essay on self esteem

Essay on Self Esteem

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100 Words Essay on Self Esteem

Understanding self-esteem.

Self-esteem is the opinion we have about ourselves. It’s about how much we value and respect ourselves. High self-esteem means you think highly of yourself, while low self-esteem means you don’t.

Importance of Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is important because it heavily influences our choices and decisions. It allows us to live life to our potential. High self-esteem leads to confidence, happiness, fulfillment, and achievement.

Building Self-Esteem

Building self-esteem requires positive self-talk, self-acceptance, and self-love. It’s about focusing on your strengths, forgiving your mistakes, and celebrating your achievements.

250 Words Essay on Self Esteem

Introduction.

Self-esteem, a fundamental concept in psychology, refers to an individual’s overall subjective emotional evaluation of their own worth. It encompasses beliefs about oneself and emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. It is a critical aspect of personal identity, shaping our perception of the world and our place within it.

The Dual Facet of Self-Esteem

Self-esteem can be divided into two types: high and low. High self-esteem is characterized by a positive self-image and confidence, while low self-esteem is marked by self-doubt and criticism. Both types significantly influence our mental health, relationships, and life outcomes.

Impact of Self-Esteem

High self-esteem can lead to positive outcomes. It encourages risk-taking, resilience, and optimism, fostering success in various life domains. Conversely, low self-esteem can result in fear of failure, social anxiety, and susceptibility to mental health issues like depression. Thus, it’s crucial to nurture self-esteem for psychological well-being.

Building self-esteem involves recognizing one’s strengths and weaknesses and accepting them. It requires self-compassion and challenging negative self-perceptions. Positive affirmations, setting and achieving goals, and maintaining healthy relationships can all contribute to enhancing self-esteem.

In conclusion, self-esteem is a complex, multifaceted construct that significantly influences our lives. It is not static and can be improved with conscious effort. Understanding and nurturing our self-esteem is vital for achieving personal growth and leading a fulfilling life.

500 Words Essay on Self Esteem

Self-esteem, a fundamental aspect of psychological health, is the overall subjective emotional evaluation of one’s self-worth. It is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self. The importance of self-esteem lies in the fact that it concerns our perceptions and beliefs about ourselves, which can shape our experiences and actions.

The Two Types of Self-esteem

Self-esteem can be classified into two types: high and low. High self-esteem indicates a highly favorable impression of oneself, whereas low self-esteem reflects a negative view. People with high self-esteem generally feel good about themselves and value their worth, while those with low self-esteem usually harbor negative feelings about themselves, often leading to feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, and unlovability.

Factors Influencing Self-esteem

Self-esteem is shaped by various factors throughout our lives, such as the environment, experiences, relationships, and achievements. Positive reinforcement, success, and supportive relationships often help to foster high self-esteem, while negative feedback, failure, and toxic relationships can contribute to low self-esteem. However, it’s important to note that self-esteem is not a fixed attribute; it can change over time and can be improved through cognitive and behavioral interventions.

Impact of Self-esteem on Life

Self-esteem significantly impacts individuals’ mental health, relationships, and overall well-being. High self-esteem can lead to positive outcomes, such as better stress management, resilience, and life satisfaction. On the other hand, low self-esteem is associated with mental health issues like depression and anxiety. It can also lead to poor academic and job performance, problematic relationships, and increased vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse.

Improving Self-esteem

Improving self-esteem requires a multifaceted approach. Cognitive-behavioral therapies can help individuals challenge their negative beliefs about themselves and develop healthier thought patterns. Regular physical activity, healthy eating, and adequate sleep can also boost self-esteem by improving physical health. Furthermore, positive social interactions and relationships can enhance self-esteem by providing emotional support and validation. Lastly, self-compassion and self-care practices can foster a more positive self-image and promote higher self-esteem.

In conclusion, self-esteem is a critical component of our psychological well-being, influencing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It is shaped by various factors and can significantly impact our lives. However, it’s not a fixed attribute, and with the right strategies and support, individuals can improve their self-esteem, leading to better mental health, relationships, and overall quality of life. Therefore, understanding and fostering self-esteem is essential for personal growth and development.

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Article Contents

Introduction, identity development and the sources of negative self-esteem, outcomes of poor self-esteem, mechanisms linking self-esteem and health behavior, examples of school health promotion programs that foster self-esteem, self-esteem in a broad-spectrum approach for mental health promotion.

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Michal (Michelle) Mann, Clemens M. H. Hosman, Herman P. Schaalma, Nanne K. de Vries, Self-esteem in a broad-spectrum approach for mental health promotion, Health Education Research , Volume 19, Issue 4, August 2004, Pages 357–372, https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg041

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Self-evaluation is crucial to mental and social well-being. It influences aspirations, personal goals and interaction with others. This paper stresses the importance of self-esteem as a protective factor and a non-specific risk factor in physical and mental health. Evidence is presented illustrating that self-esteem can lead to better health and social behavior, and that poor self-esteem is associated with a broad range of mental disorders and social problems, both internalizing problems (e.g. depression, suicidal tendencies, eating disorders and anxiety) and externalizing problems (e.g. violence and substance abuse). We discuss the dynamics of self-esteem in these relations. It is argued that an understanding of the development of self-esteem, its outcomes, and its active protection and promotion are critical to the improvement of both mental and physical health. The consequences for theory development, program development and health education research are addressed. Focusing on self-esteem is considered a core element of mental health promotion and a fruitful basis for a broad-spectrum approach.

The most basic task for one's mental, emotional and social health, which begins in infancy and continues until one dies, is the construction of his/her positive self-esteem. [( Macdonald, 1994 ), p. 19]

Self-concept is defined as the sum of an individual's beliefs and knowledge about his/her personal attributes and qualities. It is classed as a cognitive schema that organizes abstract and concrete views about the self, and controls the processing of self-relevant information ( Markus, 1977 ; Kihlstrom and Cantor, 1983 ). Other concepts, such as self-image and self-perception, are equivalents to self-concept. Self-esteem is the evaluative and affective dimension of the self-concept, and is considered as equivalent to self-regard, self-estimation and self-worth ( Harter, 1999 ). It refers to a person's global appraisal of his/her positive or negative value, based on the scores a person gives him/herself in different roles and domains of life ( Rogers, 1981 ; Markus and Nurius, 1986 ). Positive self-esteem is not only seen as a basic feature of mental health, but also as a protective factor that contributes to better health and positive social behavior through its role as a buffer against the impact of negative influences. It is seen to actively promote healthy functioning as reflected in life aspects such as achievements, success, satisfaction, and the ability to cope with diseases like cancer and heart disease. Conversely, an unstable self-concept and poor self-esteem can play a critical role in the development of an array of mental disorders and social problems, such as depression, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, anxiety, violence, substance abuse and high-risk behaviors. These conditions not only result in a high degree of personal suffering, but also impose a considerable burden on society. As will be shown, prospective studies have highlighted low self-esteem as a risk factor and positive self-esteem as a protective factor. To summarize, self-esteem is considered as an influential factor both in physical and mental health, and therefore should be an important focus in health promotion; in particular, mental health promotion.

Health promotion refers to the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their own health ( WHO, 1986 ). Subjective control as well as subjective health, each aspects of the self, are considered as significant elements of the health concept. Recognizing the existence of different views on the concept of mental health promotion, Sartorius (Sartorius, 1998), the former WHO Director of Mental Health, preferred to define it as a means by which individuals, groups or large populations can enhance their competence, self-esteem and sense of well-being. This view is supported by Tudor (Tudor, 1996) in his monograph on mental health promotion, where he presents self-concept and self-esteem as two of the core elements of mental health, and therefore as an important focus of mental health promotion.

This article aims to clarify how self-esteem is related to physical and mental health, both empirically and theoretically, and to offer arguments for enhancing self-esteem and self-concept as a major aspect of health promotion, mental health promotion and a ‘Broad-Spectrum Approach’ (BSA) in prevention.

The first section presents a review of the empirical evidence on the consequences of high and low self-esteem in the domains of mental health, health and social outcomes. The section also addresses the bi-directional nature of the relationship between self-esteem and mental health. The second section discusses the role of self-esteem in health promotion from a theoretical perspective. How are differentiations within the self-concept related to self-esteem and mental health? How does self-esteem relate to the currently prevailing theories in the field of health promotion and prevention? What are the mechanisms that link self-esteem to health and social outcomes? Several theories used in health promotion or prevention offer insight into such mechanisms. We discuss the role of positive self-esteem as a protective factor in the context of stressors, the developmental role of negative self-esteem in mental and social problems, and the role of self-esteem in models of health behavior. Finally, implications for designing a health-promotion strategy that could generate broad-spectrum outcomes through addressing common risk factors such as self-esteem are discussed. In this context, schools are considered an ideal setting for such broad-spectrum interventions. Some examples are offered of school programs that have successfully contributed to the enhancement of self-esteem, and the prevention of mental and social problems.

Self-esteem and mental well-being

Empirical studies over the last 15 years indicate that self-esteem is an important psychological factor contributing to health and quality of life ( Evans, 1997 ). Recently, several studies have shown that subjective well-being significantly correlates with high self-esteem, and that self-esteem shares significant variance in both mental well-being and happiness ( Zimmerman, 2000 ). Self-esteem has been found to be the most dominant and powerful predictor of happiness ( Furnham and Cheng, 2000 ). Indeed, while low self-esteem leads to maladjustment, positive self-esteem, internal standards and aspirations actively seem to contribute to ‘well-being’ ( Garmezy, 1984 ; Glick and Zigler, 1992 ). According to Tudor (Tudor, 1996), self-concept, identity and self-esteem are among the key elements of mental health.

