Uncovering Self-Identity of Adolescent Students

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
Adolescence is a transitional age from children to adults.The adolescent's physical, emotional, and psychological changes characterize the transition period.Santrock (2007) defines adolescence as a transitional developmental period between childhood and adulthood, including biological, cognitive, and social-emotional changes.He explains that adolescents have an age range of 16-20 years.In this period, adolescents look for their identity through the attachment of parents, peers, or the social environment.Husni and Purwaningsih (2013) revealed a positive relationship between attachment to parents and self-identity in adolescents at SMKN 4 Yogyakarta.Parental attachment can be an aspect of the formation of adolescent self-identity.Adolescents must be able to take advantage of various opportunities to develop positively while avoiding or reducing the risk of sources of deviant behavior that can arise while searching for and forming one's identity (Papalia, 2013).Adolescence is when an adolescent is looking for his/her own identity to achieve balance in life.However, in the search for self-identity, adolescents must also go through developmental tasks, including accepting physical conditions, accepting and understanding the sex role of an adult, preparing for life in adulthood, self-concept, self-image, and self-identity (Saputro, 2018).
Self-identity is knowing and experiencing oneself as one's person and not being immersed in the role one plays, for example, as a child, friend, student, or colleague (Erikson, 1989).Self-identity is the process of becoming a unique individual with an important role in life (Papalia, 2013).Selfidentity is an awareness of personal unity and continuity and a relatively stable belief throughout the life span (Desmita, 2008).Thus, self-identity is an individual's ability to consciously know, appreciate, and believe in themself as a relatively stable person throughout their life span.
Adolescent students who can develop an integrated self-identity will have positive activities and be free from problems that interfere with their effective daily lives (Syukur, 2015).However, if adolescent students do not know themselves and their developmental tasks, problems will arise.Such a situation will hinder adolescent students from carrying out various developmental tasks, especially in developing their potential or self-actualization during the education process (Ardi et al., 2012).Adolescent students with problems need the right care to grow and develop to achieve independence in carrying out developmental tasks (Syukur, 2015).The right care can be realized by having character and intelligence.

METHOD
This study used a quantitative approach with a descriptive method to describe self-identity in adolescent students.This study was conducted at SMA Negeri 4 Padang, West Sumatera, with a sample of 33 adolescent students selected using a purposive sampling technique.The instrument used was a self-identity questionnaire, which includes traits, special skills, adjustment, future orientation, identification, social roles, relationships with other people, and the meaning of life.The instrument developed used a Likert scale model consisting of 35 items measuring self-identity with validity ≥ 0.344 (Pearson Correlation) and reliability of 0.908 (Cronbach's Alpha).The data were analyzed quantitatively and described comprehensively.

Results
From the study that was carried out, an average score of 133.52 (with a percentage of 72.07%) was obtained, with the lowest score of 35 and the highest score of 175.Self-identity of adolescent students was described in five categories: very high, high, moderate, low, and very low.Self-identity of adolescent students can be seen in Table 1 below.From Table 1, it can be seen that the self-identity of the adolescent students was relatively high: 3 students (9.09%) with very high self-identity, 12 students (36.36%) with high selfidentity, eight students with moderate self-identity (24.24%) and ten students with low self-identity (30.30%).Self-identity has main characteristics, namely awareness of oneself that is unique, having different characteristics from the group, having relatively stable beliefs, and having an important role in community life (Santrock, 2003).The high value of self-identity proves that individual awareness of themselves is unique and different and has an important societal role.Likewise, if it is low, the individual's awareness of themselves is still very low.Individuals with high self-identity will continue to focus on their future goals and make themselves more meaningful in social life.In contrast to individuals with low self-identity, they tend to be confused about determining what their life goals are in the future.Self-identity of the adolescent students based on sub-variables and indicators is described in  2 above, adolescent students' selfidentity score was 72.07% of the ideal score.This indicates that the self-identity of the adolescent students was in the high and moderate categories, as seen in each indicator of each sub-variable.Several indicators that had a high category were traits (79.14%), adjustment (74.51%), future orientation (73.59%), identification (77.52%), and the meaning of life (80.45%).Then, some indicators were in the moderate category, namely special skills (60.45%), social roles (65.14%), and relationships with other people (65.71%).

Discussion
Individuals entering adolescence begin to become aware of their own identity.This awareness is formed inseparable from various dimensions of self-identity.Erikson in Santrock (2003) reveals several dimensions of self-identity: genetic, adaptive, structural, dynamic, psychosocial reciprocity, and existential status.Additionally, he mentions that the genetic dimension can be measured through the traits in one's self.The adaptive dimension can be measured by focusing on the individual's specific skills and how to make adjustments in their community.The structural dimension can be measured by focusing on the individual's future orientation.The dynamic dimension focuses on how an individual identifies an adult's life experience and social role in social life.The psychosocial dimension of reciprocity focuses on how an individual relates to others in social life.The existential status dimension focuses on how an individual gives meaning to their life.
Adolescents experience several changes in themselves simultaneously, including physical, cognitive, social, and emotional (Yuliarsih et al., 2020).These changes require them to be able and skilled in mastering each developmental task (Ardi et al., 2019).Adolescents who understand their changes as a characteristic different from others are teenagers who already understand their identity (Sakti & Yulianto, 2018).
Based on the results of this study, some adolescent students at SMA Negeri 4 Padang (30.30%) still had low selfidentity.The low self-identity of adolescent students can be caused by problems with their ability to control emotions, problems placing themselves among their peers, problems with their appearance, and not getting the right figure to achieve good self-identity (Hidayah and Huriati, 2017).Netrawati et al. (2018) add that the low self-identity of adolescents can be because there are still developmental tasks that have not been achieved.If these tasks are completed, satisfaction, happiness, and acceptance from the environment will be achieved.
About the measurement of self-identity based on sub-variables and indicators, it can be seen that the indicator of special skills in the genetic sub-variable was in the moderate category (60.45%).Likewise, the indicator of social roles in the dynamic sub-variable was also in the moderate category (65.14%).Besides, the relationship indicator with other people in the psychosocial reciprocity sub-variable was also in the moderate category (65.71%).Improving special skills, social roles, and relationships with other people can be done through information services (Rambe et al., 2017;Nirwana et al., 2018).It is hoped that the information service can equip individuals with knowledge about data and facts in the field of education, work, and especially personal development.The information is then processed and used by individuals to make planning easier in decision-making (Fitri et al., 2016); Rizka et al., 2017).
Understanding self-identity requires an awareness of one's self, characteristics, and ability to make important decisions for the future.All of these things are integrated within oneself so that one feels unique and different from others in social life (Hidayah & Huriati, 2017).

CONCLUSION
Adolescent students' self-identity development is expected to reduce the negative impacts arising from the transition from adolescence to adulthood and the confusion about their identity.Adolescent students' self-identity development must continue to be improved to support their learning development.This study indicates that many adolescent students already have high self-identity.However, there are still a few adolescent students who have low selfidentity.The high or low self-identity of the students will affect their performance in learning.Teachers should also make it a concern.
Examining self-identity is not only limited to the aspects in this study.For this reason, further research regarding the self-identity of adolescent students is needed.It is recommended that future researchers add several aspects to obtain more concrete information about the self-identity of adolescent students.

Table 2 below . Table 2 .
Self-identity of adolescent students based on sub-variables and indicators