Developmental Trajectories Of Impulsivity In Early Adolescents: Defining Subgroups And Their Influencing Factors

Adolescence is a critical and special stage in an individual's life history.During this period,adolescents' physiological,cognitive and social development and changes will be tremendous,and at the same time,adolescents will have academic and interpersonal pressures and challenges.Preventing the occurrence of various psychological and behavioral problems and enabling adolescents to pass through this stage smoothly and safely are issues that must be addressed in adolescent education.Previous research has demonstrated that impulsivity is closely related to adolescent physical and mental health,making it one of the most frequently studied personality traits in the field of psychology.This study examines the developmental trajectory of early adolescent impulsivity and its influencing factors based on the lifelong view of personality development,the holistic interaction theory of development,the ecosystem theory,and the stageenvironment matching theory.This study adopted a longitudinal research design,using the Barratt Impulsivity Inventory,the Family Environment Inventory,and the Adolescent Perception of School Climate Questionnaire,and combined both variable-centered and individual-centered research ideas to conduct three follow-up surveys of junior high school students in a Tianjin middle school at sixmonth intervals over one year.The first administration took place in the fourth week after the start of the second semester of the first year of junior high school,and a total of 210 valid study participants were finally tracked.Study 1 examined the developmental trajectory of early adolescent impulsivity by developing an unconditional latent variable growth model;Study 2examined subgroups of early adolescent impulsivity developmental change by developing a latent category growth model;Study 3 examined the predictive effects of family environment closeness,teacher support,and peer support on subgroups of impulsivity development using multivariate logistic regression.The main findings of this study are as follows.1.impulsivity in early adolescence tends to increase linearly,i.e.,the level of impulsivity increases with increasing age,and the higher the initial level,the lower the growth rate.2.There were three heterogeneous subgroups in the developmental trajectory of impulsivity in early adolescence,namely,the constant low group,where impulsivity remained at a low level,the constant high group,where impulsivity remained at a high level,and the moderately high group,where the initial impulsivity level was moderate and gradually increased during the measurement period.3.The lower the level of teacher support and family environment closeness,the more likely the adolescents were to be placed in the constant high group;the higher the level of teacher support and family environment closeness,the more likely the adolescents were to be placed in the constant low group.In conclusion,this study reveals the dynamic changes of impulsivity in early adolescence,individual differences,and related influencing factors from a longitudinal perspective,which suggests that early adolescence is a special stage in the development of impulsivity,and the cultivation of healthy adolescent personality in the future should also take into account the individual differences of adolescents and pay attention to the role played by environmental factors in the development of adolescent impulsivity.