The Development of Self-Esteem

By U. Orth, Richard W. Robins. 2014

1,036 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this article, we review new insights gained from recent longitudinal studies examining the development of self-esteem and its influence on important life outcomes. The evidence supports the following three conclusions. First, self-esteem increases from adolescence to middle adulthood, peaks at about age 50 to 60 years, and then decreases at an accelerating pace into old age; moreover, there are no cohort differences in the self-esteem trajectory from adolescence to old age. Second, self-esteem is a relatively stable, but by no means immutable, trait; individuals with relatively high (or low) self-esteem at one stage of life are likely to have relatively high (or low) self-esteem decades later. Third, high self-esteem prospectively predicts success and well-being in life domains such as relationships, work, and health. Given the increasing evidence that self-esteem has important real-world consequences, the topic of self-esteem development is of considerable societal significance.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2fef1b37d5ce1e86c2f4a8c0aa81b9cc25072ba6

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Citations in the corpus

Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies—A Framework for Studying Personality Change (2020, background): “Comparable with many other social science variables, such as income, life satisfaction, or self-esteem (Fujita & Diener, 2005; Orth & Robins, 2014), retest correlations of personality traits typically range between .40 and .60 over 10-year time lags.”
Self-esteem and the quality of romantic relationships (2016, background): “Research suggests that self-esteem increases during adolescence and young adulthood, continues to increase during middle adulthood, peaks at about age 50 to 60 years, and then gradually decreases into old age (for reviews, see Orth & Robins, 2014; Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2013).”
Understanding personality development (2018, background): “…on personality development has provided considerable evidence for personality development across the entire lifespan—including global personality traits within the Big Five framework (e.g. Roberts, Donnellan, & Hill, 2012) and selfesteem (e.g. Orth & Robins, 2014; Robins & Trzesniewski, 2005).”
Age and gender differences in self-esteem-A cross-cultural window. (2016, neutral): “In contrast, sociocultural perspectives posit that gender and age differences in self-esteem are largely governed by social influences, which can vary across contexts and cultures (for reviews, see Kling et al., 1999; Orth & Robins, 2014).”
Self-esteem and mental health in adolescents – level and stability during a school year (2019, background): “However, these differences generally tend to be small and self-esteem seem to increase in both genders from adolescence to midlife and then declines in old age (19).”
Eliciting Engagement in the High School Classroom (2014, background): “Other research asserts that self-knowing, self-definition, and evalua tion of self-worth are also critical tasks in adolescence as youth work to understand and assert the ways in which they are similar to or different from others (Erikson, 1968; Harter, 2006; Kroger, 2000; Marcia, 1966; Shahar, Henr”