title: Self-esteem development from age 14 to 30 years: a longitudinal study.
abstract: We examined the development of self-esteem in adolescence and young adulthood. Data came from the Young Adults section of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which includes 8 assessments across a 14-year period of a national probability sample of 7,100 individuals age 14 to 30 years. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that self-esteem increases during adolescence and continues to increase more slowly in young adulthood. Women and men did not differ in their self-esteem trajectories. In adolescence, Hispanics had lower self-esteem than Blacks and Whites, but the self-esteem of Hispanics subsequently increased more strongly, so that at age 30 Blacks and Hispanics had higher self-esteem than Whites. At each age, emotionally stable, extraverted, and conscientious individuals experienced higher self-esteem than emotionally unstable, introverted, and less conscientious individuals. Moreover, at each age, high sense of mastery, low risk taking, and better health predicted higher self-esteem. Finally, the results suggest that normative increase in sense of mastery accounts for a large proportion of the normative increase in self-esteem.
authors: Department of Psychology, Universityof Basel, Basel, Switzerland. ruthyasemin.erol@unibas.ch
authors: Ruth Yasemin
authors: RY
authors: Erol
authors: Ulrich
authors: U
authors: Orth
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D003242:Conscience; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006803:Human Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007439:Introversion, Psychological; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012649:Self Concept; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult