WASHINGTON — People worldwide tend to gain self-esteem as they grow older, and men generally have higher levels of self-esteem than women, but this self-esteem gender gap is more pronounced in Western industrialized countries, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Show
“During the past two decades, a large number of studies on age and gender differences in self-esteem have found that men have higher self-esteem than women and that both men and women show age-graded increases in self-esteem. These robust findings would appear to provide a solid empirical foundation upon which researchers can develop their understanding of the mechanisms driving age and gender differences in self-esteem,” said lead author Wiebke Bleidorn, PhD, of the University of California, Davis. “However, one issue potentially undermines this conclusion: Virtually all previous studies have only examined samples from Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic countries. Our research aims to provide the first systematic cross-cultural examination of gender and age effects on self-esteem.” The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology®. Bleidorn and her colleagues analyzed survey data from over 985,000 men and women ages 16-45 from 48 countries. The data were collected from July 1999 to December 2009 as part of the Gosling-Potter Internet Personality Project. The researchers compared self-reported self-esteem, gender and age across the 48 nations in their study. In general, the researchers found that self-esteem tended to increase with age, from adolescence to adulthood, and that men at every age tended to have higher levels of self-esteem than women worldwide. When they broke the results down by country, they found some interesting results. “Specifically, individualistic, prosperous, egalitarian, developed nations with higher gender equality had larger gender gaps in self-esteem than collectivist, poorer, developing nations with greater gender inequality,” said Bleidorn. “This is likely the result of specific cultural influences that guide self-esteem development in men and women.” For instance, the gender differences were small in many Asian countries, such as Thailand, Indonesia and India, but were relatively larger in countries like the United Kingdom or the Netherlands. What surprised the researchers most was, despite the cultural differences, the general trend across all the countries suggests that gender and age differences in self-esteem are not a Western idiosyncrasy, but can be observed in different cultures across the world. “This remarkable degree of similarity implies that gender and age differences in self-esteem are partly driven by universal mechanisms; these can either be universal biological mechanisms such as hormonal influences or universal cultural mechanisms such as universal gender roles. However, universal influences do not tell the whole story,” said Bleidorn. “The differences in magnitude and shape of gender and age differences in various countries provide strong evidence for culture-specific influences on the development of self-esteem in men and women.” These findings are important because up until now the bulk of research on self-esteem has been confined to industrialized Western cultures where the gender gap is significantly greater, said Bleidorn. “This new research refines our understanding of how cultural forces may shape self-esteem, which, when worked out more fully, can help inform self-esteem theory and design interventions to promote or protect self-esteem.” Article: “Age and Gender Differences in Self-Esteem — A Cross-Cultural Window,” by Wiebke Bleidorn, PhD, University of California, Davis, and Tilburg University; Ruben Arslan, MSc, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; Jaap Denissen, PhD, Tilburg University; Peter Rentfrow, PhD, University of Cambridge; Jochen Gebauer, PhD, University of Mannheim; and Jeff Potter, BSc, Atof Inc., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published online Dec. 21, 2015. Wiebke Bleidorn can be contacted by email or by phone at (530) 752-5387. The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 122,500 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.
Comparative Study . 2001 Mar;162(1):93-117. doi: 10.1080/00221320109597883. Affiliations
Comparative Study Gender differences in adolescent self-esteem: an exploration of domainsT Quatman et al. J Genet Psychol. 2001 Mar. AbstractThe relationship between gender and global self-esteem in adolescence, while modest, has been well established, with boys consistently scoring higher than girls. In the present study, we sought to understand gender differences in adolescent self-esteem in terms of its component parts. With a relatively large (n = 545) sample of adolescents, drawn from Grades 8, 10, and 12, we specified 8 domains of adolescent self-esteem (personal security, home/parents, peer popularity, academic competence, attractiveness, personal mastery, psychological permeability, and athletic competence) across a number of different instruments and brought them together into a common assessment superstructure. Gender differences as well as the relative contributions of the different domains to overall self-esteem scores were measured. As predicted, boys attained slightly higher global self-esteem scores than girls did, by a difference of .22 standard deviation units. Contrary to our expectation of more balanced domain effects, boys significantly outperformed girls in 6 of 8 domains, whereas the 2 remaining domains exhibited no significant gender differences. There were no main or interaction effects for grade level. In terms of relative contribution of these domains to global self-esteem for the 2 genders, global self-esteem in boys and girls is predicted in very similar strengths and in the same order of magnitude by identical domains of self-esteem: home/parents, personal security, academic competence, attractiveness, and personal mastery--yielding multiple R2s from .88 to .91. Similar articles
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What happens to selfSelf-esteem levels tend to decrease in early adolescence and increase in later adolescence (Baldwin and Hoffmann 2002), but those who have lower levels of self-esteem than others at one time point are likely to have lower self-esteem than others at the following time point as well (Robins and Trzesniewski 2005).
Why does selfThe most common causes of low self-esteem in teenagers are: unsupportive parents, carers or others that play an influential role in their life. friends who are bad influences. stressful life events such as divorce or moving houses.
How does adolescent improve self15 Tips to Build Self Esteem and Confidence in Teens. Love Unconditionally. ... . Embrace a Growth Mindset in Your Home. ... . Make Room for Failure. ... . Praise the Process and Tie it to the Outcome. ... . Help them Gain New and Lacking Skills. ... . Be a Family that Doesn't Give Up.. Give Reassurance. ... . Talk About Assertiveness.. Which of the following is a major influence in a child's selfA major influence on children's self-esteem is the quality of their relationships with others who play an important role in their lives (e.g., parents and other family members, peers, coaches, teach- ers).
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