Self-esteem, academic achievements and job satisfaction

The relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement is reported in a large number of studies ( Marsh and Yeung, 1997 ; Filozof et al. , 1998 ; Hay et al. , 1998 ). In the critical childhood years, positive feelings of self-esteem have been shown to increase children's confidence and success at school ( Coopersmith, 1967 ), with positive self-esteem being a predicting factor for academic success, e.g. reading ability ( Markus and Nurius, 1986 ). Results of a longitudinal study among elementary school children indicate that children with high self-esteem have higher cognitive aptitudes ( Adams, 1996 ). Furthermore, research has revealed that core self-evaluations measured in childhood and in early adulthood are linked to job satisfaction in middle age ( Judge et al. , 2000 ).

Self-esteem and coping with stress in combination with coping with physical disease

The protective nature of self-esteem is particularly evident in studies examining stress and/or physical disease in which self-esteem is shown to safeguard the individual from fear and uncertainty. This is reflected in observations of chronically ill individuals. It has been found that a greater feeling of mastery, efficacy and high self-esteem, in combination with having a partner and many close relationships, all have direct protective effects on the development of depressive symptoms in the chronically ill ( Penninx et al. , 1998 ). Self-esteem has also been shown to enhance an individual's ability to cope with disease and post-operative survival. Research on pre-transplant psychological variables and survival after bone marrow transplantation ( Broers et al. , 1998 ) indicates that high self-esteem prior to surgery is related to longer survival. Chang and Mackenzie ( Chang and Mackenzie, 1998 ) found that the level of self-esteem was a consistent factor in the prediction of the functional outcome of a patient after a stroke.

To conclude, positive self-esteem is associated with mental well-being, adjustment, happiness, success and satisfaction. It is also associated with recovery after severe diseases.

The evolving nature of self-esteem was conceptualized by Erikson ( Erikson, 1968 ) in his theory on the stages of psychosocial development in children, adolescents and adults. According to Erikson, individuals are occupied with their self-esteem and self-concept as long as the process of crystallization of identity continues. If this process is not negotiated successfully, the individual remains confused, not knowing who (s)he really is. Identity problems, such as unclear identity, diffused identity and foreclosure (an identity status based on whether or not adolescents made firm commitments in life. Persons classified as ‘foreclosed’ have made future commitments without ever experiencing the ‘crises’ of deciding what really suits them best), together with low self-esteem, can be the cause and the core of many mental and social problems ( Marcia et al. , 1993 ).

The development of self-esteem during childhood and adolescence depends on a wide variety of intra-individual and social factors. Approval and support, especially from parents and peers, and self-perceived competence in domains of importance are the main determinants of self-esteem [for a review, see ( Harter, 1999 )]. Attachment and unconditional parental support are critical during the phases of self-development. This is a reciprocal process, as individuals with positive self-esteem can better internalize the positive view of significant others. For instance, in their prospective study among young adolescents, Garber and Flynn ( Garber and Flynn, 2001 ) found that negative self-worth develops as an outcome of low maternal acceptance, a maternal history of depression and exposure to negative interpersonal contexts, such as negative parenting practices, early history of child maltreatment, negative feedback from significant others on one's competence, and family discord and disruption.

Other sources of negative self-esteem are discrepancies between competing aspects of the self, such as between the ideal and the real self, especially in domains of importance. The larger the discrepancy between the value a child assigns to a certain competence area and the perceived self-competence in that area, the lower the feeling of self-esteem ( Harter, 1999 ). Furthermore, discrepancies can exist between the self as seen by oneself and the self as seen by significant others. As implied by Harter ( Harter, 1999 ), this could refer to contrasts that might exist between self-perceived competencies and the lack of approval or support by parents or peers.

Finally, negative and positive feelings of self-worth could be the result of a cognitive, inferential process, in which children observe and evaluate their own behaviors and competencies in specific domains (self-efficacy). The poorer they evaluate their competencies, especially in comparison to those of their peers or to the standards of significant others, the more negative their self-esteem. Such self-monitoring processes can be negatively or positively biased by a learned tendency to negative or positive thinking ( Seligman et al. , 1995 ).

The outcomes of negative self-esteem can be manifold. Poor self-esteem can result in a cascade of diminishing self-appreciation, creating self-defeating attitudes, psychiatric vulnerability, social problems or risk behaviors. The empirical literature highlights the negative outcomes of low self-esteem. However, in several studies there is a lack of clarity regarding causal relations between self-esteem and problems or disorders ( Flay and Ordway, 2001 ). This is an important observation, as there is reason to believe that self-esteem should be examined not only as a cause, but also as a consequence of problem behavior. For example, on the one hand, children could have a negative view about themselves and that might lead to depressive feelings. On the other hand, depression or lack of efficient functioning could lead to feeling bad, which might decrease self-esteem. Although the directionality can work both ways, this article concentrates on the evidence for self-esteem as a potential risk factor for mental and social outcomes. Three clusters of outcomes can be differentiated. The first are mental disorders with internalizing characteristics, such as depression, eating disorders and anxiety. The second are poor social outcomes with externalizing characteristics including aggressive behavior, violence and educational exclusion. The third is risky health behavior such as drug abuse and not using condoms.

Self-esteem and internalizing mental disorders

Self-esteem plays a significant role in the development of a variety of mental disorders. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV), negative or unstable self-perceptions are a key component in the diagnostic criteria of major depressive disorders, manic and hypomanic episodes, dysthymic disorders, dissociative disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and in personality disorders, such as borderline, narcissistic and avoidant behavior. Negative self-esteem is also found to be a risk factor, leading to maladjustment and even escapism. Lacking trust in themselves, individuals become unable to handle daily problems which, in turn, reduces the ability to achieve maximum potential. This could lead to an alarming deterioration in physical and mental well-being. A decline in mental health could result in internalizing problem behavior such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders. The outcomes of low self-esteem for these disorders are elaborated below.

Depressed moods, depression and suicidal tendencies

The clinical literature suggests that low self-esteem is related to depressed moods ( Patterson and Capaldi, 1992 ), depressive disorders ( Rice et al. , 1998 ; Dori and Overholser, 1999 ), hopelessness, suicidal tendencies and attempted suicide ( Overholser et al. , 1995 ). Correlational studies have consistently shown a significant negative relationship between self-esteem and depression ( Beck et al. , 1990 ; Patton, 1991 ). Campbell et al. ( Campbell et al. , 1991 ) found individual appraisal of events to be clearly related to their self-esteem. Low self-esteem subjects rated their daily events as less positive and negative life events as being more personally important than high self-esteem subjects. Individuals with high self-esteem made more stable and global internal attributions for positive events than for negative events, leading to the reinforcement of their positive self-image. Subjects low in self-esteem, however, were more likely to associate negative events to stable and global internal attributions, and positive events to external factors and luck ( Campbell et al. , 1991 ). There is a growing body of evidence that individuals with low self-esteem more often report a depressed state, and that there is a link between dimensions of attributional style, self-esteem and depression ( Abramson et al. , 1989 ; Hammen and Goodman-Brown, 1990 ).

Some indications of the causal role of self-esteem result from prospective studies. In longitudinal studies, low self-esteem during childhood ( Reinherz et al. , 1993 ), adolescence ( Teri, 1982 ) and early adulthood ( Wilhelm et al. , 1999 ) was identified as a crucial predictor of depression later in life. Shin ( Shin, 1993 ) found that when cumulative stress, social support and self-esteem were introduced subsequently in regression analysis, of the latter two, only self-esteem accounted for significant additional variance in depression. In addition, Brown et al. ( Brown et al. , 1990 ) showed that positive self-esteem, although closely associated with inadequate social support, plays a role as a buffer factor. There appears to be a pathway from not living up to personal standards, to low self-esteem and to being depressed ( Harter, 1986 , 1990 ; Higgins, 1987 , 1989 ; Baumeister, 1990 ). Alternatively, another study indicated that when examining the role of life events and difficulties, it was found that total level of stress interacted with low self-esteem in predicting depression, whereas self-esteem alone made no direct contribution ( Miller et al. , 1989 ). To conclude, results of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown that low self-esteem is predictive of depression.

The potentially detrimental impact of low self-esteem in depressive disorders stresses the significance of Seligman's recent work on ‘positive psychology’. His research indicates that teaching children to challenge their pessimistic thoughts whilst increasing positive subjective thinking (and bolstering self-esteem) can reduce the risk of pathologies such as depression ( Seligman, 1995 ; Seligman et al. , 1995 ; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000 ).

Other internalizing disorders

Although low self-esteem is most frequently associated with depression, a relationship has also been found with other internalizing disorders, such as anxiety and eating disorders. Research results indicate that self-esteem is inversely correlated with anxiety and other signs of psychological and physical distress ( Beck et al. , 2001 ). For example, Ginsburg et al. ( Ginsburg et al. , 1998 ) observed a low level of self-esteem in highly socially anxious children. Self-esteem was shown to serve the fundamental psychological function of buffering anxiety, with the pursuit of self-esteem as a defensive avoidance tool against basic human fears. This mechanism of defense has become evident in research with primary ( Ginsburg et al. , 1998 ) and secondary school children ( Fickova, 1999 ). In addition, empirical studies have shown that bolstering self-esteem in adults reduces anxiety ( Solomon et al. , 2000 ).

The critical role of self-esteem during school years is clearly reflected in studies on eating disorders. At this stage in life, weight, body shape and dieting behavior become intertwined with identity. Researchers have reported low self-esteem as a risk factor in the development of eating disorders in female school children and adolescents ( Fisher et al. , 1994 ; Smolak et al. , 1996 ; Shisslak et al. , 1998 ), as did prospective studies ( Vohs et al. , 2001 ). Low self-esteem also seems predictive of the poor outcome of treatment in such disorders, as has been found in a recent 4-year prospective follow-up study among adolescent in-patients with bulimic characteristics ( van der Ham et al. , 1998 ). The significant influence of self-esteem on body image has led to programs in which the promotion of self-esteem is used as a main preventive tool in eating disorders ( St Jeor, 1993 ; Vickers, 1993 ; Scarano et al. , 1994 ).

