Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Dev Psychol. 2011 Nov;47(6):1589-607. doi: 10.1037/a0025413. Epub 2011 Sep 19.
This study uses intraindividual variability and change methods to test theoretical accounts of self-concept and its change across time and context and to test the developmental implications of this variability. The 5-year longitudinal study of 541 youths in a rural Pennsylvania community from 3rd through 7th grade included twice-yearly assessments of self-concept (academic and social), corresponding external evaluations of competence (e.g., teacher-rated academic skills, peer-nominated "likeability"), and multiple measures of youths' overall adjustment. Multiphase growth models replicate previous research, suggesting significant decline in academic self-concept during middle school but modest growth in social self-concept from 3rd through 7th grade. Next, a new contribution is made to the literature by quantifying the amount of within-subject variability (i.e., "lability") around these linear self-concept trajectories as a between-subjects characteristic. Self-concept lability was found to associate with a general profile of poorer competence and adjustment and to predict poorer academic and social competence at the end of 7th grade above and beyond level of self-concept. Finally, there was substantial evidence that wave-to-wave changes in youths' self-concepts correspond to teacher and peer evaluations of youths' competence, that attention to peer feedback may be particularly strong during middle school, and that these relations may be moderated by between-subjects indicators of youths' general adjustment. Overall, findings highlight the utility of methods sensitive to within-subject variation for clarifying the dynamics of youths' self-system development.
本研究使用个体内变异性和变化方法来检验自我概念及其随时间和情境变化的理论解释，并检验这种变异性的发展意义。这项为期 5 年的研究在宾夕法尼亚州一个农村社区中对 541 名 3 至 7 年级的青少年进行了纵向研究，包括两次对自我概念（学业和社会）的评估，以及对能力的相应外部评估（例如，教师评定的学业技能、同伴提名的“可爱”），以及对青少年整体适应情况的多项衡量。多阶段增长模型复制了先前的研究，表明中学期间学业自我概念显著下降，但从 3 年级到 7 年级社会自我概念适度增长。接下来，通过量化这些线性自我概念轨迹周围的个体内变异性（即“不稳定性”）作为个体间特征，本研究对文献做出了新的贡献。发现自我概念的不稳定性与较差的能力和适应的一般特征相关，并预测了 7 年级末学业和社会能力的下降，超过了自我概念的水平。最后，有大量证据表明，青少年自我概念的波动与教师和同伴对青少年能力的评价相对应，在中学期间，对同伴反馈的关注可能特别强烈，而这些关系可能受到青少年一般适应的个体间指标的调节。总的来说，研究结果强调了对个体内变异敏感的方法在澄清青少年自我系统发展动态方面的效用。
