one hand the sense of trust given by the perception of a good friendship can promote the meaning-making process and therefore contribute to identity development (De Moor et al., 2021); on the other, in healthy adolescents the introspective self-awareness leads to greater self-disclosure to peers (Davis & Franzoi, 1986; Franzoi & Davis, 1985). Thus, there is mutual reinforcement between dialogue with one's peers and introspective capacity. An interesting aspect that complements this hypothesis is the following: the phenomena of “imaginary audience” (i.e. the tendency to imagine oneself being perceived from outside) is more common in early adolescence and diminishes with the increase in identity stability (Lechner & Rosenthal, 1984; Rosenthal & Simeonsson, 1989; Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994). Narrative self-awareness is also supposed to depend on age-related biological aspects (Somerville et al., 2013), as well as on relationships with attachment figures (Workman & Beer, 1992). Relationships with attachment figures also influence narrative coherence (Dykas et al., 2006; Smetana et al., 2019).

Factors influencing narrative coherence. Narrative coherence represents the ability to tell a story about oneself and others that is consistent and logical (Vanden Poel & Hermans, 2019). The available literature on narrative coherence in healthy adolescents shows rather uniform results: the increase of narrative coherence is age-related (Dykas et al., 2006; Chen et al., 2012; De Silveira & Habermas, 2011; Ramsgaard & Bohn, 2021; Smetana et al., 2019), associated with good psychological functioning (Waters & Fivush, 2015) and with psychological well-being both in adolescence (Chen et al., 2012; Reese et al., 2017). Also, narrative coherence in adolescence is predictive of well-being in adulthood (Borelli et al., 2019). The capacity for autobiographical reasoning is closely linked to the experience of diachronicity – i.e. the understanding of events by the way they relate to each other’s over time, rather than moment-by-moment. This is positively correlated with healthy and adaptive processes of environmental exploration (Van Doeselaar et al., 2020). It can therefore be concluded that in the course of adolescence the ability to construct an articulate, coherent and relatively stable representation of oneself over time is progressively achieved and that this is a guarantee of growth towards adulthood in which this narrative function is adequately developed.

Alterations of the minimal and narrative self in psychopathology. All the areas of investigation of these studies concern the evolution of narrative identity - the process of constitution and maturation of the reflective/narrative self. The studies analyzed in this review do not include the domains underlying the minimal self (Gallagher, 2011). The minimal self provides the pre-reflexive sense of being the owners (mineness) and initiators (agency) of our own thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. These are all processes that take place implicitly, pre-reflexively and involuntarily, whereas narrative coherence and meaning-making processes also entail an explicit, reflexive and voluntary engagement and effort by the subject. We suggest it is possible to consider available data on narrative coherence and meaning-making processes as indirect indices of the ability to constitute oneself over time. The fact that no anomalies of the minimal self - but more or less significant variations of the narrative self - are documented in adolescence, appears in line with our original hypothesis: identity development in adolescence is a process that deals with specific features of the narrative self and not with abnormalities of the minimal self.

Alterations of the minimal self have been described above all in schizophrenia and psychotic spectrum disorders (Hur et al., 2014; Nordgaard et al., 2021; Raballo et al., 2021). Schizophrenic vulnerability would consist in an alteration of the minimal self. The core aspect of schizophrenia spectrum disorders is the breakdown of the crucial sense of self-sameness, of existing as a unified, unique, and embodied subject of experience that is at one with oneself at any given moment. Experiences of intra-psychic and somato-psychic depersonalization emerge in the split between parts of one’s self (Parnas, 2007; Sass, 2014). These alterations of the minimal self are associated with a complementary and compensatory tendency towards focal awareness of aspects of consciousness and the body that would normally be experienced in a tacit or immediate manner. This is called “hyper-reflexivity” (Sass, 2017) which may occur in an automatic, or non-volitional fashion. Hyper-reflexivity emphasizes the capacity of the self to split into a subject and an object of experiences and implies anomalous phenomena, e.g. the perceptualization of inner speech or thought.

While disorders of the minimal self have been proved useful in recognizing the prodromes of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (Fusar-Poli et al., 2020, 2022), alterations of the narrative self are much more varied and are associated with different disorders. For example, they are described in major depression, characterized by the inability to integrate new events and experiences into one's narrative identity, with consequent phenomena of depersonalization and stagnation over time (Fusar-Poli et al., 2023; Mancini et al., 2024). In borderline personality disorder, the experience of time is described as fragmented, discontinuous, changeable, giving rise to identity instability and emotional paroxysm (Faggioli et al., 2024). In adolescents considered normal we do not encounter anomalies of the narrative self. However, it is necessary to pay attention to possible setbacks in the development of narrative identity, which at this stage of growth is subject to rapid and tumultuous transformations.