To sum up, there is a systematic relation between self-esteem and internalizing problem behavior. Moreover, there is enough prospective evidence to suggest that poor self-esteem might contribute to deterioration of internalizing problem behavior while improvement of self-esteem could prevent such deterioration.

Self-esteem, externalizing problems and other poor social outcomes

For more than two decades, scientists have studied the relationship between self-esteem and externalizing problem behaviors, such as aggression, violence, youth delinquency and dropping out of school. The outcomes of self-esteem for these disorders are described below.

Violence and aggressive behavior

While the causes of such behaviors are multiple and complex, many researchers have identified self-esteem as a critical factor in crime prevention, rehabilitation and behavioral change ( Kressly, 1994 ; Gilbert, 1995 ). In a recent longitudinal questionnaire study among high-school adolescents, low self-esteem was one of the key risk factors for problem behavior ( Jessor et al. , 1998 ).

Recent studies confirm that high self-esteem is significantly associated with less violence ( Fleming et al. , 1999 ; Horowitz, 1999 ), while a lack of self-esteem significantly increases the risk of violence and gang membership ( Schoen, 1999 ). Results of a nationwide study of bullying behavior in Ireland show that children who were involved in bullying as either bullies, victims or both had significantly lower self-esteem than other children ( Schoen, 1999 ). Adolescents with low self-esteem were found to be more vulnerable to delinquent behavior. Interestingly, delinquency was positively associated with inflated self-esteem among these adolescents after performing delinquent behavior ( Schoen, 1999 ). According to Kaplan's self-derogation theory of delinquency (Kaplan, 1975), involvement in delinquent behavior with delinquent peers can increase children's self-esteem and sense of belonging. It was also found that individuals with extremely high levels of self-esteem and narcissism show high tendencies to express anger and aggression ( Baumeister et al. , 2000 ). To conclude, positive self-esteem is associated with less aggressive behavior. Although most studies in the field of aggressive behavior, violence and delinquency are correlational, there is some prospective evidence that low self-esteem is a risk factor in the development of problem behavior. Interestingly, low self-esteem as well as high and inflated self-esteem are both associated with the development of aggressive symptoms.

School dropout

Dropping out from the educational system could also reflect rebellion or antisocial behavior resulting from identity diffusion (an identity status based on whether or not adolescents made firm commitments in life. Adolescents classified as ‘diffuse’ have not yet thought about identity issues or, having thought about them, have failed to make any firm future oriented commitments). For instance, Muha ( Muha, 1991 ) has shown that while self-image and self-esteem contribute to competent functioning in childhood and adolescence, low self-esteem can lead to problems in social functioning and school dropout. The social consequences of such problem behaviors may be considerable for both the individual and the wider community. Several prevention programs have reduced the dropout rate of students at risk ( Alice, 1993 ; Andrews, 1999 ). All these programs emphasize self-esteem as a crucial element in dropout prevention.

Self-esteem and risk behavior

The impact of self-esteem is also evident in risk behavior and physical health. In a longitudinal study, Rouse ( Rouse, 1998 ) observed that resilient adolescents had higher self-esteem than their non-resilient peers and that they were less likely to initiate a variety of risk behaviors. Positive self-esteem is considered as a protective factor against substance abuse. Adolescents with more positive self-concepts are less likely to use alcohol or drugs ( Carvajal et al. , 1998 ), while those suffering with low self-esteem are at a higher risk for drug and alcohol abuse, and tobacco use ( Crump et al. , 1997 ; Jones and Heaven, 1998 ). Carvajal et al. ( Carvajal et al. , 1998 ) showed that optimism, hope and positive self-esteem are determinants of avoiding substance abuse by adolescents, mediated by attitudes, perceived norms and perceived behavioral control. Although many studies support the finding that improving self-esteem is an important component of substance abuse prevention ( Devlin, 1995 ; Rodney et al. , 1996 ), some studies found no support for the association between self-esteem and heavy alcohol use ( Poikolainen et al. , 2001 ).

Empirical evidence suggests that positive self-esteem can also lead to behavior which is protective against contracting AIDS, while low self-esteem contributes to vulnerability to HIV/AIDS ( Rolf and Johnson, 1992 ; Somali et al. , 2001 ). The risk level increases in cases where subjects have low self-esteem and where their behavior reflects efforts to be accepted by others or to gain attention, either positively or negatively ( Reston, 1991 ). Lower self-esteem was also related to sexual risk-taking and needle sharing among homeless ethnic-minority women recovering from drug addiction ( Nyamathi, 1991 ). Abel ( Abel, 1998 ) observed that single females whose partners did not use condoms had lower self-esteem than single females whose partners did use condoms. In a study of gay and/or bisexual men, low self-esteem proved to be one of the factors that made it difficult to reduce sexual risk behavior ( Paul et al. , 1993 ).

To summarize, the literature reveals a number of studies showing beneficial outcomes of positive self-esteem, and conversely, negative outcomes of poor self-esteem, especially in adolescents. Prospective studies and intervention studies have shown that self-esteem can be a causal factor in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, delinquency, school dropout, risk behavior, social functioning, academic success and satisfaction. However, the cross-sectional character of many other studies does not exclude that low self-esteem can also be considered as an important consequence of such disorders and behavioral problems.

To assess the implications of these findings for mental health promotion and preventive interventions, more insight is needed into the antecedents of poor self-esteem, and the mechanisms that link self-esteem to mental, physical and social outcomes.

What are the mechanisms that link self-esteem to health and social outcomes? Several theories used in health promotion or prevention offer insight into such mechanisms. In this section we discuss the role of positive self-esteem as a protective factor in the context of stressors, the developmental role of negative self-esteem in mental and social problems, and the role of self-esteem in models of health behavior.

Positive thinking about oneself as a protective factor in the context of stressors

People have a need to think positively about themselves, to defend and to improve their positive self-esteem, and even to overestimate themselves. Self-esteem represents a motivational force that influences perceptions and coping behavior. In the context of negative messages and stressors, positive self-esteem can have various protective functions.

Research on optimism confirms that a somewhat exaggerated sense of self-worth facilitates mastery, leading to better mental health ( Seligman, 1995 ). Evidence suggests that positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perception of control or mastery and unrealistic optimism are all characteristic of normal human thought, and that certain delusions may contribute to mental health and well-being ( Taylor and Brown, 1988 ). The mentally healthy person appears to have the capacity to distort reality in a direction that protects and enhances self-esteem. Conversely, individuals who are moderately depressed or low in self-esteem consistently display an absence of such enhancing delusions. Self-esteem could thus be said to serve as a defense mechanism that promotes well-being by protecting internal balance. Jahoda ( Jahoda, 1958 ) also included the ‘adequate perception of reality’ as a basic element of mental health. The degree of such a defense, however, has its limitations. The beneficial effect witnessed in reasonably well-balanced individuals becomes invalid in cases of extreme self-esteem and significant distortions of the self-concept. Seligman ( Seligman, 1995 ) claimed that optimism should not be based on unrealistic or heavily biased perceptions.

Viewing yourself positively can also be regarded as a very important psychological resource for coping. We include in this category those general and specific beliefs that serve as a basis for hope and that sustain coping efforts in the face of the most adverse condition… Hope can exist only when such beliefs make a positive outcome seem possible, if not probable. [( Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 ), p. 159]

Incidence = organic causes and stressors/competence, coping skills, self-esteem and social support

Identity, self-esteem, and the development of externalizing and internalizing problems

Erikson's ( Erikson, 1965 , 1968 ) theory on the stages of psychosocial development in children, adolescents, and adults and Herbert's flow chart ( Herbert, 1987 ) focus on the vicissitudes of identity and the development of unhealthy mental and social problems. According to these theories, when a person is enduringly confused about his/her own identity, he/she may possess an inherent lack of self-reassurance which results in either a low level of self-esteem or in unstable self-esteem and feelings of insecurity. However, low self-esteem—likewise inflated self-esteem—can also lead to identity problems. Under circumstances of insecurity and low self-esteem, the individual evolves in one of two ways: he/she takes the active escape route or the passive avoidance route ( Herbert, 1987 ). The escape route is associated with externalizing behaviors: aggressive behavior, violence and school dropout, the seeking of reassurance in others through high-risk behavior, premature relationships, cults or gangs. Reassurance and security may also be sought through drugs, alcohol or food. The passive avoidance route is associated with internalizing factors: feelings of despair and depression. Extreme avoidance may even result in suicidal behavior.

Whether identity and self-esteem problems express themselves following the externalizing active escape route or the internalizing passive avoidance route is dependent on personality characteristics and circumstances, life events and social antecedents (e.g. gender and parental support) ( Hebert, 1987 ). Recent studies consistently show gender differences regarding externalizing and internalizing behaviors among others in a context of low self-esteem ( Block and Gjerde, 1986 ; Rolf et al. , 1990 ; Harter, 1999 ; Benjet and Hernandez-Guzman, 2001 ). Girls are more likely to have internalizing symptoms than boys; boys are more likely to have externalizing symptoms. Moreover, according to Harter ( Harter, 1999 ), in recent studies girls appear to be better than boys in positive self-evaluation in the domain of behavioral conduct. Self-perceived behavioral conduct is assessed as the individual view on how well behaved he/she is and how he/she views his/her behavior in accordance with social expectations ( Harter, 1999 ). Negative self-perceived behavioral conduct is also found to be an important factor in mediating externalizing problems ( Reda-Norton, 1995 ; Hoffman, 1999 ).

The internalization of parental approval or disapproval is critical during childhood and adolescence. Studies have identified parents' and peers' supportive reactions (e.g. involvement, positive reinforcement, and acceptance) as crucial determinants of children's self-esteem and adjustment ( Shadmon, 1998 ). In contrast to secure, harmonious parent–child relationships, poor family relationships are associated with internalizing problems and depression ( Kashubeck and Christensen, 1993 ; Oliver and Paull, 1995 ).

