Reading, Writing, Arithmetic…and Redemption: Relations among academic redemptive stories, authenticity, and life satisfaction

Personal Narratives as a Predictor of Trait Change and State Fluctuations in Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction during the Transition from Education to Work

“…That presence of agency and redemption did not predict changes in self-esteem and life satisfaction is not in line with previous work in which they predicted increases in psychological adjustment (Adler, 2012;Adler et al, 2015;Dunlop et al, 2022;Dunlop & Tracy, 2013;Van Doeselaar et al, 2019). A likely explanation for our non-significant findings is the study duration of 8 months.…”

“…For redemption, research has shown a small to moderate positive association with life satisfaction McAdams et al, 2001) and generally pointed to a moderate association with self-esteem (McAdams et al, 2001;McLean & Breen, 2009;Steiner et al, 2019). One longitudinal study recently found that a redemptive self-defining academic narrative was associated with increases in students' life satisfaction but not with changes in self-esteem (Dunlop et al, 2022). To draw conclusions about the predictive effects of narrative agency and redemption on trait self-esteem and trait life satisfaction, more longitudinal research is needed.…”

“…A likely explanation for our non-significant findings is the study duration of 8 months. Previous work mostly focused on longer time frames (Adler et al, 2015;Dunlop et al, 2022;Van Doeselaar et al, 2019). Moreover, those who did find predictive effects across short time frames of 14 weeks (Adler, 2012) and For the binary redemption variable, the standardized estimates representing the difference in y in y standard deviation units between no or presence of redemption (i.e., StdY) are −.17 and −.36 for the intercepts and .43, and .33 for the slopes of self-esteem and life satisfaction, respectively.…”

“…Nevertheless, during the transition to work, individuals might not only be reminded of this turning point narrative. For example, when having trouble deciding on what job might be a good fit, one might also be reminded of a self-defining academic narrative (Dunlop et al, 2022). Possibly, taking multiple narratives that are likely to be evoked by the transition to work into account would make it possible to detect effects on the development and daily stability of self-esteem and life satisfaction in future studies.…”

“…By linking the past to the present and imagined future, a coherent narrative identity arises that provides a feeling of personal continuity and purpose (McAdams, 2001). Yet, one's narrative identity is not only a product of lived experiences but has also been shown to predict new experiences and developmental outcomes over time, such as general mental health (e.g., Adler, 2012;Adler et al, 2015), adaptive formation of commitments (Van Doeselaar et al, 2019), sobriety (Dunlop & Tracy, 2013), and life satisfaction (Dunlop et al, 2022). In the present study, we extended the examination of personal narratives' outcomes by predicting self-esteem and life satisfaction, key indicators of psychological adjustment, in two important ways.…”