Implicit and explicit self-construals in Chinese-heritage and Italian nonimmigrant early adolescents: Associations with self-esteem and prosocial behavior.

Abstract

The current study examined levels of implicit and explicit independent and interdependent self-construals (SCs) in early adolescents with and without a migration background in Italy and assessed whether SCs were linked to youths’ positive adjustment in terms of self-esteem and prosocial behavior. Chinese early adolescents of immigrant background (n = 123) and Italian mainstreamers (n = 187) aged between 11 and 13 years participated in the Semantic Misattribution Procedure and completed a set of questionnaires. Results indicated that at the implicit level, Chinese-origin youths reported higher interdependence than their Italian nonimmigrant peers, whereas at the explicit level, Italian youths scored higher on independence than their Chinese counterparts. In both ethnocultural groups, independent SC (implicit and explicit) was positively related to self-esteem, whereas interdependent SC (implicit and explicit) was positively linked to prosocial behavior. Findings underscore the usefulness of integrating implicit and explicit measures to evaluate early adolescents’ SCs in multicultural contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)