Self-concept Clarity and Subjective Well-Being: Disentangling Within- and Between-Person Associations

Previous research has suggested that, among adolescents, clarity about one’s self-concept is closely related to subjective well-being. However, longitudinal studies are scarce, and whether a clear self-concept is the cause or effect of subjective well-being remains unclear. This study examined the dynamic longitudinal associations between self-concept clarity and subjective well-being at the between- and within-person levels over a one-year time span among adolescents (baseline M(age) = 16.01 years; 57.0% girls) from China. The data were collected in three waves (each at a six-month interval), in which adolescents reported their self-concept clarity and well-being (i.e., positive and negative affect and personal satisfaction with life). Both Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPMs) and Cross-Lagged Panel Models (CLPMs) were applied to examine the stability, cross-sectional relationships, and cross-lagged effects between adolescents’ self-concept clarity and subjective well-being over time. The CLPMs provided unique support for a reciprocal relations model of self-concept clarity and subjective well-being (including both cognitive and emotional well-being) across three time points, although the results of traditional CLPM might represent an unknown blend of between- and within-person effects. However, the RI-CLPM analyses provided tentative support only for cross-sectional correlations between self-concept clarity and well-being outcomes. Our findings advance the literature by elucidating longitudinal relationships between self-concept clarity and subjective well-being in collectivist cultural contexts using CLPM and RI-CLPM.