Adolescent Self-image Research Articles

The self-image of adolescents with acute anorexia nervosa

The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents was administered to 30 female adolescents with a diagnosis of acute anorexia nervosa. Patients were divided ianto an early group (12 to 15 years; N = 15) and a late group (16 to 19 years; N = 15). The mean percent weight loss calculated as deviation from norm weight for age and height was 32%, and the mean duration of illness was 1.3 years, similar for both groups, whereas age of onset of anorexia was significantly (P less than 0.001) different. All patients differed significantly from normal adolescents by displaying disturbances in mood and self-esteem (P less than 0.05), in social relationships (P less than 0.05), and in attitude toward sex (P less than 0.05); late adolescent patients additionally showed maladjustment in impulse control (P less than 0.05), self-perception and body image (P less than 0.01), and in general psychopathology (P less than 0.05). Patients were found well adjusted with regard to moral values, family relationships, and educational goals. The lesser adjustment problems in the younger group agree well with reports finding a more favorable prognosis for patients with an early onset of anorexia nervosa.

The mental health professional's concept of the normal adolescent.

This article presents empirical evidence, based on the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire, comparing the self-image of normal adolescents, psychiatrically disturbed adolescents, and juvenile delinquents, with adolescent self-image as seen by 62 mental health professionals. The latter group was asked to complete the test the way they believed a normal, mentally healthy adolescent would complete it. Similar data were gathered from graduate students in psychology. In seven of ten scales, the mental health professionals viewed the normal adolescent as significantly more disturbed than the normal adolescent views himself or herself. The professionals saw the normal adolescents as having more problems than were reported either by the psychiatrically disturbed or the delinquent adolescents. These findings are important in terms of psychodynamic theory of adolescence and diagnostic problems encountered in work with adolescents.

Self-image of adolescents with cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a lethal genetic disease, yet improved care has extended the mean age of survival into the young adult years. Many of the surviving adolescents have respiratory and digestive problems which delay growth and sexual development. It has been suggested that the specter of fatal disease interferes with adjustment to adolescence. We administered the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire to three groups with mean height less than the fifth percentile: CF males aged 12-19 (n=16); CF females aged 12-19 (n=8); and otherwise healthy males with short stature and/or delayed puberty aged 13-19 (n=34). The values obtained were compared to published normative data for a large number of normal adolescents and a smaller number of adolescents actively undergoing treatment for emotional disorders. CF males showed an abnormal pattern of adjustment that could be considered comparable to disturbed males and to growth-delayed and sexually delayed males. The CF female group was concordant with the normal population, rather than with the emotionally disturbed population. Thus CF and pubertally delayed males have a self-perception of maladjustment to the psychologic problems of adolescence. This suggests that adjustment problems of the CF male may be related to growth retardation and pubertal delay, the social stigma of which may be more easily disguised in the female. This is important in health care, since recent evidence suggests that exemplary attention to medical compliance and nutrition may ameliorate some of the growth lag both in pubertal delay and CF.

The self-image of adolescents: A study of four cultures

This paper describes the utilization of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ) for research purposes on a variety of adolescent populations and demonstrates the OSIQ's effectiveness in meaningfully separating normal, juvenile delinquent, and emotionally disturbed adolescents; older and younger teenagers; males and females. It also considers the utilization of the OSIQ in four different cultures (United States, Ireland, Australia, and Israel) and concentrates on the results obtained when the OSIQ is given adolescents in these four cultures. It discusses the findings and points to some of the methodological problems which are inherent in doing cross-cultural research.

Differentiation of adolescent self-images.

Multiple self-images held by 58 adolescents were studied using a specially developed Q-sort technique. A perceptual-cognitive process, psychological differentiation, was also followed. Results suggest that realms of self-image are selectively influenced by psychopathology, age, and sex. Patient-adolescents perceived greater discrepancy betweenallidealized views of themselves and their current self-images (lower correlations). But temporal self-images and peer self-images differentiatedonlybetween sex and age groups. A further sex difference finding was on the psychological differentiation measure. Findings are discussed in terms of psychoanalytic theories of adolescent development, particularly with reference to ego ideal. It is also argued that a psychoanalytic framework alone cannot account for the sex differences, which may be reflecting important cultural trends. Finally, the finding that patients have a lower overall integration of self-images is discussed in terms of identity diffusion.

