The Future Is Bright and Predictable: The Development of Prospective Life Stories across Childhood and Adolescence

Autor/inn/en	Bohn, Annette; Berntsen, Dorthe
Titel	The Future Is Bright and Predictable: The Development of Prospective Life Stories across Childhood and Adolescence
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 49 (2013) 7, S.1232-1241 (10 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/a0030212
Schlagwörter	Child Development; Adolescent Development; Autobiographies; Imagination; Age Differences; Futures (of Society); Children; Adolescents; Foreign Countries; Grade 3; Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6; Grade 8; Cognitive Development; Denmark + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Kindesentwicklung; Autobiography; Autobiografie; Autobiographie; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Future; Society; Zukunft; Child; Kind; Kinder; Adolescent; Adolescence; Adoleszenz; Jugend; Jugendalter; Jugendlicher; Ausland; School year 03; 3. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 03; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; School year 05; 5. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 05; School year 06; 6. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 06; School year 08; 8. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 08; Kognitive Entwicklung; Dänemark
Abstract	When do children develop the ability to imagine their future lives in terms of a coherent prospective life story? We investigated whether this ability develops in parallel with the ability to construct a life story for the past and narratives about single autobiographical events in the past and future. Four groups of school children aged 9 to 15 years imagined their future lives and produced past life stories, as well as a cultural life script (i.e., culturally shared assumptions as to the order and timing of important life events). They also produced narratives about single autobiographical events to take place in the near future or recent past. Past and prospective life story coherences developed in parallel across ages, that is, older children told more coherent life stories than younger children, irrespective of temporal direction. However, children produced more coherent stories about single events in the past than in the future. Across age groups, prospective life stories were shorter, contained more life script events and were more positive than past life stories. Life script normativity increased with age and predicted the coherence of prospective, but not of past, life stories. The findings indicate that the ability to tell coherent life stories for the past and future develops in parallel and relies on similar processes. Life script abilities might be a major factor in the development of past and prospective life story coherences but not for the development of single event story coherences. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01