'Who will I become?': possible selves and depression symptoms in adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is an important period for the development of the possible self. It is also a time when depression is prevalent. The cognitive theory of depression proposes that a negative view of the future is a key feature of depression. Targeting these negative thoughts about the future during cognitive behavioural therapy may be helpful in depression. However, little is known about how adolescents envisage their future (i.e. possible) self, or if the content is associated with affect. The aim of this quantitative study is to describe how adolescents describe their 'possible self' and examine the relationship between the valence of the possible self and depression in adolescents. METHOD: Adolescents (n = 584) aged 13-18 years were recruited via opportunity sampling via their schools and completed measures of depression symptoms (the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire) and the 'possible self' (a variant of the 'I Will Be' task). Possible selves were coded for content and valence. RESULTS: Despite depression severity, the most common possible selves generated by adolescents were positive and described interpersonal roles. The valence of the possible self was associated with depression severity but only accounted for 3.4% of the variance in severity. CONCLUSION: The results support the cognitive model of depression. However, adolescents with elevated symptoms of depression were able to generate positive, possible selves and therefore may remain somewhat 'hopeful' about their future despite clinically significant depression symptoms. Future-oriented treatment approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy that focus on changing unhelpful negative future thinking may not be appropriate for this population.

Apt and actionable possible identities matter: The case of academic outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: We review the longitudinal evidence documenting that middle and high school students with school-focused possible future identities subsequently attain better school outcomes. Consistent results across operationalizations of possible identities and academic outcomes imply that results are robust. However, variability in study designs means that the existing literature cannot explain the process from possible identity to academic outcomes. We draw on identity-based motivation theory to address this gap. We predict that imagining a possible school-focused future drives school engagement to the extent that students repeatedly experience their school-focused future identities as apt (relevant) and actionable (linked to strategies they can use now). METHODS: We operationalize aptness as having pairs of positive and negative school-focused possible identities (balance) and actionability as having a roadmap of concrete, linked strategies for school-focused possible selves (plausibility). We use machine learning to capture features of possible identities that predict academic outcomes and network analyses to examine these features (training sample USA 47% female, Mage = 14, N1 = 602, N2 = 540. Test sample USA 55% female, Mage = 13, N = 247). RESULTS: We report regression analyses showing that balance, plausibility, and our machine algorithm predict better end-of-school-year grades (grade point average). We use network analysis to show that our machine algorithm is associated with structural features of possible identities and balance and plausibility scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the inference that student academic outcomes are improved when students experience their school-focused possible identities as apt and actionable.

Promoting college and career readiness among underserved adolescents: A mixed methods pilot study.

INTRODUCTION: Many underserved adolescents, defined as those with inequitable access to educational resources, face limited access to interventions that develop their college and career know-how. In our study, we implemented and evaluated a pilot college and career readiness curriculum intervention called Paths to the Future for All (P2F4A). P2F4A takes a developmental approach to college and career development, weaving together the procedural know-how of college and career planning with a broader focus on building social-emotional skills that support positive trajectories towards the future. We evaluated pre-post changes in adolescents' career-related and social-emotional outcomes alongside views of their personal growth. METHODS: We used a purposeful sample of five schools in the Western region of the United States and recruited a sample of adolescents (N = 61; Mage = 16.3 years; 57.4% female) who experienced challenging academic and life circumstances to participate in P2F4A. We conducted pre-post surveys as well as focus groups and interviews with adolescents. RESULTS: We detected significant (p < .05) pre-post gains in adolescents' knowledge of P2F4A curricular content and selected coping skills, such as relaxing and solving family problems. Our focus groups and interviews revealed that P2F4A helped adolescents build stronger interpersonal relationships with peers and the content was directly applicable to real life. CONCLUSION: Our new findings suggest that college and career readiness curriculum interventions-if appropriately developed for and targeted to underserved adolescents-have strong potential to build underserved adolescents' foundational skills that they can apply towards realizing their future college and career aspirations.

