Joanne Meehae Chung
Published: 2014
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This dissertation comprises three projects that focus on changes in the self and identity during developmental transitions. In one project, I examine stability and change in global self-esteem across four years of college during the transition into emerging adulthood, and then relate the self-esteem trajectory to expected and actual actual academic achievement, as well as perceptions of self-esteem change. I use the same dataset in the second project, but focus on ethnic variability in academic self-enhancement using three different operationalizations of self-enhancement, and then relate their trajectories to psychological and educational correlates and outcomes. In the third project, I examine stability and change in ethnocultural identity of Mexican-origin children and their families during the transition into adolescence, and then relate them to a range of sociodemographic variables and reports of substance use. Across these projects, I find that the self changes systematically during developmental transitions, and that inter-individual variability in these changes are related to meaningful correlates and consequences.