A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents' Attitude-Behavior Consistency

The attitudes and self-reported behaviors of outgoingness toward other people among a group of over 100 male adolescents were measured each semester for the last five semesters of high school. Cross-lagged panel correlation differences show a tendency (seven of nine times) for attitudes to be nonspuriously antecedent to behaviors. During the first three semesters different observational composites of behaviors correlated positively with the self-reported measures of behaviors. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed from the perspective of social adaptation theory. A distinction is drawn between assimilatory and accommodative situations. It is suggested that attitudes and behaviors are more likely to be consistent in assimilatory than accommodative situations.