Self-esteem Levels Peak in Childhood, Mid-life

By Charnicia E. Huggins

Reuters, October 1, 2002

How we think of ourselves seems to vary across the life span, with self-esteem peaking in childhood and middle adulthood and falling in adolescence and late adulthood, recent study findings show.

"The main point is that there are two critical developmental periods when self-esteem drops--adolescence and old age," study author Dr. Richard W. Robins of the University of California, Davis, told Reuters Health.

"We can speculate that if self-esteem drops during adolescence and old age, then perhaps we should focus on what's common between the two age periods, namely rapid social and biological changes," he added. "Perhaps when the social context and our own bodies are going through dramatic changes, self-esteem loss is a likely consequence."

The findings are based on an Internet survey of more than 326,000 people aged 9 to 90 years.

Altogether, the youngest survey respondents, those aged 9 to 12, reported the highest levels of self-esteem, and these high self-esteem levels were similar among both boys and girls, Robins and his colleagues report in the September issue of the journal Psychology and Aging.

During adolescence, however, both sexes reported much lower levels of self-esteem, and the drop in self-esteem was nearly twice as great among girls as among boys, study findings indicate.

"This implies that some aspect of the adolescent experience adversely affects self-esteem, but it does so more strongly for girls than for boys," the researchers write, noting that the great changes that occur during puberty--particularly physical changes--may have a more profound effect on girls than boys.

Further, this gender difference in self-esteem levels remained evident throughout adulthood, according to the report.

Self-esteem levels generally increased after adolescence and the college years and peaked in the mid-60s age range--a finding that seems "contrary to the popularly accepted view of a midlife crisis," Robins said.

Afterwards, however, self-esteem levels plunged for individuals in their 70s and 80s to levels similar to those reported during adolescence, the report indicates.

Aging also narrowed the gender gap; men and women in their 70s reported similar self-esteem levels, and women in their 80s reported having slightly higher self-esteem than did their male counterparts.

The researchers did not investigate the reason for the decline in self-esteem during old age, but they note that loss of a spouse, decreased social support, declining physical health, mental impairments and declining socioeconomic status could all be contributors.

In light of the findings, "interventions aimed at raising self-esteem should target individuals who are about to enter a developmental stage when self-esteem typically drops, that is, early adolescence and late adulthood," Robins said.

In other findings, people with higher socioeconomic status tended to have higher self-esteem than poorer individuals, and Americans had higher self-esteem than non-Americans. Also, blacks and Latinos reported the highest levels of self-esteem, followed by Middle Easterners, Asians and whites.

The study was partially funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.