How identity exploration may support freshman adaptation: a longitudinal within-person mediation through psychological resilience

While constructive identity exploration (i.e., active, goal-directed engagement with identity alternatives in breadth and depth) is widely recognized as a critical developmental task during the transition to college, the within-person temporal mechanisms through which it relates to adaptation outcomes remain poorly understood. This study addressed this gap by examining the longitudinal within-person associations among constructive self-identity exploration, psychological resilience, and college adaptation among emerging adults during the college transition. A three-wave longitudinal design with a sample of Chinese freshmen (N = 665, Mean age = 19.01, SD = 0.81) was utilized, employing a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model to disentangle within-person processes from stable between-person differences. Results indicated that initial exploration did not directly predict subsequent college adaptation. Instead, a significant longitudinal indirect pathway emerged at the intra-individual level [est = 0.085, 95% CI (0.044, 0.135)]: constructive exploration positively predicted subsequent psychological resilience, which in turn was positively associated with better college adaptation. While college adaptation showed strong autoregressive stability reflecting the tendency for adjustment patterns to persist over time, psychological resilience also exhibited robust, self-sustaining carry-over effects. Furthermore, the predictive association of resilience with subsequent college adaptation strengthened significantly over time. Additionally, a reciprocal indirect pathway from initial adaptation to later resilience through exploration was also observed, suggesting a dynamic developmental process. These findings suggest that identity exploration may contribute to college adaptation not directly but through building accumulable psychological resources, offering preliminary insights potentially applicable to university support systems across diverse educational contexts.