The influence of culture to time perception in adolescents. Adolescence is not a psychopathological condition in itself, but represents a period of particular vulnerability to psychopathological decompensation (Anyanwu, 2023; Solmi et al., 2022), and as such deserves particular attention. The development of narrative identity requires the ability to find a logical-temporal thread in the succession of events in one's life. Therefore, narrative identity is closely linked to time perception. Since adolescence is notably exposed to external influences, how will the cultural change in the perception of time that we witness in the late-modern era translate into it? The reviewed evidence confirms that narrative identity formation does not occur in isolation, but is shaped by shifting socio-cultural conditions. In line with the concept of “presentism”, our culture is moving towards the “regime of historicity” in whose light the present is experienced as the only existing reality, at the same time emancipation or enclosure. The perspective of the future is no longer reassuring, since it is perceived not simply as a promise, but also as a threat (Hartog, 2016). Contemporary culture pushes us to focus on the immediacy of the present time (Magalhães & Oaklander, 2010).

We live in a post-narrative era and in the age of information and digital culture. The “Information Age” in which we live is marked by the accumulation and addition of data; the mass of available accumulated data far exceeds our capacity of memory, selection and coherent organization (Han, 2024). An ‘episodic’ form of life is taking over narrative-based autobiographical identity (McAdams, 2021). This existential modality loses its roots in the past and reproduces a world of consumerist substitutability (Han, 2024). In this context, the digital world appears to be one of the privileged terrains for the development of this trend, due to several of its characteristics: the speed of information, its immediate replaceability, the profiling which only offers content that conforms to our expectations.

Adolescents, who grow up immersed in the digital culture, are inevitably conditioned by these cultural transformations. Adolescents are “digital natives” who live in a world in which an episodic style of temporal being prevails over the tendency to see one’s life in narrative terms (Stanghellini, 2024a; Strawson, 2004). The episodic outlook does not seem to involve putting some sort of unifying construction on the events of one’s life, or parts of one’s life. Persons with an episodic mode of temporality apparently do not have some sort of coherence-seeking, unity-seeking, pattern-seeking, or most generally form-finding tendency (Stanghellini, 2024a).

The essential character of man’s relationships with technology is that anthropogenesis implies the use of technical devices (Heidegger, 1982), even if we have moved from knives and sticks to highly refined digital tools. Posing the problem of the risks of technology now, after having based the entire human evolution on it, seems paradoxical. Yet, the modern world exposes us to hazards that would not have been considered possible before (Di Martino, 2017). For this reason, to put it into quite poetical terms, the pinnacles of danger and of beauty both lie in technology - it is an incredible source of progress, but also of threat (Heidegger, 1982). Without wanting to delve into the ethical implications of technical development, it now seems clear that digitalization affects not only the way we behave, but our way of thinking and of experiencing reality (Hoehe & Thibaut, 2020; Sherman et al., 2016; Small et al., 2020). Several authors have underlined memory alterations in digital natives: on the one hand the lower retention of concepts (Firth et al., 2020; Näsi & Koivusilta, 2013), on the other a greater concentration on where to find the information rather than on its content (Benvenuti et al., 2023). Changes in the memory processes inevitably impacts our way to live time (Granic et al., 2020) and the diachronic development of our existential narratives.

Adolescents find themselves in a world that increasingly works in a digital instead of an analogue way, on information instead of narration, on the present instead of diachrony. Although the included studies did not directly investigate episodic temporal modes in healthy adolescents, the literature suggests that adolescents may increasingly engage in identity construction through short, affectively intense experiences rather than reflective, temporally extended narratives. Such episodic orientations do not necessarily imply pathology but may represent emerging developmental patterns that differ from traditional narrative trajectories (Muscelli & Stanghellini, 2012; Stanghellini, 2024a, 2024b).

This review therefore highlights a gap: empirical studies have not yet systematically examined how exposure to fragmented digital environments might influence the developmental trajectory of narrative coherence and meaning-making in adolescence. Future research should investigate whether episodic temporal orientations affect identity stability, peer feedback processing, or long-term self-continuity.

Implications for clinical practice and adolescent mental health interventions. The findings of this review carry important implications for clinical practice, especially in the field of adolescent mental health. First, they emphasize the central role of narrative capacities — such as autobiographical reasoning, narrative coherence, and narrative self-awareness — in supporting identity development and psychological well-being. Clinicians working with adolescents should therefore consider these dimensions as key targets for intervention. Narrative-based therapeutic approaches, including life story work, autobiographical writing, and narrative therapy, can facilitate the construction of a coherent sense of self by helping adolescents to organize and make meaning of their experiences across time. Moreover, the review highlights the strong influence of social relationships — particularly those with peers — on narrative identity development. This suggests that interventions should also foster opportunities for safe and supportive peer dialogue, promoting reflection, mutual feedback, and the co-construction of meaning. In addition, clinicians should be sensitive to the potential impact of contemporary cultural conditions—such as digital fragmentation and “presentism” — on adolescents’ ability to engage in diachronic self-understanding. When working with adolescents who show fragmented or episodic self-narratives, professionals might consider complementing traditional approaches with strategies that validate fragmented experiences, while gradually supporting the integration of past, present, and future.

Overall, this review supports a developmental, context-sensitive, and narrative-oriented framework for adolescent mental health care. Based on the synthesized evidence, three key developmental targets emerge for prevention and intervention:

Autobiographical reasoning as a regulatory skill: Adolescents who demonstrate higher meaning-making in personal narratives are more likely to integrate affective experiences constructively, which may enhance resilience.