Self-esteem in health behavior models

Self-esteem also plays a role in current cognitive models of health behavior. Health education research based on the Theory of Planned Behavior ( Ajzen, 1991 ) has confirmed the role of self-efficacy as a behavioral determinant ( Godin and Kok, 1996 ). Self-efficacy refers to the subjective evaluation of control over a specific behavior. While self-concepts and their evaluations could be related to specific behavioral domains, self-esteem is usually defined as a more generic attitude towards the self. One can have high self-efficacy for a specific task or behavior, while one has a negative evaluation of self-worth and vice versa. Nevertheless, both concepts are frequently intertwined since people often try to develop self-efficacy in activities that give them self-worth ( Strecher et al. , 1986 ). Self-efficacy and self-esteem are therefore not identical, but nevertheless related. The development of self-efficacy in behavioral domains of importance can contribute to positive self-esteem. On the other hand, the levels of self-esteem and self-confidence can influence self-efficacy, as is assumed in stress and coping theories.

The Attitude–Social influence–self-Efficacy (ASE) model ( De Vries and Mudde, 1998 ; De Vries et al. , 1988a ) and the Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) ( Flay and Petraitis, 1994 ) are recent theories that provide a broad perspective on health behavior. These theories include distal factors that influence proximal behavioral determinants ( De Vries et al. , 1998b ) and specify more distal streams of influence for each of the three core determinants in the Planned Behavior Model ( Azjen, 1991 ) (attitudes, self-efficacy and social normative beliefs). Each of these behavioral determinants is assumed to be moderated by several distal factors, including self-esteem and mental disorders.

The TTI regards self-esteem in the same sense as the ASE, as a distal factor. According to this theory, self-efficacy is influenced by personality characteristics, especially the ‘sense of self’, which includes self-integration, self-image and self-esteem ( Flay and Petraitis, 1994 ).

The Precede–Proceed model of Green and Kreuter (Green and Kreuter, 1991) for the planning of health education and health promotion also recognizes the role of self-esteem. The model directs health educators to specify characteristics of health problems, and to take multiple determinants of health and health-related behavior into account. It integrates an epidemiological, behavioral and environmental approach. The staged Precede–Proceed framework supports health educators in identifying and influencing the multiple factors that shape health status, and evaluating the changes produced by interventions. Self-esteem plays a role in the first and fourth phase of the Precede–Proceed model, as an outcome variable and as a determinant. The initial phase of social diagnosis, analyses the quality of life of the target population. Green and Kreuter [(Green and Kreuter, 1991), p. 27] present self-esteem as one of the outcomes of health behavior and health status, and as a quality of life indicator. The fourth phase of the model, which concerns the educational and organizational diagnosis, describes three clusters of behavioral determinants: predisposing, enabling and reinforcing factors. Predisposing factors provide the rationale or motivation for behavior, such as knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, and perceived needs and abilities [(Green and Kreuter, 1991), p. 154]. Self-knowledge, general self-appraisal and self-efficacy are considered as predisposing factors.

To summarize, self-esteem can function both as a determinant and as an outcome of healthy behavior within health behavior models. Poor self-esteem can trigger poor coping behavior or risk behavior that subsequently increases the likelihood of certain diseases among which are mental disorders. On the other hand, the presence of poor coping behavior and ill-health can generate or reinforce a negative self-image.

Self-esteem in a BSA to mental health promotion and prevention in schools

Given the evidence supporting the role of self-esteem as a core element in physical and mental health, it is recommended that its potential in future health promotion and prevention programs be reconsidered.

The design of future policies for mental health promotion and the prevention of mental disorders is currently an area of active debate ( Hosman, 2000 ). A key question in the discussion is which is more effective: a preventive approach focusing on specific disorders or a more generic preventive approach?

Based on the evidence supporting the role of self-esteem as a non-specific risk factor and protective factor in the development of mental disorders and social problems, we advocate a generic preventive approach built around the ‘self’. In general, changing common risk and protective factors (e.g. self-esteem, coping skills, social support) and adopting a generic preventive approach can reduce the risk of the development of a range of mental disorders and promote individual well-being even before the onset of a specific problem has presented itself. Given its multi-outcome perspective, we have termed this strategy the ‘BSA’ in prevention and promotion.

Self-esteem is considered one of the important elements of the BSA. By fostering self-esteem, and hence treating a common risk factor, it is possible to contribute to the prevention of an array of physical diseases, mental disorders and social problems challenging society today. This may also, at a later date, imply the prevention of a shift to other problem behaviors or symptoms which might occur when only problem-specific risk factors are addressed. For example, an eating disorder could be replaced by another type of symptom, such as alcohol abuse, smoking, social anxiety or depression, when only the eating behavior itself is addressed and not more basic causes, such as poor self-esteem, high stress levels and lack of social support. Although there is, as yet, no published research on such a shift phenomenon, the high level of co-morbidity between such problems might reflect the likelihood of its existence. Numerous studies support the idea of co-morbidity and showed that many mental disorders have overlapping associated risk factors such as self-esteem. There is a significant degree of co-morbidity between and within internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors such as depression, anxiety, substance disorders and delinquency ( Harrington et al. , 1996 ; Angold et al. , 1999 ; Swendsen and Merikangas, 2000 ). By considering the individual as a whole, within the BSA, the risk of such an eventuality could be reduced.

The BSA could have practical implications. Schools are an ideal setting for implementing BSA programs, thereby aiming at preventing an array of problems, since they cover the entire population. They have the means and responsibility for the promotion of healthy behavior for such a common risk and protective factor, since school children are in their formative stage. A mental health promotion curriculum oriented towards emotional and social learning could include a focus on enhancing self-esteem. Weare ( Weare, 2000 ) stressed that schools need to aim at helping children develop a healthy sense of self-esteem as part of the development of their ‘intra-personal intelligence’. According to Gardner (Gardner, 1993) ‘intra-personal intelligence’ is the ability to form an accurate model of oneself and the ability to use it to operate effectively in life. Self-esteem, then, is an important component of this ability. Serious thought should be given to the practical implementation of these ideas.

It is important to clearly define the nature of a BSA program designed to foster self-esteem within the school setting. In our opinion, such a program should include important determinants of self-esteem, i.e. competence and social support.

Harter ( Harter, 1999 ) stated that competence and social support, together provide a powerful explanation of the level of self-esteem. According to Harter's research on self-perceived competence, every child experiences some discrepancy between what he/she would like to be, the ‘ideal self’, and his/her actual perception of him/herself, ‘the real self’. When this discrepancy is large and it deals with a personally relevant domain, this will result in lower self-esteem. Moreover, the overall sense of support of significant others (especially parents, peers and teachers) is also influential for the development of self-esteem. Children who feel that others accept them, and are unconditionally loved and respected, will report a higher sense of self-esteem ( Bee, 2000 ). Thus, children with a high discrepancy and a low sense of social support reported the lowest sense of self-esteem. These results suggest that efforts to improve self-esteem in children require both supportive social surroundings and the formation and acceptance of realistic personal goals in the personally relevant domains ( Harter, 1999 ).

In addition to determinants such as competence and social support, we need to translate the theoretical knowledge on coping with inner self-processes (e.g. inconsistencies between the real and ideal self) into practice, in order to perform a systematic intervention regarding the self. Harter's work offers an important foundation for this. Based on her own and others' research on the development of the self, she suggests the following principles to prevent the development of negative self-esteem and to enhance self-worth ( Harter, 1999 ):

Reduction of the discrepancy between the real self and the ideal self.

Encouragement of relatively realistic self-perceptions.

Encouraging the belief that positive self-evaluations can be achieved.

Appreciation for the individual's views about their self-esteem and individual perceptions on causes and consequences of self-worth.

Increasing awareness of the origins of negative self-perceptions.

Providing a more integrated personal construct while improving understanding of self-contradictions.

Encouraging the individual and his/her significant others to promote the social support they give and receive.

Fostering internalization of positive opinions of others.

Haney and Durlak ( Haney and Durlak, 1998 ) wrote a meta-analytical review of 116 intervention studies for children and adolescents. Most studies indicated significant improvement in children's and adolescents' self-esteem and self-concept, and as a result of this change, significant changes in behavioral, personality, and academic functioning. Haney and Durlak reported on the possible impact improved self-esteem had on the onset of social problems. However, their study did not offer an insight into the potential effect of enhanced self-esteem on mental disorders.

Several mental health-promoting school programs that have addressed self-esteem and the determinants of self-esteem in practice, were effective in the prevention of eating disorders ( O'Dea and Abraham, 2000 ), problem behavior ( Flay and Ordway, 2001 ), and the reduction of substance abuse, antisocial behavior and anxiety ( Short, 1998 ). We shall focus on the first two programs because these are universal programs, which focused on ‘mainstream’ school children. The prevention of eating disorders program ‘Everybody's Different’ ( O'Dea and Abraham, 2000 ) is aimed at female adolescents aged 11–14 years old. It was developed in response to the poor efficacy of conventional body-image education in improving body image and eating behavior. ‘Everybody's Different’ has adopted an alternative methodology built on an interactive, school-based, self-esteem approach and is designed to prevent the development of eating disorders by improving self-esteem. The program has significantly changed aspects of self-esteem, body satisfaction, social acceptance and physical appearance. Female students targeted by the intervention rated their physical appearance, as perceived by others, significantly higher than control-group students, and allowed their body weight to increase appropriately by refraining from weight-loss behavior seen in the control group. These findings were still evident after 12 months. This is one of the first controlled educational interventions that had successfully improved body image and produced long-term changes in the attitudes and self-image of young adolescents.

