The conception of self in children's narratives

Abstract

The objective of this research was learning about the chosen aspects of self‐knowledge in 8‐year‐old children, evoked through self‐presentation of the public and private self. The issues considered dealt with particular, significant features of ‘personal narrative’ analysed through both the content and the form of the self‐presentation utterance. The particular issues were as follows: Do 8‐year‐old children's stories about themselves have a full narrative structure? What is the structure of children's self‐image? What are the subjects that make up the children's self‐image? Is auto‐narration characterised by a general consistency of content? Do children present various images of self, depending on social context? Data are collected using videotapes (observations of children and semi‐structured interviews) and document analysis (collection of children's drawings with selfportrait). Data are investigated to discover the variety of child's self‐conception and description of the structure and the system of self. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the research material made it possible to examine and describe what is the child's conception of personal identity. The analysis of the results made it possible to compare the picture of self in the child's mind.