Effects of the Identity Project intervention on cultural identity and wellbeing among unaccompanied immigrant minors: an exploratory study

Evidence-based interventions aimed at sustaining Unaccompanied minors (UIMs), an at risk group of youth, in their cultural‑identity development are only recently beginning to emerge. The Identity Project (IP), originally designed as a school-based psychoeducational intervention program, promotes cultural‑identity exploration, to foster resolution, and ultimately enhance well‑being in adolescents. This thesis contributes to the evaluation of the efficacy of the adapted IP targeting UIMs residing in Padua and Venice. Effects on cultural identity exploration, resolution and perceived well-being through a quantitative-exploratory data analysis using ANCOVA models are adopted. Results show a significant increase in cultural‑identity exploration, whereas changes in resolution were non-significant. Improvements in short-term well-being also resulted to be statistically significant. These findings generally align with the IP founders’ model and prior IP literature, anticipating early gains in exploration before later resolution. The significant improvement in well-being provides novel indications since it is hypothesized to be a distal effect in the cascade. Major limitations include a modest sample and non-random allocation, underscoring the need for larger, rigorously controlled trials to substantiate and extend these preliminary effects.