The role of affect in the positive self: Two longitudinal investigations of young adolescents in the United States and China.

Abstract

This research investigated the role of American and Chinese children's affect in the valence of their views of themselves. In 2 studies (Ns = 825 and 397), children in the United States and China reported on their affect (e.g., positive and negative emotions) and described themselves multiple times over the 7th and 8th grades. The more positive and less negative children's affect, the more positive their descriptions of themselves over time in both studies. These pathways were more consistent than those in the reverse direction (i.e., from children's self-descriptions to their affect). Notably, regardless of direction, the strength of the pathways was similar in the United States and China. The findings suggest that counter to some theoretical perspectives, affect is not more important in American than Chinese children's judgments about the self. (PsycINFO Database Record

Why Most Children Think Well of Themselves

“…Although the main goal of Study 1 was to examine the subjective (i.e., self‐coded) valence of children's self‐conceptions, we also tested their objective (i.e., other‐coded) valence. A trained independent coder (a female psychology student), who was unaware of the hypotheses, coded the valence of children's self‐conceptions (again as positive , neutral , or negative following coding criteria detailed in Zhang et al., ). A trained second coder (a female psychology graduate) independently coded a random selection of 20% of children's self‐conceptions, with high agreement (Cohen's κ = .92).…”

“…What shapes the valence of their self‐conceptions? Scholars have argued that many children think highly of themselves, both in Western and Eastern cultures (Cai, Kwan, & Sedikides, ; Gentile, Twenge, & Campbell, ; Ruble, Eisenberg, & Higgins, ; Sedikides, Gaertner, & Cai, ; Zhang, Pomerantz, Setoh, Qu, & Wang, ). Yet, scholars have also expressed concern that children's self‐conceptions are often disingenuous: They may report favorable self‐conceptions because they feel externally or internally pressured to do so (Brummelman, ; Damon, ; Hewitt, ; Twenge, ).…”

“…One line of research asks children to describe their self‐defining characteristics using structured, open‐ended methods (e.g., by answering “Who am I?” questions). As judged by outside observers, most American and Chinese children aged 7–8 (Wang, ) and 11–13 (Zhang et al., ) describe their attributes, dispositions, and competencies in neutral to positive terms. However, this research does not address the subjective valence of children's self‐conceptions, that is, how children themselves judge the valence of their self‐descriptive traits.…”

“…Although preliminary, the available evidence provides no indication that children's newfound capacity to form grounded self‐conceptions from middle childhood leads them to report proportional levels of self‐positivity and self‐negativity. The available evidence suggests, instead, that children this age continue to perceive their attributes, dispositions, and competencies more positively than negatively (Ruble et al., ; Zhang et al., ). Why so?…”

“…In Study 1, we provided the first direct test of the subjective valence of children's self‐conceptions. Research indicates that children describe themselves in terms that others judge as positive (Wang, ; Zhang et al., ). Using a sentence‐completion procedure, we tested the hypothesis that children themselves judge their self‐descriptions to be positive as well.…”