Abstract
Narrative identity refers to an individual’s internalized, evolving, and integrative story of the self, which contributes to the development of identity and psychological well-being. The purpose of this study was to understand the differences of narrative identity in high resilient and low resilient college students among economically disadvantaged populations. Two groups of economically disadvantaged college students provided their life stories in the interviews of this study: the first with 15 subjects who met empirical criteria for resilience and the second with 14 subjects who demonstrated below average functioning. The data were content analyzed for reliable narrative indices of coherence and motivational themes. The comparison of the narrative identity in the two groups revealed that high resilient students contain more motivational themes of achievement/responsibility and community. These findings lead to identification of narrative identity and resilience. Implications for practice, research, and theory are also discussed.