Self-concept and Coping with Developmental Demands in German and Polish Adolescents

Abstract

Changes in development during adolescence may be understood as the result of the adolescent's active pursuit of developmental tasks. Various choices made by adolescents relating to specific developmental goals can be determined, among other factors, by personality dispositions such as control beliefs, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. In this study, these concepts were integrated into a single construct of self-as-agent belief, assessed by items derived from scales measuring the three factors. It was predicted that adolescents holding strong self-as-agent beliefs (a) would persistently prefer active and self-reliant strategies to cope with developmental goals and (b) would show lower discrepancies between desired goal states and present developmental states in the three developmental domains of autonomy, preparation for professional life, and opposite-sex partnership, when compared with adolescents holding weak self-as-agent beliefs. Furthermore, it was hypothesised that (c) the persistently more active adolescents would also reveal less discrepancy between developmental goal and state. Supportive evidence was found for all of the three hypotheses, but type of developmental task, gender, age, and culture were also relevant variables. Cross-cultural differences pertained to, for example, general demand level and preference of active approach to developmental goals (German higher than Polish adolescents), as well as timing of changes in demand level (Polish later than German adolescents).