Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem, 1988–2008: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis

By Brittany Gentile, Jean M. Twenge, W. Keith Campbell. 2010

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Three meta-analyses find increases over the generations in Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale (RSE) scores between 1988 and 2008 among American middle school (d = 0.78, n = 10,119), high school (d = 0.39, n = 16,669), and college students (d = 0.30, n = 28,918). The changes are consistent with an increasing emphasis on self-worth in American culture and, for high school students, with small increases in academic competence over time. College students’ scores change only when the RSE is administered with a 4-point Likert scale with no midpoint. By 2008, a score of 40 (perfect self-esteem) was the modal response of college students, chosen by 18% of participants; 51% scored 35 or over. Given these shifts in responses, the possibility of revising the RSE is discussed.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8e8117efe2ea71d79008c60f8f5104c4b35a7d08

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Citations in the corpus

Generational Increases in Agentic Self-evaluations among American College Students, 1966–2009 (2012, background): “College students’ and middle-school students’ self-esteem increase with the generations in all available studies (Gentile et al., 2010; Twenge & Campbell, 2001, 2010), but high-school students’ self-esteem either does not change (Trzesniewski & Donnellan, 2010; Twenge & Campbell, 2001) or shows…”