Better self-concept, better future choices? Behavioral and neural changes after a naturalistic self-concept training program for adolescents

Abstract

A large number of adolescents experience difficulty when choosing a suitable higher education program that matches their self-views. Stimulating self-concept development could help adolescents to increase their chances of finding a suitable major. We addressed this issue by examining the effects of a naturalistic self-concept training within a gap year context on behavioral and neural correlates of self-evaluations, as well as the long-term effects for future educational decision-making. In total, 38 adolescents/young adults (ages 16-24 years) participated in a 4-wave longitudinal study, with lab visits before, during, and after the training, including behavioral assessments and fMRI. During fMRI-scanning, they rated themselves on positive and negative traits in academic, (pro)social, and physical domains, and additionally filled out questionnaires related to self-esteem and self-concept clarity. Results showed that the positivity of domain-specific self-evaluations, self-esteem, and self-concept clarity increased during the training. Second, participants with lower medial PFC activity during self-evaluation before training showed larger self-esteem increases over the year. Moreover, mPFC activity increased after training for the evaluation of positive but not negative traits. Furthermore, individual differences in the rate of change (slope) in self-concept clarity and social self-evaluations positively predicted social adjustment to college and academic performance 6 months after training. Together, these findings suggest that self-concept can be modulated in late adolescents, with an important role of the medial PFC in relation to enhanced positive self-evaluations, and self-concept clarity as a predictor of future educational outcomes.

Negative parenting, epigenetic age, and psychological problems: prospective associations from adolescence to young adulthood

“…There is a dearth of studies with repeated measures of psychological problems and EA. Tollenaar et al (2021) found that internalizing symptoms during preschool significantly predicted EA at age 6 years, which was in turn significantly and prospectively associated with internalizing symptoms at ages 6-10 years. This study did not assess EA repeatedly, leaving it unclear whether changes in EA contribute to increasing problems, or vice versa.…”

“…Does EA during late adolescence predict changes in psychological problems? Extrapolating from extant research, we expected both EA during late adolescence and changes in EA from late adolescence to young adulthood to be positively associated with internalizing symptoms during young adulthood Smith et al, 2021;Tollenaar et al, 2021). Regarding externalizing problems, given inconsistent results showing either positive (Cicchetti & Handley, 2017; or no significant effects (Tollenaar et al, 2021), we kept the research question exploratory.…”

“…Extrapolating from extant research, we expected both EA during late adolescence and changes in EA from late adolescence to young adulthood to be positively associated with internalizing symptoms during young adulthood Smith et al, 2021;Tollenaar et al, 2021). Regarding externalizing problems, given inconsistent results showing either positive (Cicchetti & Handley, 2017; or no significant effects (Tollenaar et al, 2021), we kept the research question exploratory. Regarding self-concept clarity, given the lack of studies, we made a tentative hypothesis based on findings involving cognitive functioning Wolf et al, 2016), that EA will negatively predict self-concept clarity.…”

“…Negative parenting, including threat, exposure to violence (Colich et al, 2020;Jovanovic et al, 2017;Sumner, Colich, Uddin, Armstrong, & McLaughlin, 2019), and harsh parenting (Brody, Yu, Chen, Beach, & Miller, 2016), has been associated with increased EA. Also, psychological problems, including internalizing symptoms (Dammering et al, 2021;Sumner et al, 2019;Tollenaar et al, 2021) and externalizing problems , have been associated with increased EA. However, such links have often been based on cross-sectional or retrospective data and EA has mostly been based on one single assessment of DNA methylation.…”

Believing in one's abilities: Ability estimates as a form of beliefs

“…As an example, the process-perspective on beliefs exemplified in the credition model does not yet seem to be wellrepresented in the ability estimate literature. While there is some work on the development and neural correlates of self-concepts (e.g., Chavez and Wagner, 2020;Van der Aar et al, 2022), we have yet to encounter an agreed-upon model on how people arrive at their assessments of their own and others' abilities. On the other hand, our work on ability estimates has highlighted the relevance of differentiating between ability domains and sources of estimates (i.e., the self and different types of others).…”