Poetry and possible selves: Crisis theory with/in teacher education programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the educational landscape. This article offers the model, Crisis Theory with/in Teacher Education Programs (CT-TEP), which examines how the interplay of preservice teachers' stressors and personal coping strategies filtered through their identity provides teacher educators strategies for helping students persevere through crises. Data collected in one teacher education program during the spring 2020 COVID-19 shutdown across the United States illuminates preservice teachers' present and possible selves, through a series of poems demonstrating emotions and coping strategies of student-participants. Implications for teacher educators to focus on possible selves with/in teacher education classrooms as a mechanism for understanding emotional health and well-being is discussed.

Trait procrastination undermines outcome and efficacy expectancies for achieving health-related possible selves.

People often fail at following through with their health behaviour goals. How health goals are cognitively represented holds promise for understanding successful health behaviour change. Health-related possible selves (HPS) reflect cognitive representations of a future self that people may wish to achieve (hoped-for-HPS) or avoid (feared-HPS), that can promote health behaviour change. However, success depends on the strength of the efficacy and outcome expectancies for achieving/avoiding the HPS. Personality traits linked to poor self-regulation are often not considered when assessing the potential self-regulatory functions of HPS. The current study addressed this issue by examining the associations of trait procrastination with efficacy and outcome expectancies for hoped-for-HPS and feared-HPS, and health behaviour change intentions and motivations in a community sample (N = 191) intending to make healthy changes in the next 6 months. Trait procrastination was associated with weaker intentions and motivations for health behaviour change, and lower efficacy and outcome expectancies for hoped-for-HPS, but not feared-HPS. Bootstrapped multiple mediation analysis found significant indirect effects of procrastination on health behaviour intentions, through outcome, but not efficacy, expectancies for hoped-for-HPS. Results suggest that issues in imagining a hoped-for-HPS can be achieved are linked to weak intentions for health behaviour change for those with chronic self-regulation difficulties. Research into interventions that strengthen feeling connected to hoped-for-HPS is recommended.

Do you need a roadmap or can someone give you directions: When school-focused possible identities change so do academic trajectories.

INTRODUCTION: Despite the assumed importance of school-focused possible identities for academic motivation and outcomes, interventions rarely assess the effect of intervention on possible identities. This may be due to difficulty coding open-ended text at scale but leaves open a number of questions: 1) how do school-focused possible identities change over the course of the school year, 2) whether these changes are associated with changes in school outcomes, and 3) whether a machine coding approach is viable. METHODS: In Study 1 (n = 247 Chicago 8th-graders) we assess fall-to-spring change in school-focused possible identities. We test whether change in school-focused possible identities predicts 8th-grade academic outcomes. We include robustness checks. Then we examine school context effects. In Study 2 (n = 1006 Chicago 8th-graders) we address the problem of coding at scale, using a separate data set to train a machine-learning algorithm. RESULTS: On average, school-focused possible identities decline over the school year. But nearly a third of students have increasing school-focused possible identity scores. Increase is associated with improved grades. School context influences whether linked strategies matter. Our machine-learning algorithm accurately classifies school-focused possible identities in our original sample and this school-focused classification reliably predicts academic trajectories. CONCLUSIONS: Change in school-focused possible identities is normative over the course of the school year, interventions should take this into account. On average, students have fewer school-focused possible identities by spring. This decline is associated with declining academic trajectories. However, when school-focused possible identities increase, so do grades. Whether strategies matter is context dependent.

A Qualitative Examination of the Sexual Possible Selves and Strategies of First-Semester College Students: How Sexual Possible Selves are Developed During the Transition to College.

