Perceptions of past, present and future selves among children and adolescents

Abstract

Children's and adolescents' projections of the self into the future and memories of the self in the past were compared with their current self‐conceptions. In Study 1, 82 children and adolescents between the ages of 4 and 15 were asked to describe themselves and to describe themselves as they thought they would be in five years. The results indicated that, at all ages, subjects were more likely to think of their current selves than their future selves in terms of typical activities, personality characteristics and preferences. The future self was more likely to be described in terms of social relationships than the current self. In Study 2, perceptions of change and continuity in the self were examined by asking 88 children and adolescents between the ages of 9 and 18 to describe themselves as they were two and four years in the past, as they are now, and as they will be two and four years in the future. Subjects also estimated the similarity between their present selves and their past and future selves. Similarity between the present self and future selves was perceived to be higher than between past and present selves. Children and adolescents assert that with time they become more capable and physically attractive, develop better personalities and mature intellectually and emotionally, while simultaneously shedding undesirable personality, cognitive and emotional characteristics. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for personal narratives and social cognitive approaches to personality.