Self-Belief Against the Grain: How Youth Mobilize Constraint to Form Self-Perception (Stage 1, 10:08 AM)

• In Event: e-Lightning Ed-Talk Session 16 - Stage 1

Abstract

This study examines how youth from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds narrate self-perception as something forged through constraint. Drawing on in-depth interviews with twelve high-achieving youth, we explore how self-belief emerged not as a stable trait, but through strategic navigation of material hardship and systemic misalignment. Participants described mobilizing limited resources — such as family obligation, cultural narratives, and marginality — as assets in forming their identities. They redefined scarcity as motivation and reshaped systems on their own terms. These findings challenge deficit-based assumptions about lower-SES youth and highlight self-perception as relational, adaptive, and context-bound. We argue for attending to the social ecologies that shape what forms of self-belief are possible and who is supported in seeing themselves as capable.

Authors

• Xinxin Feng, University of Washington

• Jason Yip, University of Washington - Seattle

• Yacqub Ahmed, University of Washington