Adolescence can be a tumultuous period with numerous threats to self-integrity. A 3-year field experiment tested whether repeated affirmations of self-integrity can help lessen the impact of psychological threat on adolescent (11–14 years old) students’ core course GPA over time. A diverse cohort of students (N = 163) was randomly assigned to a control condition or to an affirmation condition, in which teachers repeatedly administered classroom writing exercises that affirmed students’ personal values. Results showed that affirmation lessened a downward trajectory of GPA over time. In contrast to previous research, this effect occurred among all ethnic groups rather than only among stereotype-threatened ethnic minority groups. Affirmation did not reduce self-reported psychological threat, but it severed its relationship with performance: Among control students, psychological threat predicted lower GPA. Among affirmed students, psychological threat was unrelated to performance. Beyond their practical implications, these results make two theoretical contributions. First, affirmation can have broader benefits than those previously documented among negatively stereotyped groups, if timed to co-occur with different sources of threat that emerge over a long developmental window. Second, the effect of affirmation may not be so much to reduce threat as to disrupt its adverse cognitive and motivational effects.

中文翻译：

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随着时间的推移确保自我完整性：自我肯定会破坏心理威胁和学业成绩之间的负面循环

青春期可能是一个动荡的时期，自我完整性受到许多威胁。一项为期 3 年的实地实验测试了反复肯定自我完整性是否有助于随着时间的推移减轻心理威胁对青少年（11-14 岁）学生核心课程 GPA 的影响。多元化的学生群体 ( N = 163) 被随机分配到控制条件或肯定条件，其中教师反复进行课堂写作练习，肯定学生的个人价值观。结果表明，随着时间的推移，肯定会减少 GPA 的下降轨迹。与之前的研究相反，这种影响发生在所有种族群体中，而不仅仅是在受到刻板印象威胁的少数民族群体中。肯定并没有减少自我报告的心理威胁，但它切断了它与成绩的关系：在对照学生中，心理威胁预示着较低的 GPA。在被肯定的学生中，心理威胁与表现无关。除了实际意义之外，这些结果还做出了两个理论贡献。第一的，如果与在长期发展窗口中出现的不同威胁来源同时发生，肯定会比以前在负面刻板印象群体中记录的那些带来更广泛的好处。其次，肯定的效果可能不是减少威胁，而是破坏其不利的认知和动机影响。