According to the possible selves theory, individuals have possible selves that they hope to attain, or feared selves they hope to avoid, in the proximal future. In addition, individuals may have strategies they use to help them attain these possible selves or avoid their feared selves. Recent work has applied this theory to the realm of sexuality (i.e., sexual possible selves; SPS) in the developmental period of emerging adulthood, as this period is considered a time of increased sexual identity development. The purpose of this study was to extend this research by conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews with a sample of first-semester college-attending emerging adults (N = 35) at a 4-year university. We examined the developmental influences on expected and feared SPS to better understand why various internalized expectations develop. Interviews were conducted during the first four weeks of the Fall 2016 semester and were analyzed using applied thematic analysis. Prominent themes that emerged within the expected SPS included: sex and commitment, taking a passive approach, delaying sex and relationships, plans for hooking up, and abstinence. Feared SPS themes that emerged included: non-committed sexual avoidance, sexual assault/coercion, reputation, and sexual health. Prominent influences on participants' SPS included: family, alcohol and parties, peers/friends, past experiences, changes in expectations, college culture, and religion. Implications for sexuality research, education, and intervention are discussed.

"Stepping Out of My Sexual Comfort Zone": Comparing the Sexual Possible Selves and Strategies of College-Attending and Non-College Emerging Adults.

Limited attention has been devoted to examining internalized sexual expectations and fears (i.e., sexual possible selves [SPS]) during emerging adulthood, and in particular how these differ based on college attendance. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend research on SPS and strategies using a large, diverse sample of college-attending (n = 400) and non-college (n = 400) emerging adults (ages 18-25 years). Open-ended responses on internalized sexual expectations and fears were collected through an online survey (Amazon's MTurk). Qualitative content analysis of each groups' responses revealed 11 emergent expected SPS themes, with the majority focused on abstinence, interpersonal relationships, quantity, quality, explore/experiment, and sexual health/well-being. Emergent themes of feared SPS overlapped with expected SPS on six categories (e.g., sexual health/well-being); however, we also found fears related to sexual assault/coercion, self-focus, partner focus, and increased sexual risk. Pearson chi-square analyses of themes based on college attendance showed differences in expectations for interpersonal relationships, along with subgroup differences based on gender (male versus female) and gender by college attendance status (e.g., college-attending women versus non-college women). Implications for sexual education and future SPS research are discussed.

May I have the next dance? Chinese gay men exploring selves and practices through the tradition of dance in public spaces.

This study explores the way in which some Chinese gay men negotiate dance performances in parks and other public spaces in an attempt to invent and experiment with 'possible selves'. In most circumstances, these same men conceal their sexual orientation for fear of stigma and discrimination, experiencing in the process something of a 'divided self'. Little attention has been given to understanding the way such individuals negotiate and construct same-sex experiences, especially through the negotiation of specific and restricted social interactions and performances. Based on participant observation with a group of dancers practising in a Chinese public park, this paper analyses how these men explore same-sex relations and lifestyles through the circumscribed performance of collective public dance.

Reconsidering the "Asphalt Identikit".

Background/Aim The "asphalt identikit" theory suggests that driving cessation inevitably leads to feelings of incompetence and dependency. This article challenges this proposition by investigating the driving-related possible selves of British older adults living in West London. Methods Thematic analysis of data from 19 of 39 interviews in which older adults participating in a larger study talked about driving in the context of their grocery shopping. Results Three themes were evident: "I can drive - that makes a huge difference," "Expecting to lose my license," and "I gave up my license." Discussion Driving cessation is not a dreaded possible self for all older adults. Older adults may use a variety of identity maintenance processes to retain their positive sense of self. Conclusions Mental well-being can be maintained during driving cessation by finding ways to compensate for the loss of a license and finding alternative ways of achieving hoped-for possible selves.

Grade-Level Differences in Future-Oriented Self-Concept During Early Adolescence: Potential Relevance to School Nursing.

