The Interplay of Self–Certainty and Prosocial Development in the Transition from Late Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

The transition from late adolescence to emerging adulthood is a period of the life span that offers young people the possibility to consolidate their self-certainty and prosociality. Both aspects are of core importance for increasing personal and societal well-being. The purpose of this longitudinal study was twofold: (i) to examine patterns of change and stability in self-concept clarity and prosociality; and (ii) to unravel over time associations between these constructs in the transition from late adolescence to emerging adulthood. In addressing both aims, we explored the moderating effects of gender. Participants were 244 Dutch emerging adults (46% male; mean age at T1 = 16.73 years) who completed six waves of data collection (mean age at T6 = 22.7 years). Findings highlighted that (i) self-concept clarity developed nonlinearly, with an initial decline from T1 to T2 followed by an increase thereafter, while prosociality increased linearly over time and both self-concept clarity and prosociality were characterized by high rank-order consistency; (ii) self-concept clarity and prosociality were positively related over time, with the effect of prosociality on self-concept clarity being stronger than the reciprocal effect of self-concept clarity on prosociality. Gender differences were detected in mean levels of self-concept clarity and prosociality (male participants reported higher self-concept clarity and lower prosociality than female participants) but not in their developmental pathways nor in their reciprocal associations.

Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence: Gender Differences in Development and Links with Empathy

“…Although prosocial development has long been studied, and general age-related increases have been reported from infancy through early adulthood (see Eisenberg et al 1998 ; Crocetti et al 2016 ), only a few longitudinal studies have examined changes in prosocial behavior across a broad age range in adolescence (i.e., Carlo et al 2015 ; Luengo Kanacri et al 2013 ). Yet, there is considerable evidence that several physical, cognitive, and relational changes occur during adolescence that impact social functioning.…”

Socioeconomic Status in Adolescents: A Study of Its Relationship with Overweight and Obesity and Influence on Social Network Configuration

“…Female adolescents were more frequently nominated as friends, and thus had the opportunity to expand their social network by accepting these friendship ties. According to literature [ 57 , 58 ] it seems, then, that studied female adolescents are more prosocial regarding these friendship levels, being able to obtain more and greater resources from the network and protecting themselves from exclusion and isolation. At the friendship level, we found that all study participants with a high SES, but males in particular, were better positioned to form ties and therefore to establish support networks.…”

Being green in a materialistic world: Consequences for subjective well‐being

“…For example, age has been shown to be related to sustainable behavior (Wiernik, Ones, & Dilchert, 2013), materialism (Jaspers & Pieters, 2016), and selfconcept clarity (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2010). Similarly, gender has been shown to be related to environmentally friendly behavior (Brough, Wilkie, Ma, Isaac, & Gal, 2016) and self-concept clarity (Crocetti et al, 2016) as well. Not including these controls could therefore result in artificially inflated or lowered coefficients in our models.…”