Adolescent egocentrism: a comparison among adolescents and adults

Reformulation of adolescent egocentrism suggests that personal fable and imaginary audience ideations extend into adulthood. To test this proposition, adolescents (aged 14–18) and adults (aged 20–89) completed subscales of the adolescent egocentrism, self-consciousness and interpersonal reactivity scales. An across scale comparison first ensured that adolescent egocentrism measures were comparable across age. Next, MANOVAs revealed higher egocentrism scores for adolescentsvs. adults (p<0·05), but no difference between adolescents and younger (19–30) adults after splitting adults into younger (19–30), middle (31–59) and older (60+) subgroups. Results suggest that personal fable and imaginary audience are not confined to adolescence.