Self-concepts of institutionalized adolescents: a framework for conceptualizing labeling effects.

The current study investigated labeling effects in groups of institutionalized adolescents. Self-concepts of 111 delinquents, 33 adolescent psychiatric inpatients, and 119 high school students were assessed in relation to three relevant social labels (popular teenager, juvenile delinquent, and emotionally disturbed teenager). A semantic differential technique and discriminant analyses were used to compare profiles of self-ratings to profiles of role ratings. Two separate analyses were performed. One analysis compared self-ratings with the control group's stereotypes and the other compared self-ratings with a subject's own group's stereotypes. Results revealed modest support for labeling effects only when selfratings were matched with a subject's own group's stereotypes. The findings suggested that an adolescent might choose one of several responses to a socially assigned label. Possible responses included accepting or rejecting the label as well as misperceiving the content of the role. Implications for self-concept meassurement and for labeling theories of psychopathology are discussed.