Presentation by: Dr Mimi Tatlow-Golden Presentation Title: Who I Am: Exploring the Nature, Salience and Meaning of Children’s Active and Social Selves

Background of the study Self-esteem debate: ‘Hot’ variable or mirage? Developmental psychology should move from measurement to exploring meaning (Hogan, 2005) National Children’s Strategy (2000): Listening to children; understanding their lives; delivering quality supports

Aims of the study Develop richer picture of children’s core self-concept factors - Competence in salient activities, & salient relationships, are central to self-esteem (Harter, 2006) => Focus on active and social self, and their meaning Compare with adult views of self-esteem Capitalise on children’s competencies, cultures of communication

A mixed- and multiple-methods study 526 participants. 5 th & 6 th class; yrs; 52% girls Random selection from stratified listings of all Dublin Region co- educational National schools Opt-in participation Methods: Draw-and-write x2: Active self, social self Analogue scales to rate importance Who I Am ‘Pie’ to explore proportionate importance Follow-up interviews (n = 110) to explore meaning Self-esteem scales for comparative analyses

Self-esteem scales e.g. Self-Description Questionnaire I (SDQI), Marsh, 1992

Draw-and-write

Analogue scales

Who I Am Pie

Examples of Pies

The Active Self

Being physically active

Being social

Being creative

Using media

Other activities

Findings I: Active Self Wide-ranging: > 150 salient activities Physically active 67%: Team sports; Non-team physical activities (individual sports; unstructured, peer-based physical activities) Social 28%: Friends, family and pets Creative 20%: Music, drama, visual, written etc Media 13%: Personal entertainment, social networking, education Reading for fun 7%; Future self 4% ; Shopping 4%; School 1% Many pronounced gender differences M>F Team sports (media) F>M Non-team physical, creative, social, shopping

Findings II: Active self meanings Social connection 59%: Primarily friends; also family ‘I like training, because most of my friends are there’ (boy, 11) Challenge & achievement 37%: Challenge, skill improvement ‘I’ve really got to like it cause I’m getting better all the time’ (boy, 11) Having fun 37%: Fun & escape ‘You just have lots of fun!’ (girl, 11) Enjoying being physically active 32% ‘It’s a high-paced game… yeah I like running’ (boy, 12) Time 18% : How long or how often they engaged in activity ‘I really like basketball, cause I do it like 5 times a week’ (girl, 11) Gender: only 1 difference; m>f physically active

The Social Self

Social self: Family – Parents, siblings, extended family

Social Self: Friends

Social Self: Pets, Celebrities/fictional

Findings III: Social Self Parents 67% Siblings 54% Friends 40% Extended family 12% Pets 8% Celebrities/ fictional 2% Gender: Girls depicted more people overall than boys However, boys and girls valued people in same order

Findings IV: Social self meanings Being cared for 68%: Emotionally and practically ‘When I’m with my friends and family I feel really safe, and happy’ (girl, 11) Sharing activities and interests, including talking 44% ‘We have like loads of things to talk about’ (girl, 10) Relationship quality 36%: Liking, loving and fighting ‘You fight with your brother… but at the end you still like him’ (boy, 11) Time 23%: Frequency of seeing people; length of friendship ‘I’ve known her longer and she’s known me longer as well’ (boy, 12) Having fun 20% ‘I just find them really funny and enjoyable to be with’ (boy, 12) Gender: Only 1 difference; f>m talking

Findings across methods

Findings across methods: I 1. Hierarchy of importance across active and social selves Family (parents, sibs, extended family, pets) Friends Being physically active (team and non-team) 2. Interrelationships across self domains Active self: social meanings were primary Social self: shared activities a key meaning Fun and time: core meanings across both these self domains

Findings across methods: II 3. Core meanings for active & social selves Being social, having fun and time are central to children’s salient positive selves Social self: Being cared for by both friends and family Active self: Being challenged & improving in salient activities 4. Gender patterns Strong gender differences in salient activities Few differences re salient people Hardly any difference re the meanings attached to salient activities and people

Comparing with self-esteem scales Active Self Missing factors: Non-team physical; creative; media Missing meanings: Social; challenge/improvement; fun Social Self Missing factors: Parents, siblings, extended family, pets Missing meanings: Being cared for; fun Scales present very limited view of children’s salient selves  Self-Description Questionnaire I (Marsh, 1992) closest

Conclusions I School: Barely registers as a positive salient activity for children (though they recognise its instrumental value) Physical activity: - Much more salient than media activities - Non-team physical activities (including dance) more salient for girls. Should be recognised and developed Family: More salient than friends Pets: Highly salient to substantial minority in late childhood Gender: differences in salient activities – but not relationships, nor meanings. ‘Differences culture’ exaggerated?

Conclusions II Adult-designed self-esteem measures: limited view of children’s selves Focus on school ability, team sport ability, peer acceptance Children focus on non-school activities; improvement; relational caring (friends and family); and fun Scales measure extrinsic, not intrinsic, ‘true’ esteem? Children’s selves should be studied using factors and meanings salient to children Richer picture emerged from consultation with children

Thank you