Poster #120 - Adolescent mental representations of the self and social threat perception

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Mental representations of the self play a key role in psychological well-being, and educational, social and behavioural outcomes for adolescents (i.e. Craven & Marsh, 2008; Marsh & Martin, 2011). Adolescence represents a sensitive period of development for mental representations of the self wherein negative mental representations of the self may intensify (Harter, 1999). Further, adolescence is transformative for the development of social-cognitive skills and emotion management skills, -such as affect recognition or the ability to detect emotions in other people’s faces (Choudhury et al., 2008). Research indicates that perception of negatively valenced affect such as sadness, fear, and anger is linked to social-threat perception and activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) (Green & Phillips, 2004). Furthermore, SNS activation has been linked to dimensions of mental representations of the self, such as critical self-responding (Neff, 2012). This study specifically explores the recognition of negatively valenced affect among adolescents and the longitudinal relations between negative affect perception and mental representations of the self. Few studies explore the relations among heightened social-threat perception, mental representations of the self, and emotional well-being. To address this gap in the literature, this study aims to provide a deeper understanding of these relations by examining the directional links among the development of negative affect recognition, self-mental representations, and dimensions of adolescent well-being.

Method: This study examined the longitudinal associations of negative affect recognition and mental representations of the self among 145 self-selected, Canadian adolescents (60.69% female; T1: 12.74 years; T2: 13.38 years). Participants completed tasks to assess negative affect recognition, mental representations of the self (i.e., self-perceptions of self-worth, physical appearance, behavioural conduct, and self-compassion), and mindful attention awareness. Cross-sectional correlational analysis was completed for both waves of data, followed by an autoregressive cross-lagged panel analysis of significant relations (see Figure 1 for model path diagram).

Results: Cross-sectional results showed inverse associations between negative affect perception and adaptive mental representations of the self (see Table 1 for correlation data). Specifically, adolescents with a heightened ability to recognize negative affect in others demonstrated less adaptive mental representations of the self. Our findings indicate that the strength and breadth of these associations increased over time. High levels of mindfulness related to positive mental self-representation variables but did not moderate the relations between negative affect perception and mental representations of the self. The preliminary autoregressive cross-lag panel findings indicated that adolescent girls who approached themselves critically at T1 were more perceptive to social threats at T2 (B =.902, p = .005, NFI = 1, CFI = 1). Limitations, implications, and future data analysis plans and research directions for adolescent well-being are discussed.

Authors

• Meghan L Maynard, Brock University
  Presenting Author

• Victoria Talwar, McGill University

• Sandra Bosacki, Brock University