The Characteristics of Adolescents’ Self-Concept

Abstract

The purpose of the present experiment is to examine the attributes which play an important role in the self-definitions of adolescents and their possible interrelationships. A questionnaire was designed consisting 104 items referring groups of attribute pairs thought to relate to the self-concept. These groups of attributes concern appearance, cognitive abilities and interests, internal features and relations to others. The adolescents participating in the experiment (i.e., 12- and 16-year-old girls and boys) were requested to indicate on a scale from one to five the degree to which they felt that each of the 104 attribute items applied to them personally. The data of the study were analyzed by two-sample t-tests and factor-analyses. The results showed that the attributes clustered into four major and several minor factors. The central groupings of attributes related to the self-concept play an important role in its development and appear to reflect different social stereotypes. Of the various stereotypes represented, those related to age and gender (e.g., the stereotype of a helpful mother, a good partner, the adolescent boy and the popular boy or girl) seem to be most important