The ‘Positive Action Program’ ( Flay and Ordway, 2001 ) serves as a unique example of some BSA principles in practice. The program addresses the challenge of increasing self-esteem, reducing problem behavior and improving school performance. The types of problem behavior in question were delinquent behavior, ‘misdemeanors’ and objection to school rules ( Flay and Ordway, 2001 ). This program concentrates on self-concept and self-esteem, but also includes other risk and protective factors, such as positive actions, self-control, social skills and social support that could be considered as determinants of self-esteem. Other important determinants of self-esteem, such as coping with internal self-processes, are not addressed. At present, the literature does not provide many examples of BSA studies that produce general preventive effects among adolescents who do not (yet) display behavioral problems ( Greenberg et al. , 2000 ).

To conclude, research results show beneficial outcomes of positive self-esteem, which is seen to be associated with mental well-being, happiness, adjustment, success, academic achievements and satisfaction. It is also associated with better recovery after severe diseases. However, the evolving nature of self-esteem could also result in negative outcomes. For example, low self-esteem can be a causal factor in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, poor social functioning, school dropout and risk behavior. Interestingly, the cross-sectional characteristic of many studies does not exclude the possibility that low self-esteem can also be considered as an important consequence of such disorders and behavioral problems.

Self-esteem is an important risk and protective factor linked to a diversity of health and social outcomes. Therefore, self-esteem enhancement can serve as a key component in a BSA approach in prevention and health promotion. The design and implementation of mental health programs with self-esteem as one of the core variables is an important and promising development in health promotion.

The authors are grateful to Dr Alastair McElroy for his constructive comments on this paper. The authors wish to thank Rianne Kasander (MA) and Chantal Van Ree (MA) for their assistance in the literature search. Financing for this study was generously provided by the Dutch Health Research and Development Council (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland, ZON/MW).

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Author notes

1Department of Health Education and Promotion, Maastricht University, Maastricht and 2Prevention Research Center on Program Development and Effect Management, The Netherlands

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Why It's Important to Have High Self-Esteem

Sarah Vanbuskirk has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, covering a range of health, wellness, lifestyle, and family-related topics. Her work has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, and websites, including The Spruce, Activity Connection, Glamour, PDX Parent, Self, Verywell Fit, TripSavvy, Marie Claire, and TimeOut New York.

Rachel Goldman, PhD FTOS, is a licensed psychologist, clinical assistant professor, speaker, wellness expert specializing in eating behaviors, stress management, and health behavior change.

Verywell / Laura Porter

What Is Self-Esteem?

Defining High Self-Esteem
Why It's Important

Risks of Low Self-Esteem

Can you have too much self-esteem.

Contributing Factors

Cultivating High Self-Esteem

Ways to improve self-esteem.

It's easy to discount the importance of having high self-esteem. However, having positive personal regard can be the difference between feeling good about and taking care of yourself and not.

We've likely all heard the advice to believe in yourself, value yourself, be your own cheerleader, and that you can't fully love others until you love yourself —and all of that is true. But what exactly does that really mean in real life? Essentially, that having high self-esteem is vital to a successful, happy life .

But how exactly do you know if your self-esteem is high enough? Below, we'll take a look at what self-esteem is, why it's important, and how to build yours up.

We'll also break down the negative effects of having low self-esteem, the difference between occasionally being down on yourself and truly having poor self-esteem, whether your self-esteem can be too high, factors that contribute to low self-esteem, and tips for cultivating a more positive self-outlook and self-respect.

In order to have high self-esteem, it's important to understand what self-esteem really is. Self-esteem is giving respect and admiration to yourself. The American Psychological Association defines self-esteem as "the degree to which the qualities and characteristics contained in one’s self-concept are perceived to be positive."

High self-esteem is not just liking yourself but generally affording yourself love, value, dignity, and respect, too. Positive self-esteem also means believing in your capability (to learn, achieve, and contribute to the world) and autonomy to do things on your own. It means you think your ideas, feelings, and opinions have worth.

In other words, self-esteem is how you feel about yourself (inside and out), encompassing what you think about and value in yourself and how you relate to others. It's also related to how you feel others view, treat, and value you. This is why those in abusive situations or who have experienced trauma (particularly as children) are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem, concurrently and in the future, as a result.

Self-esteem isn't dependent entirely on one thing or set of thoughts. Instead, a person's self-esteem is made up of your view of all the things that define you as a person, including your personality, accomplishments, talents, capabilities, background, experiences, relationships, and physical body, as well as how you perceive others see you.

Each person may put a particular emphasis on certain areas that impact self-esteem, such as putting extra importance on your looks , relationship status, talents, or professional accomplishments (or lack thereof), when forming your self-image and how you feel about it.

Self-Esteem vs. Depression

Note, too, that low self-esteem is not the same as depression . While the two concepts overlap, low self-esteem is considered a risk factor for depression (see more on this below) rather than being the same thing.

While depression is a mental health condition that impacts the mind and body, self-esteem describes the way you think and feel about yourself. Additionally, some people have more stable self-esteem, while other's feelings about themselves are more mood- and life event-reactive—and more prone to plummet.

Remember, whether your self-esteem is high or low is influenced by the many factors that make you, you—some of which are in your control, some are not.

Ultimately, what matters most is what you focus on from those many factors and how much grace and compassion you afford yourself with regard to the things you're less thrilled about.

Whether you realize it or not, your self-esteem is the picture you paint of yourself, the parts of you that you choose to emphasize. Essentially, as famed naturalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau once said, "The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

What It Means to Have High Self-Esteem

High self-esteem means generally holding yourself in positive regard. This doesn't mean you love everything about yourself or think you are perfect. On the contrary, even for those with high self-esteem, it's common to be self-critical and have some parts of yourself that you are less proud of or happy with than other elements.

However, if you have high self-esteem, the positive thoughts about yourself outweigh the negative—and the negative doesn't make you discount your worth as a person . High self-esteem can also fluctuate depending on the circumstance.

Essentially, high self-esteem is a frame of mind that lets you celebrate your strengths, challenge your weaknesses, and feel good about yourself and your life. It allows you to put daily ups and downs in perspective because, at your core, you value, trust, and respect yourself. High self-esteem helps you say, "I've had a bad day," for example, instead of saying, "I have a bad life."

High self-esteem also helps you understand that everything isn't about you, enabling you to not take everything personally and not be overly reactive. Strong self-respect lets you see beyond yourself and feel confident of your place in the world.

Characteristics of high self-esteem include:

Holding yourself in positive regard
Celebrating your strengths and challenging your weaknesses
Keeping daily ups and downs in perspective
Having strong self-respect and self-confidence

Interestingly, having high self-esteem does not always align with the circumstances or qualities that you might objectively assume should correlate with feeling good about yourself.

For example, some research shows that physical attractiveness does not predict high self-esteem . In fact, one study showed that teens with "facial attractiveness" scored lower on self-esteem ratings than their peers. In other words, the person who seems to have it all—great job, romantic partner, beauty, fit body—may not see it that way.

Signs of High Self-Esteem

How do you know if you have high self-esteem? Here are a few signs:

You feel comfortable expressing your opinions, if they are different from those around you.
You're confident in your abilities.
You don't let challenges hold you back.
You don't let a setback change how you feel about yourself.
You treat yourself with love and respect versus calling yourself names or discrediting yourself.
You're willing to set boundaries with people who don't value and respect you

Why High Self-Esteem Is Important

According to the American Psychological Association, having high self-esteem is key to positive mental health and well-being. High self-esteem is good because it helps you develop coping skills , handle adversity, and put the negative into perspective.

If you have a higher self-concept you also don't tend to put undue focus, blame, self-doubt, hopelessness, or weight on the parts you aren't happy about. You're also better able to cope with stress , anxiety, and pressure, whether from school, work, home, or peers.

Rather than feeling hopeless , stuck, or unworthy due to any perceived "failings," a person with high self-esteem is more likely to look for what they can change or improve upon. If struggling with a project at work, for example, someone with high self-esteem might ask a supervisor for help coming up with solutions versus berating themselves for being ineffective at their job.

Conversely, someone with low self-esteem is more likely to become entrenched in negative feelings about themself. In fact, research shows that feeling positive and respectful about yourself, particularly as a child, goes a long way in helping you adapt and adjust to the challenges of life.

A healthy self-concept and self-respect can enable you to realize that it's not the end of the world if something goes wrong, someone rejects you, you make a mistake, or you have some faults.

Self-Esteem and Prosocial Behavior

High self-esteem is also linked to prosocial behavior (actions with the intent to benefit others, such as generosity and qualities like empathy), flexibility, and positive familial relationships. In fact, a 2014 study found that college students with higher self-esteem and more loving and supportive relationships with their families were more successful at school and adapted better to the social adjustment of living in a new environment.

Self-Esteem and Stress

How you experience stress is also strongly related to your level of self-esteem. Prosocial behavior (which, as noted above, is more likely with higher self-esteem) is known to reduce the negative impact of stressors on daily life, helping you to manage stress more effectively. Studies have also found a positive relationship between positive self-esteem and motivation to accomplish goals, self-efficacy, and self-control. Higher levels of self-esteem are also predictive of greater academic success.

High Self-Esteem Boosts Overall Well-Being

Additionally, high self-esteem is considered to be protective against many mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. In fact, studies show that having high self-esteem is directly correlated to your satisfaction with your life and to the ability to maintain a favorable attitude about yourself in challenging situations.

Research also shows that people with higher self-esteem are happier in their jobs, have better social relationships, and generally, a more positive sense of well-being.

Like many elements of mental health, researchers often describe self-esteem as existing on a spectrum.

Like anything in life, your self-image is prone to change and grow as you mature and live your life, and in response to key life events.

However, it's also true that people tend toward a certain set-point of self-esteem that can be persistent, whether high, low, or somewhere in between. Social interactions, attention, emotional regulation, decision-making, and life satisfaction are all impacted by lower self-image.

