Stability and Change in Self-Perception and Achievement among Black Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This study of self-perception and achievement among Black adolescents surveyed 248 thirteen- and fourteen-year-old eighth graders in 1980 who were previously surveyed as ten-and eleven-year-old fifth graders in 1977. The major developmental dimensions investigated were stability—whether or not these youngsters exhibited self-perception and/or achievement patterns of an erratic turmoil ridden or continuous nature, and change—the nature of the differences found in self-perception and achievement between the pre-adolescent and adolescent periods. Data are presented also on the White youngsters included in the survey. The objective of providing these data is to assess whether adolescent development occurs differently in Black and White American culture. Along this line the problematic tradition of generalizing to Black children, the patterns of cognition and performance found in White children, and some ideological problems of critical importance to an emerging “Black” psychology are discussed. The findings indicate that the developmental pattern of Black adolescents may be characterized as one of positive instability. Some reasons are presented why adolescent development may differ across cultural (racial) lines, and further study of the possibility is urged.