In the eyes of the beholder: how adolescents, teachers and school counselors construct adolescent images

Abstract

This study had two objectives: (a) to examine the adolescent image teachers and school counselors construct (category-based images) by comparing it with the adolescent's self-image (self-as-target based), and (b) to explicate the discrepancy between category-based adolescent images as constructed by teachers, counselors, and adolescents by underlying social cognitive processes. To this end, 269 eighth-grade adolescents and 104 junior high school teachers and school counselors responded to the self-image questionnaire for young adolescents (SIQYA). Adolescents responded either to self-image questionnaires or to an adolescent-your-age version and school staff to an eighth-grader image version. One-way MANOVAs comparing the nine SIQYA scales indicated that overall, teachers' and school counselors' adolescent images were less positive than adolescents' adolescent images (as reported both regarding the self or another adolescent). These findings were interpreted in terms of two social psychological processes: positive illusion and adolescent stereotypes. Discussion also addresses the implications of these findings for educators' knowledge regarding normal adolescent processes and psychological hardships intensified during adolescence.