AGE, RACE, AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SELF-CONCEPT - EVIDENCE FROM A BEHAVIORAL-ACQUISITION, CONTEXT-DEPENDENT MODEL

Age, race, and gender differences were examined in global and domain-s pecific self-concepts among 2,188 American children and adolescents be tween the ages of 10 and 18 years. Although a few statistically signif icant effects of age, race, and gender on global and domain-specific s elf-concepts were found, the differences appeared to be of little qual itative or clinical significance. Self-concept appears to be a constru ct that is influenced very little by demographic characteristics of an individual. However, further investigations of multidimensional self- concept (especially longitudinal) are necessary to provide additional support for the claim that global and domain-specific self-concepts ar e minimally influenced by important human conditions such as age, race , and gender.