GIRLS RELATIONAL SELF IN SRI-LANKA AND THE UNITED-STATES

The self-conceptions of 100 girls (11-17 years old) from Sri Lanka and the United States were studied from the traditional Western perspecti ve of identity development as a process in which adolescents become in creasingly independent and autonomous. This perspective is based on ma le development in Western countries and may not adequately describe th e experience of girls or of non-Western adolescents, for whom relation ships with others may be central to identity formation. The participat ing girls drew self-portraits and either answered the question ''How w ould you describe yourself to yourself?'' or completed the sentence '' I am...'' 20 times. The results indicate that relationships and indepe ndence are important themes for the girls from the United States and f rom Sri Lanka. Older girls differed from younger girls in that greater maturity was associated with greater interest in interpersonal relati onships and future lives.