As noted above, when you have high self-esteem, you're better able to shake off unfavorable events and the negative judgments or moods of others that may be directed your way. Conversely, when you have a lower self-concept, you're more likely to take criticism or rejection personally and to assume someone else's problems are about you.

This combination can make people with low self-esteem more reactive to day-to-day circumstances and personal interactions. Those with lower self-esteem are also less likely to keep their emotions in check, cope well with challenges, and look at life from a healthy perspective.

Often low self-esteem means small things become blown up into bigger issues that can feel insurmountable, further ratcheting down self-regard.

Feeling Down vs. Poor Self-Esteem

Essentially, low self-esteem isn't just having a bad mood or a bad day. Everyone feels down when negative things happen but these feelings typically pass and, especially for those with positive self-esteem, don't have a drastic impact on self-worth. Instead, low self-esteem is a chronically negative self-image that, while it may ebb and flow with the positive and negative events in your life, for the most part, stays with you over time, regardless of life circumstances.

Your level of self-regard may be, in part, a function of the natural variation in personality types , affect, genetics, and/or in response to upbringing, peers, and life events. However, when self-esteem is particularly low, as noted above, it can put you at risk of many mental health challenges.

Susceptibility to Depression

The link between low self-esteem and mental health conditions is particularly strong. Interestingly, research shows convincingly that poor self-esteem contributes to depression , rather than the reverse. This means that depression doesn't create low self-regard. Instead, thinking poorly of yourself makes you more vulnerable to depression.

Additionally, studies indicate that higher self-esteem offers protection from mental health conditions, likely due to the improved coping skills, higher positivity, and resiliency that comes with this more accepting and affirmative self-talk. Essentially, low self-esteem begets feeling bad about yourself, which makes leading a fulfilling life, reaching your goals , and having positive social and intimate relationships harder.

Critically, studies show that low self-esteem is highly correlated to depression, anxiety , emotional problems, substance use , stress, eating disorders , and suicidal ideation . Research also shows a strong correlation between low self-esteem and anxiety disorders , particularly with social phobias and social anxiety disorder .

If you or a loved one are having suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911. For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database .

Risky Behaviors

Studies also show a link between poor self-esteem and an increased risk of risky health behaviors, particularly in teens, such as drug and alcohol use, drunk driving, self-harm , smoking, and carrying a weapon. Essentially, those who value and respect themselves the least are more willing to make more dangerous choices that may impact their health and safety.

Additionally, improvements in self-esteem are shown to be helpful in the recovery from addiction . In fact, studies show that this relationship of low self-esteem and poor choices is particularly evident in adolescents who already are at a disadvantage for decision-making due to their still-developing executive function skills . Research has also found a link between low self-esteem and risky sexual behaviors in teens.

Low Self-Confidence

Research also finds a clear correlation between low self-confidence and low self-esteem, as well as the reverse. Additionally, having high self-confidence encourages self-reliance, self-advocacy, and trust in yourself and your abilities, all factors that bolster high self-esteem—and create a framework for positive mental health and quality of life.

An unrealistic or overly elevated self-concept may be as unhealthy as a negative one. However, it's important to distinguish between healthy high self-esteem and arrogance. High self-esteem is not being egotistical, thinking you are infallible, or better than others.

High Self-Esteem vs. Arrogance and Narcissism

Arrogance is when a person's self-concept veers from reality and becomes the dominant force in their life, and we might assume that too much self-esteem equals an inflated ego.

However, this type of narcissistic self-concept isn't necessarily a natural progression from healthy self-esteem, which values the self but not above all others.

Instead, narcissism or arrogance describes a person who focuses primarily on themselves, considers themselves more important or worthwhile than others, and often, doesn't even think about how their actions impact those around them. Really, it can be argued that what looks like "too much self-esteem" is actually the opposite.

In fact, while narcissists may seem to have high self-esteem, studies show that grandiose beliefs about yourself often actually mask a poor self-image, feelings of shame, and self-directed anger hiding underneath.

People with narcissistic personality disorder are also more prone to comorbid mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, experience feelings of helplessness, and have unstable personal relationships.

Factors Contributing to Low or High Self-Esteem

While, as noted above, a complex web of influences combine to shape your identity, personality, and self-concept, there are specific factors that predict high or low self-esteem. Namely, factors that impact self-esteem include whether or not you had a supportive upbringing, where your needs, thoughts, feelings, contributions, and ideas are valued. Positive thinking , heredity , personal outlook, your peers, and other role models all matter a lot as well.

Experiencing challenging life events or trauma like divorce, violence, racism, neglect, poverty, a natural disaster, being bullied, or otherwise treated poorly can also contribute to low self-esteem.

The effectiveness of your coping skills , the relative positivity of your personal outlook, and general resiliency, all factors that can be innate or learned, greatly impact the influence negative experiences may have on your self-esteem as well.

Cultivating high self-esteem (and resiliency) is no easy task, but it's certainly possible and within your grasp—and can make a huge difference in your life. As noted above, it's key to understand that a significant component of self-esteem is your thought patterns, what you focus on, and optimism rather than simply on objective facts or events of your life.

In other words, it's about what you see (and say to yourself) when looking at your physical self, skills, accomplishments, or future potential.

Building up your self-esteem takes work, determination, and a willingness to examine and counter negative thoughts about yourself—and to actively bolster your self-image with positive ones. It's vital to give yourself grace, to let go of certain things that bother you as well as to work on those areas that you can (and want) to change.

If you value yourself, and have high enough self-worth, you also know that you deserve to take care of yourself, which then can contribute to trying to do things to improve your self-esteem. It's difficult to take care of yourself if you think poorly of yourself.

Studies show that forgiving yourself for things you regret can also help improve self-esteem. Essentially, it's about accepting and loving yourself as you are.

When to Get Help

If you have low self-esteem, it can be helpful to work with a counselor or other mental health professional to begin changing your negative self-talk and improve how you see and value yourself.

As noted above, improving your self-esteem takes practice and intention but is well worth your efforts, as there is a clear link between high self-esteem and quality of life. Some strategies that can help you think more favorably about yourself include the following:

Accept Compliments

Notice the urge to deflect praise and instead, hear it and let it in. Interestingly, research shows that difficulty accepting compliments is directly correlated with low self-esteem.

Give Yourself a Break

Forgive yourself for mistakes and squash your negative self-theories and self-talk . No one is perfect or loves everything about themselves. Don't expect that of yourself. When you start on a negative spiral, ask yourself if you're being fair to yourself or realistic.

Love Yourself—Flaws And All

Yes, you may have things you wish were different, want to change, or just plain aren't happy with, but love and respect yourself anyway.

Value the Person You Are

Aim to accept and find worth in who you are right now. Seek out and feel pride in what makes you unique, happy, and valued.

Recognize the Importance of High Self-Esteem

Once you begin to see how your view of yourself impacts life satisfaction and well-being, you may be more motivated to alter your thinking and value yourself more.

Seek Support

Therapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy , can help you work on issues that may be impeding your positive self-outlook and help you build skills to disrupt negative self-talk and attain a more optimistic view of yourself.

Start a Gratitude Journal

In a gratitude journal , write down all the positive things in your life, the things you like about yourself, the accomplishments or qualities you are proud of—then read it over whenever you're feeling down about yourself.

Take Note of Your Thoughts

When negative ones arise, actively choose to either work productively on the issues or decide to let them go. When you have positive thoughts, aim to amplify them, particularly whenever less favorable thinking pops up.

Think of Yourself as a Friend

You're likely to be more patient, forgiving, kind, encouraging, supportive, and proud as you assess a friend than you are of yourself. So, next time you're beating up on yourself, step back, shift your perspective, and look at yourself as you would a friend.

Work on Yourself

If there are things about yourself or your life that you don't feel good about, consider what changes you can make. Then, make a plan to put those changes into action.

A Word From Verywell

High self-esteem is key to life satisfaction. For some, this frame of mind comes easily, for others it's more of a struggle. Luckily, wherever you may be on the self-esteem spectrum, you can work on improving your vision, support, compassion, and love of yourself.

After all, the relationship you have with yourself may ultimately be the one that matters most—it gifts you the resiliency, confidence, kindness, motivation, and love that informs the rest of your life and helps you be the best person you can be.

You might also want to consider reaching out to a therapist to help you learn the skills needed to build your self-esteem.

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By Sarah Vanbuskirk Sarah Vanbuskirk has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, covering a range of health, wellness, lifestyle, and family-related topics. Her work has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, and websites, including The Spruce, Activity Connection, Glamour, PDX Parent, Self, Verywell Fit, TripSavvy, Marie Claire, and TimeOut New York.

Library Health & Wellness Personal Development Self Esteem

Introduction To Self-Esteem

The relationship between self-esteem and well-being, negative self-concept, improving self-esteem.

Self-esteem refers to the overall sense of self-worth or personal value we attribute to ourselves. It’s an internal assessment of how much we value and appreciate ourselves, regardless of external circumstances or others’ opinions. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about yourself (for example, “I am competent,” “I am worthy”) as well as emotional states such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. A healthy level of self-esteem is crucial for overall well-being, influencing decision-making processes, relationships, and the ability to face life’s challenges. It forms the foundation of mental and emotional health, enabling us to navigate life with confidence and resilience. Understanding and nurturing our self-esteem can lead to a more fulfilling and balanced life.

Self-esteem plays a pivotal role in our overall well-being and mental health, acting as both a protective factor against life’s stressors and a facilitator of psychological resilience. Healthy self-esteem contributes to a robust mental state, empowering individuals to approach life with optimism and courage. It is intricately linked to how we manage stress, how we relate to others, and our capacity for happiness and contentment.