Peer-based narrative co-construction: Since peer dialogues scaffold identity formation, fostering supportive relational environments (e.g., through group reflection or dialogical storytelling interventions) may enhance self-understanding and social adaptation.

Temporal integration as a protective factor: Programs that encourage adolescents to link experiences across past, present, and anticipated futures may help counterbalance episodic temporal tendencies and promote coherent identity trajectories.

Last but not least, this review suggests that effective training for mental health professionals must evolve to include the art of listening to episodic people, especially adolescents – alongside narrative-oriented practices. An over-reliance on traditional narrative competencies risks discarding the most vital data: the fragmentary, non-linear expressions of the adolescents’ experiences. Cultivating the capacity to embrace these "unclassified fragments or episodes" is essential for mental health carers. This requires a fundamental willingness to let the adolescent's unique, unschematized experience "wound the ear," thereby honoring their singularity and maintaining therapeutic curiosity (Stanghellini, 2024a).

Given increasing evidence of digital environments shaping self-expression and temporal orientation, interventions should also address how identity is constructed through social media, fragmented digital narratives, or episodic self-presentations. Clinicians and educators may benefit from explicitly discussing digital storytelling patterns and their relation to identity consolidation.

Limitations

This scoping review presents several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, although the search strategy was comprehensive, it was limited to a single database (PubMed), which may have led to the exclusion of relevant studies indexed elsewhere. Second, the inclusion criteria were restricted to articles published in English or with an English translation, introducing a potential language bias. Third, most of the included studies were cross-sectional in design, limiting the ability to draw conclusions about developmental trajectories over time. Additionally, the review focused exclusively on non-clinical adolescent populations, which, while intentional, excludes insights from borderline or at-risk groups that may show different patterns of narrative identity development. Finally, due to the heterogeneity of methods and operational definitions across the included studies, a meta-analytic synthesis was not feasible, and caution is warranted when generalizing findings. Future research should aim to incorporate longitudinal and cross-cultural studies, as well as investigate the influence of emerging socio-digital environments more systematically.

Conclusions: which kind of “care” for adolescents engaged to constitute their narrative identity in the digital age?

This scoping review identifies two central developmental processes in adolescent narrative identity: the progressive maturation of narrative coherence and the socially mediated growth of narrative self-awareness. These findings support a developmental trajectory in which adolescents increasingly integrate autobiographical experiences, engage in meaning-making processes, and co-construct identity narratives through peer interactions.

By synthesizing empirical evidence in healthy adolescent populations, this review highlights the role of narrative skills as developmental resources linked to psychological well-being and adaptive identity formation. The results further suggest that narrative instability in adolescence does not reflect minimal self-disturbance but rather a transitional phase in reflective identity construction.

It can be hypothesized that the digital culture and the tendency for an episodic form of life may affect the process of narrative identity development in adolescents. Given the growing cultural emphasis on immediacy and episodic temporal modes, further research is recommended to explore how digital environments and present-focused narrative styles influence identity development. Longitudinal and cross-cultural studies are particularly needed to investigate how different temporal orientations may facilitate or hinder identity consolidation over time. Should we expect, in the near future, the accentuation of the tendency toward discontinuity and eventually fragmentation of the narrative self in adolescents? What consequences might this have for their mental health? What hitherto unknown psychopathological forms can it contribute to generate? And, finally, what kind of “care” needs to be designed to keep up with the influence (however hypothetical for now) that contemporary culture exerts, through the tendency to live in the here-and-now, on the developmental process of narrative identity in adolescents?

This review highlights the importance of narrative skills in bringing order to an adolescent's existence, but at the same time the discussion of these data sheds light on how culture influences the processes of development and maturation at this age of life. Understanding the way adolescents experience time becomes a fundamental prerequisite for any type of treatment that involves them. Persons with an episodic mode of temporality, who experience the world in a fragmented and non-diachronically organized way, are becoming (or will become) the majority in current society (Stanghellini, 2024a). This implies an ever decreasing space for the narrative dimension of identity development and the need to find new strategies for exploring and organizing experience. An alternative treatment framework should be perhaps complementing narrative-based therapies with forms of therapy based on listening and valuing the fragment – that is, empowering clinicians with the ability to grasp specific, episodic, but emblematic elements of their patients’ existence (Stanghellini, 2024b). The attempt to explore the experience of persons with an episodic mode of temporality and to speak with their language, without forcibly imposing our diachronic mindset on them, is needed for developing a person-centered perspective of care and each person’s needs that change in step with cultural changes. Understanding how adolescents construct their narrative identities under contemporary socio-cultural conditions is essential for promoting healthy psychological development and informing identity-centered mental health practices. In addition to narrative competence and narrative-focused practices, mental health professionals should be empowered with the capacity to embrace all that is fragmentary (that is, what at face value escapes narration) to support those adolescents who have not yet developed sufficient narrative skills to articulate their experiences in a coherent diachronic narrative.