Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Center on Autobiographical Memory Research (CON AMORE), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Scand J Psychol. 2021 Apr;62(2):150-158. doi: 10.1111/sjop.12691. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
Research has shown that identity in adolescence takes the shape of a coherent life story that integrates the past with the present self and provides meaning and purpose in the person's life. One stable feature of narrative identity identified in adults is emotional tone. Here, the development of emotional tone in life stories was investigated across childhood and adolescence. A total of 142 adolescents aged 10 to 14 years wrote about their past weekend, their past and future life stories and generated a cultural life script. Across age groups, adolescents told past life stories that were overall mixed (both positive and negative) or moderately positive in emotional tone, and future life stories that were positive or highly positive. In relation to life story development, we replicated findings on age-related development of life story coherence in both past and future life stories in 10-14-year-olds. Lastly, the study highlights the link between life story coherence and cultural life script abilities. Cultural life script typicality was linked to life story coherence for both past and future life stories and across all age groups, and a majority of events mentioned in future life stories overlapped with cultural life script events.
研究表明，青少年时期的身份认同表现为一个连贯的生活故事，将过去与现在的自我整合在一起，为个人的生活赋予意义和目的。在成年人的叙事身份认同中，有一个稳定的特征是情感基调。在这里，研究了生活故事中情感基调的发展过程，跨越了儿童期和青春期。共有 142 名 10 至 14 岁的青少年撰写了关于他们过去的周末、过去和未来的生活故事，并生成了一个文化生活脚本。在不同年龄组中，青少年讲述的过去的生活故事整体上是混合的（既有积极的也有消极的）或情感基调中等积极的，而未来的生活故事则是积极的或高度积极的。关于生活故事的发展，我们在 10-14 岁的青少年的过去和未来生活故事中复制了与年龄相关的生活故事连贯性发展的发现。最后，该研究强调了生活故事连贯性和文化生活脚本能力之间的联系。文化生活脚本的典型性与过去和未来生活故事的连贯性相关，并且所有年龄组都相关，而且未来生活故事中提到的大多数事件都与文化生活脚本事件重叠。