Here are some ways self-esteem affects different aspects of life:

Mental Health : A healthy level of self-esteem is associated with lower rates of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and stress. When we value ourselves and have confidence in our abilities, we are less likely to succumb to the cognitive distortions that fuel these conditions. Conversely, low self-esteem can be both a cause and a consequence of mental health challenges. However, professional intervention can assist in addressing these.
Resilience to Stress : Individuals with high self-esteem often exhibit greater resilience in the face of adversity. Individuals with healthy self-esteem possess a sturdy foundation of self-worth. This resilience enables them to recover more quickly from setbacks and maintain a positive outlook on life.
Relationships : Self-esteem affects the quality of our relationships. When we feel good about ourselves, we are more likely to engage in positive interactions and establish healthy boundaries. High self-esteem allows us to feel secure in our relationships, reducing the likelihood of developing dependency or tolerating mistreatment.
Decision-Making and Achievement : Self-belief is crucial for setting and achieving goals. High self-esteem fosters a mindset of growth and possibility, encouraging individuals to pursue ambitions with determination. It enhances our ability to make decisions, face challenges head-on, and seize opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Happiness and Contentment : At its core, self-esteem influences our capacity for happiness. A positive self-image enhances life satisfaction and joy. People with high self-esteem are more likely to engage in activities that bring them happiness and to forge meaningful connections with others.

In summary, self-esteem is not just about feeling good about yourself; it’s a fundamental aspect of mental and emotional health that influences your interaction with the world. Nurturing self-esteem is essential for a balanced, happy life and forms the basis for strong mental health and enduring well-being.

Conversely, a negative self-concept is deeply ingrained in the way individuals perceive themselves, marked by a persistent feeling of inadequacy and a lack of self-worth. This perception is more than just occasional self-doubt; it is an enduring view of oneself as unworthy, incompetent, and undeserving. Such a self-concept shapes every aspect of life, from how individuals interact with others to how they face challenges and perceive their place in the world.

Characterized by self-criticism and a focus on perceived faults, a negative self-concept influences emotions, behaviors, and decision-making processes. Individuals may find themselves trapped in a cycle of self-sabotage, avoiding opportunities for fear of failure or withdrawing from social situations due to a fear of judgment or rejection. This constant self-scrutiny not only diminishes a person’s capacity to enjoy life but also erects barriers to personal growth and fulfillment.

The ripple effects of a negative self-concept extend into mental health, contributing to conditions such as depression and anxiety. The relentless inner critic amplifies feelings of isolation and despair, making it challenging to seek help or engage in positive self-reflection. What’s more, this skewed self-perception can strain relationships, as insecurities may manifest in defensive or withdrawn behaviors, further isolating the individual.

Overcoming a negative self-concept requires a conscious effort to acknowledge and challenge these harmful thought patterns. It involves cultivating self-compassion, seeking supportive relationships, and engaging in activities that reinforce a sense of competence and achievement. Transforming self-esteem is a gradual process, but with patience and persistence, it is possible to develop a healthier, more positive self-concept that enhances well-being and fosters a fulfilling life.

Dr. Brindusa Vanta, MD, says, “What is the difference between self-image and self-concept? A person’s self-image is based on how they see themselves. Self-concept is a more comprehensive concept involving perceptions, values, feelings, and thoughts about oneself, as described by influential psychologist Carl Rogers.”

Improving self-esteem is a journey that involves both introspection and action. Here are several strategies to help cultivate healthier self-esteem:

Practice Self-Compassion: Begin by treating yourself with kindness and understanding rather than harsh judgment. Recognize that everyone makes mistakes, and yours do not define you.
Forgive Yourself. Self-compassion involves acknowledging your emotions and forgiving yourself, which can significantly boost your self-esteem.
Set Realistic Goals: Setting and achieving realistic goals can greatly enhance your sense of self-worth. Start with small, achievable objectives and gradually work your way up. Celebrate your successes along the way, no matter how small, to build confidence in your abilities.
Engage in Positive Self-Talk : The dialogue you have with yourself has a profound impact on your self-esteem. Make a conscious effort to replace negative self-talk with positive affirmations. Remind yourself of your strengths, accomplishments, and qualities.
Surround Yourself with Support : The company you keep can influence how you feel about yourself. Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who uplift you and believe in your worth. A strong support system can provide encouragement and a more positive perspective on your self-image.
Engage in Activities You Enjoy : Participating in activities you enjoy and are good at can improve your mood and boost your confidence. Whether it’s a hobby, sport, or creative pursuit, engaging in these activities regularly can reinforce your sense of competency and self-worth.
Take Care of Your Physical Health : Physical well-being is closely linked to self-esteem. Regular exercise, a nutritious diet, and adequate sleep can improve your mood, increase your energy levels, and contribute to a more positive self-perception.
Limit Social Media Comparison : Because people often post about the most positive aspects of their lives and celebrities usually post flawless images of themselves, social media presents unrealistic standards. Limiting your exposure to these platforms or approaching them with a critical eye can help reduce feelings of inadequacy and comparison.
Seek Professional Help : If low self-esteem is significantly impacting your life, seeking the guidance of a mental health professional can be a valuable step. Therapy can provide strategies to help you challenge negative thought patterns and build a healthier, more positive self-image.

As Dr. Brindusa Vanta, MD, suggests, “Looking to boost your self-esteem? Take time each day to reflect on things you’re grateful for. Based on research studies, practicing gratitude offers many health benefits, including improved self-esteem and overall well-being.”

Improving self-esteem is not an overnight process, but with persistence and the right strategies, it’s possible to cultivate a more positive self-view. By taking steps to appreciate and value yourself, you can build a foundation of self-esteem that supports a fulfilling and resilient life.

MentalHealth.com is a health technology company guiding people towards self-understanding and connection. The platform offers reliable resources, accessible services, and nurturing communities. Its mission involves educating, supporting, and empowering people in their pursuit of well-being.

The content on this page was originally from MentalHelp.net, a website we acquired and moved to MentalHealth.com in September 2024. This content has not yet been fully updated to meet our content standards and may be incomplete. We are committed to editing, enhancing, and medically reviewing all content by March 31, 2025. Please check back soon, and thank you for visiting MentalHealth.com. Learn more about our content standards here .

Dr. Brindusa Vanta is a medical editor for MentalHealth.com, focusing on many issues, including personality disorders, stress, anger, self-esteem, and more. She received her MD degree from Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine, Romania, and her HD diploma from OCHM, Canada.

We take mental health content seriously and follow industry-leading guidelines to ensure our users access the highest quality information. All editorial decisions for published content are made by the MentalHealth.com Editorial Team, with guidance from our Medical Affairs Team.

Self-Esteem

8 steps to improving your self-esteem, what is the story you tell yourself.

Posted March 27, 2017 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

What Is Self-Esteem?
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Healthy self-esteem can be defined as a realistic, appreciative opinion of oneself.
Some navigate the world—and relationships—searching for any evidence to validate their self-limiting beliefs.
Ways to increase feelings of self-worth include the use of affirmations and avoiding comparison with others.

When it comes to your self-worth, only one opinion truly matters—your own. And even that one should be carefully evaluated; we tend to be our own harshest critics.

Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D. , author of The Self-Esteem Workbook , describes healthy self-esteem as a realistic, appreciative opinion of oneself. He writes, “Unconditional human worth assumes that each of us is born with all the capacities needed to live fruitfully, although everyone has a different mix of skills, which are at different levels of development.” He emphasizes that core worth is independent of externals that the marketplace values, such as wealth, education , health, status—or the way one has been treated.

Some navigate the world—and relationships—searching for any bit of evidence to validate their self-limiting beliefs. Much like judge and jury, they constantly put themselves on trial and sometimes sentence themselves to a lifetime of self-criticism.

Following are eight steps you can take to increase your feelings of self-worth.

1. Be mindful .

We can’t change something if we don’t recognize that there is something to change. By simply becoming aware of our negative self-talk , we begin to distance ourselves from the feelings it brings up. This enables us to identify with them less. Without this awareness, we can easily fall into the trap of believing our self-limiting talk, and as meditation teacher Allan Lokos says, “Don’t believe everything you think. Thoughts are just that—thoughts.”

As soon as you find yourself going down the path of self-criticism, gently note what is happening, be curious about it, and remind yourself, “These are thoughts, not facts.”

2. Change the story.

We all have a narrative or a story we’ve created about ourselves that shapes our self-perceptions, upon which our core self-image is based. If we want to change that story, we have to understand where it came from and where we received the messages we tell ourselves. Whose voices are we internalizing?

“Sometimes automatic negative thoughts like ‘you’re fat’ or ‘you’re lazy’ can be repeated in your mind so often that you start to believe they are true,” says Jessica Koblenz, Psy.D . “These thoughts are learned, which means they can be unlearned . You can start with affirmations . What do you wish you believed about yourself? Repeat these phrases to yourself every day."

Thomas Boyce, Ph.D ., supports the use of affirmations. Research conducted by Boyce and his colleagues has demonstrated that “fluency training” in positive affirmations (for example, writing down as many different positive things you can about yourself in a minute) can lessen symptoms of depression as measured by self-report using the Beck Depression Inventory . Larger numbers of written positive statements are correlated with greater improvement. “While they have a bad reputation because of late-night TV,” Boyce says, “positive affirmations can help.”

3. Avoid falling into the compare-and-despair rabbit hole.

“Two key things I emphasize are to practice acceptance and stop comparing yourself to others,” says psychotherapist Kimberly Hershenson, LMSW . “I emphasize that just because someone else appears happy on social media or even in person doesn’t mean they are happy. Comparisons only lead to negative self-talk, which leads to anxiety and stress .” Feelings of low self-worth can negatively affect your mental health as well as other areas in your life, such as work, relationships, and physical health.