The middle school and early high school years are a time of significant development, including an increasing ability to envision oneself in the future. Little is known about how adolescents' future-oriented self-concept (i.e., possible selves) differs across grade levels, although this knowledge may aid in establishing rapport with students and building effective health promotion and risk reduction interventions. Therefore, this study explored grade-level differences in hoped for and feared possible selves in a sample of sixth- to ninth-grade students (n = 2,498; M age = 12.72, SD = 1.15; 51.3% female). Findings suggest that adolescents list a variety of possible selves, and the content differs according to grade level. These findings offer helpful insight for intervention work aimed at improving student outcomes and preventing risk behavior. Understanding what adolescents hope and fear for themselves in the future may be particularly beneficial for school nurses in identifying the unique challenges students experience and tailoring health promotion efforts.

The role of feared possible selves in the relationship between peer influence and delinquency.

This study explores the impact of a feared delinquent possible self on the relationship between exposure to negative peer behaviors and violent and non-violent self-reported delinquency. Previous research strongly supports that deviant peers influence adolescents' delinquent behavior. Yet, few studies have explored intrapersonal factors that may moderate this influence. Possible selves include what one hopes, expects and fears becoming and are believed to motivate behavior. Thus, it was hypothesized that adolescents who were exposed to deviant peers and also feared engaging in delinquency would be more likely to self-report delinquency. Seventh grade students (n = 176) identified feared possible selves in the future, their exposure to negative peer behavior and self-reported violent and non-violent delinquent behavior. Findings suggest that exposure to negative peer behavior is associated with self-reported delinquent behavior. For violent behavior, possessing a feared delinquent possible self moderates this relationship. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Prospective effects of possible selves on alcohol consumption in adolescents.

Possible selves, cognitions about the self that reflect hopes, fears, and expectations for the future, are reliable predictors of health risk behaviors but have not been explored as predictors of adolescents' alcohol use. In a secondary analysis of data from 137 adolescents, we examined the influence of possible selves assessed in eighth grade on alcohol consumption (yes/no and level of use) in ninth grade. Having a most important feared possible self related to academics in eighth grade predicted alcohol abstinence in ninth grade. Among those who reported alcohol use, having many hoped-for possible selves and a most important hoped-for possible self related to academics in eighth grade predicted lower level of alcohol consumption in ninth grade. Interventions that foster the personal relevance and importance of academics and lead to the development of hoped-for possible selves may reduce adolescents' alcohol consumption.

The feasibility of ethnodrama as intervention to highlight late-life potential for nursing students and older adults.

One barrier to the expansion of geriatric health care providers is the limited desire of nursing students to work with older adults. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using ethnodrama as an intervention to highlight late-life potential. Twelve baccalaureate nursing students were paired with 12 residents of an assisted living facility to complete transformative learning activities focused on the topic of late-life potential culminating in a performance of an ethnodrama developed from these data. Transcripts of initial student meetings, self-reflections, the performance, postperformance discussion, and open-ended survey questions were analyzed using in vivo and pattern coding. Older adult participants recognized and emphasized positive late-life potential, whereas students explored potential throughout the life span and reflected on its meaning in their own lives. Increasing discussion about late-life potential may alter the stigma associated with aging.

Advance care planning: End-of-life hopes and fears among community dwelling adults.

End-of-life (EOL) medical care in the United States often does not align with patients' goals and preferences. This study explored EOL hopes and fears among 86 community-dwelling adults and examined medical and psychological predictors of death anxiety. Common EOL hopes included absence of suffering, closure, and personal fulfillment. Common EOL fears included suffering, lack of competence, and specific types of death. Fear of the dying process was greater than fear of death itself. Health predicted death anxiety; age alone, did not. Advance care planning and clinical decision making should include these psychological insights and explicitly address EOL hopes and fears.

Women's Self-Relevant Goal Pursuit in the Presence of Physical Pain: An Intraindividual Variability Approach.

