A Five-Year Follow-Up Study of the Self-Concept of Creative Adolescents

Summary The present study extends the findings of earlier research by showing that the Adjective Check List (ACL) self-descriptions of creative youth with literary-artistic talent are remarkably similar over a five-year period. Some fading in the distinctiveness of these self-reports is apparent over time. In regard to the follow-up results with the math-science boys, no significant differences between the means of the creative and control groups were found on any of the ACL scales. Thus, the high concurrent validities reported in the initial study with the criterion groups in the math-science field did not hold up over a five-year interval. Any use of the ACL for predicting the later self-descriptions of creative youth, then, will have to allow for sex and specialty-field differences in performance.