Urban Adolescents' Abstract Talk About Stories Predicts Young Adult Identity Development via Brain Network Development

• In Event: Metacognition, Monitoring, and Mindfulness: Insights From Educational Neuroscience

Abstract

Abstract thinking, identity, and the brain undergo substantial development during adolescence, but little is known about how these processes interact. Here low-SES urban adolescents explain their feelings about mini-documentary stories in an interview, and underwent fMRI scanning immediately and again two-years after the interview. Approximately three- and five-years, respectively, post-interview, participants reported about their identity development and life satisfaction. Participants’ tendencies to talk abstractly about the stories (i.e., infer broader meaning) predicted longitudinal increase in resting-state functional connectivity between default-mode and executive control neural networks, which in turn mediated effects of abstraction on young adult identity. Healthier identity development predicted greater life satisfaction. Findings have implications for the productive design of learning experiences that leverage social-emotional growth for adolescents.

Authors

• Rebecca JM Gotlieb, University of California - Los Angeles

• Xiao-Fei Yang, University of Southern California

• Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, University of Southern California