Self-esteem across adulthood: The role of resources
Journal article › Research › Peer reviewed
Publication data
| By | Jenny Wagner, Frieder R. Lang, Franz J. Neyer, Gerd G. Wagner |
| Original language | English |
| Published in | European Journal of Ageing, 11(2) |
| Pages | 109-119 |
| Editor (Publisher) | Springer |
| ISSN | 1613-9372, 1613-9380 |
| DOI/Link | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-013-0299-z |
| Publication status | Published – 2014 |
It is still not well understood how and why developmental trajectories of self-esteem change, particularly in late life. We investigated the role of resources for self-esteem change across adulthood. In detail, we explored between-person differences in self-esteem levels and change in relation to resources with participants who ranged in age from 17 to 100 years. Study 1 consisted of a cross-sectional representative German sample of 12,609 participants, where we observed few age differences in mean levels of self-esteem across adulthood. Being married or in a relationship and positive subjective health were associated with higher levels of self-esteem. In addition, relations of resources of subjective health as well as neuroticism with self-esteem appeared to be smaller in late compared to young adulthood. Longitudinal studies including young (N = 338) and older adults (N = 325) indicated both reasonably high stability regarding rank-order and mean levels of self-esteem across 4 and 8 years. Again, age-differential resources appeared to be important for higher levels of self-esteem with education being related to self-esteem in young adults and subjective health in late life. However, no resource was associated with changes in self-esteem in either young or late adulthood. Overall, findings suggest that self-esteem levels are reflective of age-specific constraints and risks.
