Adolescents’ Identity Formation and Parenting Styles in Dire Sabian Secondary School, Dire Dawa

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the significance of relationship between parenting styles and identity formation of adolescents and sex difference in identity formation. . This research then revealed the relationships between the two variables as well as gender difference in identity formation. To do so, the study employed different descriptive and inferential statistical methods such as, percentages frequencies, mean comparison, correlation and ANOVA method. The stratified random sampling was used in order to collect data and, 173 male and 142 female students were taken as sample. The pilot-tested Questionnaires were distributed among 314 students in Sabian Secondary School, Dire Dawa. The result demonstrated that there was a positive relationship between parenting styles and identity formation (r=0.484). Furthermore, ANOVA suggested that parenting styles can significantly affect the identity formation of adolescents with (F (3,310), P<0.01=33.443) and that there was no significant difference between male and female adolescents in both parenting styles and identity diffusion. Keywords: Adolescents, Identity Achievement, Parenting Style