Accommodative self-regulation: The sample case of imprisonment in young adulthood.

OBJECTIVE

The present study examined the role of self-esteem stabilization processes in response to restrictive developmental conditions in early adulthood. It did so by investigating accommodative adjustments among incarcerated young adults. It was argued that an adjustment of how an individual desires to be to how they actually perceive themselves (i.e., accommodative adjustment) can help to maintain a more stable self-esteem and buffers negative changes.

METHOD: Within a longitudinal design with three measurements occasions data of N = 728 incarcerated men between the age of 14 and 24 were analyzed. Accommodative adjustments were assessed at two occasions as adaptations of the ideal self-concept ("I would like to be…") to the previous actual self-concept ("I am…"). In addition, assimilative adjustments were operationalized as adaptations of the actual self-concept to the previous ideal self-concept that means changing what individuals think of themselves in accordance to how they desire to be.

RESULTS

Regression analysis showed that accommodative adjustments predicted self-esteem. Moreover, accommodative processes were particularly important when assimilative processes were less pronounced.

CONCLUSION

Especially at the beginning of the incarceration period, accommodative adjustments of the self-concept buffer damaging effects of incarceration and support the (re-)stabilization of self-esteem.