Instigators and Partners: Young Adult Literature’s Role in Readers’ Identity Formation

This instrumental case study explored self-identified YA readers’ formative experiences with YAL and how their reading experiences contributed to their holistic identity. Using reader response theory, conceptualizations and varying layers of social imagination, and identity as theoretical foundations, the purpose of this dissertation is to inquire into YA readers’ experiences and determine how they describe YAL’s role in their sense of self over the course of their lives. The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. What types of transactions with YA texts have occurred with self-identified YA readers? Why have these transactions proved meaningful for the reader?
2. In what ways does reading YAL texts contribute to the identity making of self-identified YA readers?
3. What role(s) do reading YA texts play in the identity development of self-identified YA readers over time?

Through analyzing ten participants’ written artifacts and interviews, findings from this study indicate that participants transacted with YA texts through five distinct experiences: connecting with characters, navigating emotions, learning about others and the self, affirming the self, and transporting into situations and experiencing new stories. From these transactions, participants indicated five varying contributions YAL had on their identity making process: reflecting for self-growth and integration, growing perspective taking and empathic skills, seeing and hearing the self to confirm identity, expressing one’s voice and stepping into one’s power, and engaging the world, standing up, and building community. Lastly, participants shared five differing roles YA texts have served over the course of their lives: formative role models, safe space for enjoyment and escape, instigator and partner in learning and growth, companion in loneliness and emotional processing, and connector to social and career worlds. Through investigating these themes across participant data, findings suggest that reading YAL proves to be a process of identity work for readers.

Keywords: YAL, reader response theory, identity, social imagination, instrumental case study