Identity development and empathy as related to creative activity participation

The focus of this study was the associations between identity, empathy as an emotional construct, and participation in creatively focused activities among adolescents in a largely rural population. A series of measures to assess identity status, the ego strength of fidelity, empathy, and level of participation in creative activities were administered to 212 male and 320 female adolescents in grades nine through eleven at public high schools in Appalachia. Analyses indicated that while the expected relationship between creative activity participation and identity was not statistically significant, gender may heavily influence that relationship as a mediating variable. Empathy, however, was found to be significantly related to creative activity involvement and to both identity status and the ego strength of fidelity.