The Longitudinal Influence of Parenting and Parents’ Traces on Narrative Identity in Young Adulthood

This longitudinal follow-up studied continued effects of parental influences on narrative identity inyoung adulthood. Decades of research have shown the importance of parental shared reminiscing andpositive parenting for the development of children’s and youths’ autobiographical memory and narrativeidentity. Yet, research on long-term influences of parenting on narrative indices in adulthood is scarce,even though parents’ traces remain a part of narrative identity throughout the life span (Köber &Habermas, 2018). Therefore, in this study, 118 individuals (at time 1: Mage = 17.3 years, SD =.77, 73%female, 82% White) reported at age 17 on their perceived positive parenting. As emerging and youngadults, as part of follow-ups at ages 26 and again at 32, participants provided life story interviews. First,it was tested whether earlier positive parenting longitudinally predicted parents’ traces in later life stories.Second, we studied the joint long-term prediction of parenting and parents’ traces to several narrativefeatures of these young adults’ life stories, including emotional tone, coherent positive resolution,and narrative complexity. Results replicated prior research on parents’ traces and showed moreover thatperceived parenting shape offspring’s narrative identity well into young adulthood.