OBJECTIVES: Pursuing personal goals that are relevant to one's sense of self is important for adjusting to age-related changes. Experiences of physical pain, however, are thought to threaten both people's sense of self and their pursuit of personal goals. Although a majority of older women experience physical pain, little is known about their day-to-day regulation of their self-relevant goals in the presence of physical pain. The objectives of this study were to explore associations between physical pain and health goal pursuit on a daily basis for women who identified health as a part of their possible selves. METHODS: We took an intraindividual variability approach to analyze whether there were within- and between-person differences in associations between daily pain and daily health goal progress among 62 women who provided data over the course of 100 days, yielding 4,150 occasions of data. RESULTS: At the between-person level, women with higher pain on average had lower health goal pursuit on average. At the within-person level, days of higher-than-average pain were associated with lower same-day health goal progress. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest that pain interrupts regulation of a self-relevant goal at a within-person-not just between-person-daily level. Future work should consider how these daily, within-person, disruptions affect broader identity processes and overall well-being.

A brief positive psychological intervention prior to a potentially stressful task facilitates more challenge-like cardiovascular reactivity in high trait anxious individuals.

When confronted with stress, anxious individuals tend to evaluate the demands of an upcoming encounter as higher than the available resources, thus, indicating threat evaluations. Conversely, evaluating available resources as higher than the demands signals challenge. Both types of evaluations have been related to specific cardiovascular response patterns with higher cardiac output relative to peripheral resistance indicating challenge and higher peripheral resistance relative to cardiac output signaling threat. The aim of this research was to evaluate whether a brief positive psychological exercise (best possible selves intervention) prior to a potentially stress-evoking task shifted the cardiovascular profile in trait anxious individuals from a threat to a challenge type. We randomly assigned 74 participants to either a best possible selves or a control exercise prior to performing a sing a song stress task and assessed their level of trait anxiety. Cardiac output (CO) and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were continuously recorded through baseline, preparation, stress task, and recovery, respectively, as well as self-reported affect. Trait anxiety was related to higher CO in the best possible selves group and lower CO in the control group. While high trait anxious individuals in the control group showed increasing TPR reactivity, they exhibited a nonsignificant change in the best possible selves group. Moreover, in the latter group a stress-related decrease in positive affect in high trait anxious participants was prevented. Findings suggest that concentrating on strengths and positive assets prior to a potentially stressful encounter could trigger a more adaptive coping in trait anxious individuals.

The MAPS model of self-regulation: Integrating metacognition, agency, and possible selves.

Self-regulation, a social-cognitive process at the intersection of metacognition, motivation, and behavior, encompasses how people conceptualize, strive for, and accomplish their goals. Self-regulation is critical for behavioral change regardless of the context. Research indicates that self-regulation is learned. Integral to successful self-regulation of behavior are: (a) an articulated concept of one's possible selves, (b) metacognitive knowledge and effective strategies, and (c) a sense of one's own agency. We present the theoretical linkages, research evidence, and applied utility for these three components in promoting self-regulation of behavior, specifically in the domain of learning. We propose the MAPS model to account for the pathways of influence that lead to behavioral change. This model illustrates the dynamic and feed-forward processes that derive from the interactions among possible selves, metacognition, and agency to provide the context for developing self-regulated and effective learning that promotes student success, the transfer of knowledge, and the foundation for life-long learning.

Relationship between Family Functioning and Possible Selves in Adolescents from Argentina.

The goal of this study was to analyze the relationship between different family functioning types and the content, valence, and structure of adolescents' possible selves (PSs). Participants were adolescents (n = 392) of both genders (female = 54.9%) from private and catholic high schools in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina (age, M = 14.92, SD = 1.52). We performed a cluster analysis to explore family functioning profiles in terms of communication with parents, promotion of challenges, family cohesion, and flexibility. In order to study family functioning type and PSs content association, we performed a chi-squared test. To study family functioning type differences in PSs valence and structure we conducted a one-way MANOVA. The chi-squared test indicated that there was no significant association between family functioning type and adolescents' PSs spontaneous content. On the other hand, the MANOVA revealed the existence of significant differences in PSs valence between each type of family functioning group. In regard to the structure of PSs, there were no significant differences between family functioning types. In conclusion, adolescents who perceived positive family functioning have more positive PSs. Family functioning type was not related to PSs content and structure.