Personal and social aspects of professional identity.: An extension of Marcia's identity status model applied to a sample of university students

•The study proposes an extension of Marcia's identity status model.•We focus on professional identity construction in university students.•We propose the validation of the Professional Identity Status Questionnaire (PISQ-5d).•Professional identity includes personal as well as social dimensions.•Achieved and Foreclosure statuses are related to more positive job-related and academic factors.

The study proposed an extension of Marcia's identity status model based on validation of the Professional Identity Status Questionnaire (PISQ-5d), a scale able to measure both intra-individual and intergroup processes connected with the development of a professional identity in university students. The aims were to prove the construct validity of the PISQ-5d, to determine the appropriate number of identity statuses, and to assess the concurrent validity of the identity statuses considering both job-related and academic factors. In this study, 477 university students completed a questionnaire with the PISQ-5d scale; 220 also completed the measures of work values; and 168 completed the measures of student self-esteem and self-efficacy, academic motivation, and grades. Results confirmed the expected five-dimensional structure of the PISQ-5d and the scale's effectiveness at differentiating five types of identity status. Relationship between professional identity status and job-related and academic factors showed that the students with achievement or foreclosure identities had higher scores on measures of academic self-esteem and intrinsic work value and had lower scores for intention to leave university. Implications in terms of considering the PISQ-5d scale a useful tool for the evaluation of professional identity construction processes in university students will be discussed.Personal and social aspects of professional identity. An extension of Marcia's identity status model applied to a sample of university students.