SELF-ESTEEM MEDIATES RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SELF-CONCEPT CLARITY AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE FUTURE

Aim. The present study was designed to examine relationships between young people's self-concepts and their perceptions of their futures Methods. High school students (n = 347) completed measures of the two domains of self-concept, the evaluative domain, self-esteem, and the knowledge or structural domain, self-concept clarity. They also completed two measures of perceptions of their futures, optimism and future time perspective. Results. Both measures of self-concept were positively correlated with both measures of perception of the future. For both measures of perceptions of the future, regression analyses found that when perceptions of the future were regressed onto the two measures of self-concept perceptions of the future were significantly related to only self-esteem. Relationships between perceptions of the future and self-concept clarity were not significant. Analyses of mediation revealed that self-esteem mediated the relationship between self-concept clarity and both measures of perceptions of the future. Conclusion. Young people with a clearer sense of self and who have higher self-esteem are more optimistic and perceive a longer future than young people with a less clear sense of self and who have lower self-esteem; however, the effects of self-concept clarity disappear after the relationship between clarity and self-esteem are taken into account.