Social environment and moment-to-moment variation in self-construal among Latinx emerging adults: An ecological momentary assessment approach

Abstract

Self-construal involves how one thinks of themselves in relations to others, including how much one thinks of themselves as separate from others (independent) or connected (interdependent). Researchers have typically assumed these self-perceptions are stable. However, given self-construal’s basis in the perceptions of others and the self, it is highly likely that self-construal can vary in different social environments. Thus, the goals of the present study were to examine (1) whether independent and interdependent self-construal fluctuates within-person among Latinx emerging adults from day-to-day and moment-to-moment, and (2) how individuals’ social environment is concurrently associated with fluctuations in self-construal. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), Latinx emerging adults (N = 191) reported on their independent and interdependent self-construal, as well as aspects of their social environment (occurrence of social interaction, interaction partner, quality of social interaction, and closeness of relationship) twice a day for 14 days, for up to 4058 observations in total. Using multilevel modeling to partition the variance in self-construal at the moment, day, and person level, we found substantial moment-to-moment variation. Further analyses indicated that aspects of the social environment were consistently associated with interdependent, but not independent, self-construal. The findings highlight the need to re-conceptualize changes in self-construal as a function of the social environment, and the need to measure aspects of culture, including self-construal, using ecologically valid measures that allow for more dynamic and sensitive assessments.