Self-esteem across a life span can be like riding a roller coaster, starting with an inflated sense of self-approval in late childhood, dropping precipitously in adolescence and then rising steadily through adulthood only to plummet to the lowest point in late old age, according to a new study in the journal Psychology and Aging.From the University of California at Davis:Global Study of Self-Esteem Yields Surprises
Self-esteem across a life span can be like riding a roller coaster, starting with an inflated sense of self-approval in late childhood, dropping precipitously in adolescence and then rising steadily through adulthood only to plummet to the lowest point in late old age, according to a new study in the journal Psychology and Aging.
In perhaps the largest global study of self-esteem, UC Davis psychologist Richard Robins and other researchers provide the most comprehensive picture to date of age differences from ages 9 to 90. More than 350,000 participants completed a questionnaire by visiting a World Wide Web site in 1999 and 2000.
The research sample was diverse in terms of age, ethnicity and nationality, although Caucasians and those from the United States dominated the survey.
Women, in general, had lower self-esteem than men, although both genders have identical high levels between the ages of 9 and 12. “During adolescence, girls’ self-esteem dropped about twice as much as boys’,” Robins says.
Only in their 70s do both genders begin to show similar levels of self-esteem that drop through the last decades of life. The drop could be due to declining health, socioeconomic status and achievement experiences following retirement. Robins says it could also result from a more modest and balanced view of the self.
now i know this study is absolute crap when I read that women have twice as low self esteem as men cos women in western culture are treated like godesses and have a chip on their shoulder to boot.
Well you’re obviously not from the United States…lol. Why do you think women are treated so well? I mean, yeah, we’re not treated horrible, but there is a lot of stress on women in the United States. The media tells women that they must look their best and that physical beauty is all that matters. That’s why many women are so skinny or have a very low-self esteem if they’re not skinny.
It’s not as easy as you think being a woman in the western world….