The Transylvania Adolescent Identity Development Study (TRAIDES) was a longitudinal study that employed an intensive longitudinal panel design, with three measurement waves 3 to 4 months apart during one academic year (2013-2014).

We collected data from seven schools located in four towns in the North-Western part of Romania. Students from the 8th to the 12th grade completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires. A total of 1151 adolescents (58.7% females) participated in the study, of whom 40.1% were early-to-middle adolescents (age range 13–15 years) and 59.9% were middle-to-late adolescents (age range 16–19 years). Mean age was 16.45 years (SDage = 1.40; range = 13–19 years).

The main goals of the TRAIDES study were:

  • To investigate de relation between educational identity and vocational identity across the academic year, focusing on differences between educational tracks (e.g., work- versus university-bound) and student gender.
  • To analyze identity styles in relation to educational identity.
  • To tackle the complex interplay of meaning in life and personal identity at different stages of adolescence.

Project team:

Oana Negru-Subtirica, PhD (coordinator)

Eleonora Ioana Pop, PhD

Alexandra Tiganasu, MSc

Ionel Blaga, MSc

Selected publications:

Negru-Subtirica, O., Pop, E. I., & Crocetti, E. (2015). Developmental trajectories and reciprocal associations between career adaptability and vocational identity: A three-wave longitudinal study with adolescents. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88, 131-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.03.004

Pop, E. I., Negru-Subtirica, O., Crocetti, E., Opre, A., & Meeus, W. (2016). On the interplay between academic achievement and educational identity: A longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence, 47C, 135-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.11.004

Negru-Subtirica, O., & Pop, E. I. (2016). Longitudinal links between career adaptability and academic achievement in adolescence. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 93, 163-170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.02.006