Milestone Achievement: Omer Levy Kardash’s First PhD Article Published!

We are very happy to share that a new article — the first led by our doctoral student, Omer Levy Kardash — has been accepted for publication! Dr. Hanit Ohana, Dr. Adi Arden, and Prof. Maya Benish-Weisman also took part in the writing.

The Article entitled "Relations Between Social Anxiety and Identity Formation Among Adolescents: Social Participation and Self-Esteem as Resilience Resources" explores the question: How is social anxiety related to identity formation among adolescents? To address this, we examined the connection between various identity components and their presence in teenagers who experience social anxiety, compared with those who do not.

We found that adolescents reporting higher levels of social anxiety experienced more difficulties in forming an identity: they reported lower levels of commitment and a stronger tendency to question and reconsider their choices. Interestingly, these associations only emerged in adolescents’ self-reports; in their parents’ reports, anxiety was not linked to identity components.

The encouraging finding? Social participation and high self-esteem served as resilience mechanisms, buffering the negative impact of anxiety on the identity formation process.

These results highlight the importance of integrating both parents’ and adolescents’ perspectives, as well as the role of resilience factors in building a stable identity — even under emotional challenges.

This marks Omer’s first publication while working in the VIDA Lab, and we are so proud of this achievement!