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. 2023 Feb 8;18(1):nsac062.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nsac062.

Longitudinal self-concept development in adolescence

Renske van der Cruijsen  1 , Neeltje E Blankenstein  2   3 , Jochem P Spaans  1 , Sabine Peters  2   3 , Eveline A Crone  1   2
Affiliations

Longitudinal self-concept development in adolescence

Renske van der Cruijsen et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. .

Abstract

This longitudinal behavioral neuroimaging study tested two hypotheses concerning self-concept development in adolescence: domain-specific self-concept and similarity between own (direct) and perceived peers' (reflected) opinions of the self. Participants (N = 189; 10-24 years) evaluated their traits in academic, physical appearance and prosocial domains from direct and reflected perspectives in an functional magnetic resonance imaging session across three time points (TP1: n = 160; TP2: n = 151; TP3: n = 144). Behaviorally, we observed a mid-adolescent dip in self-concept positivity, which was strongest for the academic domain, showing domain differentiation in mid-adolescence. Self-evaluations were associated with activity in, e.g. medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporal-parietal junction (TPJ). mPFC showed an adolescent-emerging peak in activation, pronounced more for direct than reflected self-evaluations. TPJ activation was generally stronger for reflected self-evaluations, and activation linearly increased with age for both reflected and direct self-evaluations. Longitudinal prediction analyses showed that positivity of self-evaluations predicted increases in self-concept clarity and less fear of negative evaluation 1 and 2 years later, highlighting the developmental benefits of acquiring a positive self-concept. Together, we show that adolescent self-development is characterized by dissociable neural patterns underlying self-evaluations in different domains, and from reflected and direct perspectives, confirming adolescence as a formative phase for developing a coherent and positive self-concept.

Keywords: TPJ; adolescence; fMRI; longitudinal; medial prefrontal cortex; self-concept.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that they had no conflict of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Age distribution of participants at all time points. Dots represent data points, and connected dots represent data points of one participant at different time points. Males are indicated in blue (dark) (n = 93) and females in yellow (light) (n = 96).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Example of a trial in the direct, reflected and the control condition. Each trial started with a black screen and a jittered duration between 0 and 4400 ms. Subsequently, a fixation cross was shown for 400 ms after which the stimulus appeared. In the direct and reflected conditions, participants rated on a scale of 1 to 4 to what extent the traits described themselves (from their own perspective or their perceived peers’ perspective, respectively). In the control condition, participants categorized the trait sentences into one of the four options. The stimulus was shown for 4600 ms. If participants responded within this timeframe, the number of their choice would turn yellow. If participants failed to respond within this timeframe, a screen with the phrase ‘Too Late!’ was shown for an additional 1000 ms after which the next trial would start.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Condition effects for perspective, domain and valence, averaged across time points. Adolescents generally rated their negative academic, positive physical and positive prosocial traits as more applicable to themselves when evaluated from their own perspective as compared to the perceived perspective of their peers. Note that the domain x valence interaction effect depicted here is also encompassed in the age x domain x valence interaction effect depicted in Figure 4.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Development of self-concept appraisal across adolescence. Shades indicate 95% confidence intervals. (A) A strong mid-adolescent dip was found in the positivity of the appraisal of academic self-traits. (B) Mid-adolescent dip in the positivity of physical self-concept appraisal. (C) Mid-adolescent dip in the positivity of prosocial self-concept appraisal. (Mid-adolescent dips for (B) and (C) were not significant in post hoc testing).
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
Neural activation underlying direct and reflected self-evaluations. (A) Similar activation pattern in the contrast direct and reflected self > control at the three time points. Common activation in the mPFC, right supramarginal gyrus, PCC and left SMA. (B) Quadratic increase in mPFC activation for direct and reflected self-evaluations across adolescence, leveling off in early adulthood. (C) Linear increase in left and right TPJ activation underlying self-evaluations across adolescence, leveling off in early adulthood. Shades indicate 95% confidence intervals.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.
Self-concept appraisal for interactions in mPFC and TPJ. (A) Higher activation for positive than negative trait evaluations in the mPFC, for three domains. (B) Higher activation for reflected than direct trait evaluations in left TPJ, for three domains.
Fig. 7.
Fig. 7.
Self-concept appraisal predicting FNE and SCC. (A) Higher appraisal of direct physical self-concept at TP1 predicts less FNE at TP2 and TP3 (i.e. 1 and 2 years later). (B) Increasing direct self-concept appraisal across domains and for the physical domain specifically is related to increasing SCC.
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