Identity in Occupational Transition: A New Evidence Review
Bringing together identity psychology, behavioural science and emerging research to ask whether identity belongs in how we measure successful transition.
When someone leaves a role that has defined them — a military career, a frontline service, a long professional vocation, even a role held within a family — the practical questions are well understood: employment, housing, finances, retraining. But beneath those sits a quieter and more persistent one: who am I now that I am no longer the role I once held?
That question is the starting point for a new Parliamentary Evidence Review, Identity in Occupational Transition: Evidence, Research and Future Directions for UK Policy. It is an interdisciplinary review of what the evidence currently says about identity during major occupational transition, and where that sits alongside the support systems already in place.
Why identity, and why now
Transition support in the UK has historically been measured by outcomes that are easy to count — most often, whether someone moves into employment. Those measures matter. But a growing body of research across military transition, addiction recovery, elite sport, retirement and other identity-defining professions points to a recurring theme: practical resettlement and a stable sense of self are not the same thing, and the second is rarely measured at all.
This review draws those threads together — occupational transition research, identity psychology, behavioural science and implementation science — and examines what they suggest when read side by side.
What the review covers
The report is structured to move from evidence to interpretation to recommendation, in that order. It examines the current UK transition landscape and how success is presently defined; reviews the academic literature on identity and behavioural change; and sets out an original conceptual framework, Identity Performance Psychology, as the author's contribution to that conversation. Every external source is cited and verified against the published record, and the framework is presented openly as a contribution to be tested, not a finished theory.
The central question
The review does not argue that current systems are failing, nor that they should be replaced. It asks a single, deliberately measured question:
Should identity be considered an outcome of successful transition — not only employment?
Emerging research
Running alongside the review is an ongoing qualitative study, Identity After the Uniform, which will ultimately involve 108 in-depth interviews. With 18 completed so far, early themes are beginning to recur — particularly around identity, community, purpose and a return to stability. These are reported honestly as emerging themes only: the interviews are not yet formally coded, and no conclusions are drawn from them. They are shared to show the direction of the work, not its destination.
Read the full report
The complete report is free to read and download. It is intended for anyone working in transition, identity, research or policy — and for readers who simply recognise the question it begins with.
→ Download the full report (PDF):
Identity in Occupational Transition: A New Evidence Review
Appendices, Tables and Figures
Cite this work: Gardner, G. (2026). Identity in Occupational Transition: Evidence, Research and Future Directions for UK Policy. AURIS Identity System™.
Underpinning papers: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19495441 · https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19818258 · https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19918563
© 2026 Gemma Gardner / AURIS Development. Shared under CC BY 4.0 — please cite with attribution.