Dimensions of adolescent self-images

Using techniques derived from information theory, structural dimensions of adolescent self-images were studied. Within a sample of 58 adolescents, patients and normals, a variety of self-images were obtained using a specially designed Q-sort. The initial hypothesis predicted, on the basis of previous findings, that the idealized self-images would be more polarizedfor the patients. This hypothesis was only partiallyconfirmed. the self-idealization was significantly more polarized in the patient group. But the other two idealizations (those based on parental expectations) did not reflect a patient-normal difference. Rather, a significant three-way interaction of sex, age, and psychiatric status was found for these self-images, as well as for the current self-image. The consistent pattern in these three-way interactions was that late-adolescent boys polarized their self-images if they were in the normal group and had structurally complex (nonpolarized) self-images if they were in the patient group. The paper concludes by discussing the meaning of these findings. A framework for interpreting polarization is proposed and applied to the results. In addition, the notion of a "Self-Image Profile" is formulated and further elaborated. Finally, the relevance of these studies to other personality research and clinical observations is considered.

Adolescent self-image development. I. Longitudinal studies of black and white boys.

Using concepts derived from information theory, a method for analyzing basic structural dimensions of self-images is described. The technique is applied to longitudinal self-image data collected from black and white adolescent boys over a four-year period. On the basis of previous considerations of identity formation differences between these black and white adolescents, blacks were predicted to have more polarized, structurally simpler self-images. Results only partially confirm this hypothesis. Idealized and peer-related self-images are more polarized for the blacks. But both groups of adolescents show the same patterns for time-based self-images. Much of the comment is devoted to analyzing the significance of these different self-image patterns and their relation to racial factors and identity formation. An alternative framework for viewing polarization phenomena is presented and applied to these results.

Society and the Adolescent Self-Image

Society and the Adolescent Self-Image

Expertness and the Span of Control

McCorkle, Lloyd W. and Richard Korn. 1954 Resocialization within the walls. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Sciences 293 (May): 88-89. Miller, Derek. 1964 Growth to Freedom. London: Tavistock Publications Ltd. Morris, Ruth R. 1964 Female delinquency and relational problems. Forces 43 (October) :82-89. Ohlin, Lloyd E. and William C. Lawrence. 1959 Social interaction among clients as a treatment problem. Work 4 (April) :3-13. Polsky, Howard. 1962 Cottage Six. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Rosenberg, Morris. 1965 Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Street, David P. 1965 Inmates in custodial and treatment settings. American Sociological Review 30 (February) :40-55. Street, David P., Robert D. Vinter and Charles Perrow. 1967 Organization for Treatment. New York: The Free Press. Sykes, Gresham M. 1958 The Society of Captives. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Thompson, Dorothy J. 1961 The Psychology of the Good Shepherd Nuns in the Re-Education of the Emotionally Disturbed. M.A. thesis, St. Mary's University. Vinter, Robert D. 1963 Analysis of treatment organizations. Work 8 (July):3-15. Vinter, Robert D. and Morris Janowitz. 1959 Effective institutions for juvenile delinquents: a research statement. Service Review 33 (June):118-130. Ward, David A. and Gene G. Kassebaum. 1965 Women's Prison: Sex and the Structure. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company. Wheeler, Stanton. 1961 Socialization in correctional communities. American Sociological Review 26 (October) :706-711. Winch, Robert F. 1962 Identification and Its Familial Determinants. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.

Teen Self-Esteem

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1966, Vol 11(8), 391-392. Reviews the book, Society and the Adolescent Self-Image by Morris Rosenberg (1965). The author, a sociologist, not only lucidly presents the empirical social data relative to which psychological analyses

Book Reviews: Social Casework and Administration, Guide to Decision: The Royal Commission, The Sociology of Religion, West African Urbanisation: A Study of Voluntary Associations in Social Change, Politics in England, Sociological Aspects of Homosexuality, a Comparative Study of Three Types of Homosexuals, The World Cities, Society and the Adolescent Self-Image, The Rise of the Technocrats, English Primary Education: A Sociological

Book Reviews: Social Casework and Administration, Guide to Decision: The Royal Commission, The Sociology of Religion, West African Urbanisation: A Study of Voluntary Associations in Social Change, Politics in England, Sociological Aspects of Homosexuality, a Comparative Study of Three Types of Homosexuals, The World Cities, Society and the Adolescent Self-Image, The Rise of the Technocrats, English Primary Education: A Sociological

Review of Society and the adolescent self-image.

Review of Society and the adolescent self-image.

Society and the Adolescent Self-Image.

Society and the Adolescent Self-Image.

Society and the Adolescent Self-Image.

Society and the Adolescent Self-Image.