Spontaneous Self-Distancing and Adaptive Self-Reflection Across Adolescence

Abstract

Experiments performed primarily with adults show that self-distancing facilitates adaptive self-reflection. However, no research has investigated whether adolescents spontaneously engage in this process or whether doing so is linked to adaptive outcomes. In this study, 226 African American adolescents, aged 11-20, reflected on an anger-related interpersonal experience. As expected, spontaneous self-distancing during reflection predicted lower levels of emotional reactivity by leading adolescents to reconstrue (rather than recount) their experience and blame their partner less. Moreover, the inverse relation between self-distancing and emotional reactivity strengthened with age. These findings highlight the role that self-distancing plays in fostering adaptive self-reflection in adolescence, and begin to elucidate the role that development plays in enhancing the benefits of engaging in this process.

Figure 1

Thought content and blame mediate the relation between spontaneous self-distancing and emotional reactivity (n = 225). Analyses controlled for memory age and accessibility. Values represent unstandardized regression coefficients. **p < .01.

Figure 2

Conditional effect of spontaneous self-distancing on emotional reactivity as a function of age (n = 221). Dotted lines depict 95% confidence intervals. Dashed line marks the age at which the conditional effect reaches significance (α = .05).