[What children think about their growth: the sense of growth and Loevinger's ego developmental level]

This study concerns the sense of growth that children have of themselves, and attempted to show that differences in it can be explained in terms of ego developmental levels proposed by Loevinger. Seven hundred ninety-nine (799) children between 5th and 12th grades responded to a Sentence Completion Test (SCT) of ego development and sense of growth. Five ego developmental levels were identified: Impulsive, Self-Protective, Self-Protective/Conformist, Conformist, and the Self-Aware. The results confirmed the higher the age, the higher the ego developmental level, and the level affected what children thought about their growth. The answers to the SCT of low ego-development children had more overt characteristics such as physical development, whereas those of high children tended to include more covert aspects such as mental development.