What does this research mean for the field?

Everyday adolescent rituals function as performative social dramas where identity and belonging are enacted and recognized through embodied participation and shared memory, rather than merely being narrated into existence. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To explore how informal, non-institutionalized adolescent peer rituals and bodily endurance operate as mechanisms for establishing group belonging and shaping identity.

August 27, 2026Symbolic InteractionOpen Access

The Couch: Belonging, Memory, and the Making of the Self—A Heartfelt Autoethnography

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Authors

APAlessandro PorrovecchioUniversité de Lille

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Implication

Retrospective autoethnography demonstrates how informal rites of passage construct belonging and identity in adolescent peer groups, highlighting the performative nature of the self.

Key Points

To explore how informal, non-institutionalized adolescent peer rituals and bodily endurance operate as mechanisms for establishing group belonging and shaping identity.
Conducted a retrospective autoethnography grounded in symbolic interactionism and social constructivist frameworks.
Analyzed personal memories, revisited geographical sites of adolescence, and conducted dialogues with former peers.
Integrated theoretical concepts including Mead's role-taking, Goffman's situational self, liminality, and performative social drama.
Identified that informal adolescent rituals function as embodied rites of passage where social belonging is actively enacted and negotiated rather than merely declared.
Demonstrated that shared peer narratives, physical endurance, and collective memory provisionally stabilize individual and group identity.

Cite This Study

Alessandro Porrovecchio (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a8fea0d10c91c1e9262219a https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.70071

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Implication

Retrospective autoethnography demonstrates how informal rites of passage construct belonging and identity in adolescent peer groups, highlighting the performative nature of the self.

The Couch: Belonging, Memory, and the Making of the Self—A Heartfelt Autoethnography

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

The Couch: Belonging, Memory, and the Making of the Self—A Heartfelt Autoethnography

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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