4. Channel your inner rock star.

Albert Einstein said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Someone may be a brilliant musician, but a dreadful cook. Neither quality defines their core worth. Recognize what your strengths are and the feelings of confidence they engender, especially in times of doubt. It’s easy to make generalizations when you “mess up” or “fail” at something, but reminding yourself of the ways you rock offers a more realistic perspective of yourself.

Psychotherapist and certified sex therapist Kristie Overstreet, LPCC, CST, CAP , suggests asking yourself, “Was there a time in your life where you had better self-esteem? What were you doing at that stage of your life?” If it’s difficult for you to identify your unique gifts, ask a friend to point them out to you. Sometimes it’s easier for others to see the best in us than it is for us to see it in ourselves.

5. Exercise.

Many studies have shown a correlation between exercise and higher self-esteem, as well as improved mental health. “Exercising creates empowerment both physical and mental,” says Debbie Mandel, author of Addicted to Stress , “especially weight lifting where you can calibrate the accomplishments. Exercise organizes your day around self-care.” She suggests dropping a task daily from your endless to-do list for the sole purpose of relaxation or doing something fun, and seeing how that feels. Other forms of self-care, such as proper nutrition and sufficient sleep , have also been shown to have positive effects on one’s self-perception.

6. Do unto others.

Hershenson suggests volunteering to help those who may be less fortunate. “Being of service to others helps take you out of your head. When you are able to help someone else, it makes you less focused on your own issues.”

David Simonsen, Ph.D., LMFT , agrees:

“What I find is that the more someone does something in their life that they can be proud of, the easier it is for them to recognize their worth. Doing things that one can respect about themselves is the one key that I have found that works to raise one’s worth. It is something tangible. Helping at a homeless shelter, animal shelter, giving of time at a big brother or sister organization. These are things that mean something and give value to not only oneself, but to someone else as well.”

There is much truth to the fact that what we put out there into the world tends to boomerang back to us. To test this out, spend a day intentionally putting out positive thoughts and behaviors toward those with whom you come into contact. As you go about your day, be mindful of what comes back to you, and also notice if your mood improves.

7. Forgive.

Is there someone in your life you haven’t forgiven? An ex-partner? A family member? Yourself? By holding on to feelings of bitterness or resentment, we keep ourselves stuck in a cycle of negativity. If we haven’t forgiven ourselves, shame will keep us in this same loop.

“Forgiving self and others has been found to improve self-esteem,” says Schiraldi, “perhaps because it connects us with our innately loving nature and promotes an acceptance of people, despite our flaws.” He refers to the Buddhist meditation on forgiveness , which can be practiced at any time: " If I have hurt or harmed anyone, knowingly or unknowingly, I ask forgiveness. If anyone has hurt or harmed me, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive them. For the ways I have hurt myself, knowingly or unknowingly, I offer forgiveness."

8. Remember that you are not your circumstances.

Finally, learning to differentiate between your circumstances and who you are is key to self-worth. “Recognizing inner worth, and loving one’s imperfect self, provide the secure foundation for growth,” says Schiraldi. “With that security, one is free to grow with enjoyment, not fear of failure—because failure doesn’t change core worth.”

We are all born with infinite potential and equal worth as human beings. That we are anything less is a false belief that we have learned over time. Therefore, with hard work and self-compassion, self-destructive thoughts and beliefs can be unlearned. Taking the steps outlined above is a start in the effort to increase self-worth, or as Schiraldi says, to “ recognize self-worth. It already exists in each person.”

LinkedIn image: BearFotos/Shutterstock

Allison Abrams, LCSW-R , is a licensed psychotherapist in NYC, as well as a writer and advocate for mental health awareness and destigmatization.

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5 ways to build lasting self-esteem

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Everyone is in favor of high self-esteem — but cultivating it can be surprisingly tough. Psychologist Guy Winch explains why — and describes smart ways we can help build ourselves up.

Many of us recognize the value of improving our feelings of self-worth. When our self-esteem is higher, we not only feel better about ourselves, we are more resilient as well. Brain scan studies demonstrate that when our self-esteem is higher, we are likely to experience common emotional wounds such as rejection and failure as less painful, and bounce back from them more quickly. When our self-esteem is higher, we are also less vulnerable to anxiety ; we release less cortisol into our bloodstream when under stress, and it is less likely to linger in our system.

But as wonderful as it is to have higher self-esteem, it turns out that improving it is no easy task. Despite the endless array of articles, programs and products promising to enhance our self-esteem, the reality is that many of them do not work and some are even likely to make us feel worse .

Part of the problem is that our self-esteem is rather unstable to begin with, as it can fluctuate daily, if not hourly. Further complicating matters, our self-esteem comprises both our global feelings about ourselves as well as how we feel about ourselves in the specific domains of our lives (e.g., as a father, a nurse, an athlete, etc.). The more meaningful a specific domain of self-esteem, the greater the impact it has on our global self-esteem. Having someone wince when they taste the not-so-delicious dinner you prepared will hurt a chef’s self-esteem much more than someone for whom cooking is not a significant aspect of their identity.

Lastly, having high self-esteem is indeed a good thing, but only in moderation. Very high self-esteem — like that of narcissists — is often quite brittle. Such people might feel great about themselves much of the time but they also tend to be extremely vulnerable to criticism and negative feedback and respond to it in ways that stunts their psychological self-growth .

That said, it is certainly possible to improve our self-esteem if we go about it the right way. Here are five ways to nourish your self-esteem when it is low:

1. Use positive affirmations correctly

Positive affirmations such as “I am going to be a great success!” are extremely popular, but they have one critical problem — they tend to make people with low self-worth feel worse about themselves. Why? Because when our self-esteem is low, such declarations are simply too contrary to our existing beliefs . Ironically, positive affirmations do work for one subset of people — those whose self-esteem is already high. For affirmations to work when your self-esteem is lagging, tweak them to make them more believable. For example, change “I’m going to be a great success!” to “I’m going to persevere until I succeed!”

2. Identify your competencies and develop them

Self-esteem is built by demonstrating real ability and achievement in areas of our lives that matter to us. If you pride yourself on being a good cook, throw more dinner parties. If you’re a good runner, sign up for races and train for them. In short, figure out your core competencies and find opportunities and careers that accentuate them.

3. Learn to accept compliments

One of the trickiest aspects of improving self-esteem is that when we feel bad about ourselves we tend to be more resistant to compliments — even though that is when we most need them. So, set yourself the goal to tolerate compliments when you receive them, even if they make you uncomfortable (and they will). The best way to avoid the reflexive reactions of batting away compliments is to prepare simple set responses and train yourself to use them automatically whenever you get good feedback (e.g., “Thank you” or “How kind of you to say”). In time, the impulse to deny or rebuff compliments will fade — which will also be a nice indication your self-esteem is getting stronger.

4. Eliminate self-criticism and introduce self-compassion

Unfortunately, when our self-esteem is low, we are likely to damage it even further by being self-critical. Since our goal is to enhance our self-esteem, we need to substitute self-criticism (which is almost always entirely useless, even if it feels compelling) with self-compassion . Specifically, whenever your self-critical inner monologue kicks in, ask yourself what you would say to a dear friend if they were in your situation (we tend to be much more compassionate to friends than we are to ourselves) and direct those comments to yourself. Doing so will avoid damaging your self-esteem further with critical thoughts, and help build it up instead.

5. Affirm your real worth

The following exercise has been demonstrated to help revive your self-esteem after it sustained a blow: Make a list of qualities you have that are meaningful in the specific context. For example, if you got rejected by your date, list qualities that make you a good relationship prospect (for example, being loyal or emotionally available); if you failed to get a work promotion, list qualities that make you a valuable employee (you have a strong work ethic or are responsible). Then choose one of the items on your list and write a brief essay (one to two paragraphs) about why the quality is valuable and likely to be appreciated by other people in the future. Do the exercise every day for a week or whenever you need a self-esteem boost.

The bottom line is improving self-esteem requires a bit of work, as it involves developing and maintaining healthier emotional habits but doing so, and especially doing so correctly, will provide a great emotional and psychological return on your investment.

About the author

Guy Winch is a licensed psychologist who is a leading advocate for integrating the science of emotional health into our daily lives. His three TED Talks have been viewed over 20 million times, and his science-based self-help books have been translated into 26 languages. He also writes the Squeaky Wheel blog for PsychologyToday.com and has a private practice in New York City.

mental health
self-esteem

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Excellent essay writing blog for students seeking help with paper writing. We provide exclusive tips and ideas that can help create the best essay possible.

Brilliant Self Esteem Essay: Writing Guide & Topics

Self-esteem is a personal trait that has proven to withstand both high and low tides. It is a state which carries within itself a wide range of beliefs about oneself. Also referred to as self-respect, self-esteem is the confidence in one’s worth or abilities.

It is a subject of great interest to many people. Having a spiced up and captivating essay about self-esteem can guarantee a considerable readership or high grades for students. Many people, especially college students, have a problem with this, and hence we are here to help.

To start us off, let us look at a self-esteem essay example on the effect of social media on self-esteem:

Effect of Social Media on Self-Esteem Essay

“In the last decade, social media has tremendously gained popularity. Its impact and power have left permanent effects on many people and different facets of life. Many people have, therefore, developed high or low self-esteem concerning social media. More research shows that there exists a strong relationship between self-esteem and social media. Facebook has caused a decrease in self-esteem in many people.

Many teenagers are using social media, especially Facebook, to build relationships. There are a lot of people on Facebook of all ages, races, gender, and ethnicity. It is, therefore, natural for teens to mingle and socialize on this platform. Most of the people on social media purport to live “flashy lifestyles,” while in reality, that is not the case. It, therefore, creates a decreased self-esteem on those who cannot live up to those standards.

Social media, through social networking sites, enables people to make social comparisons. For instance, people may try to copy the lifestyles of celebrities. However, those who cannot meet their celebrity status tend to have low self-esteem. The psychological distress of such individuals is higher, resulting in low levels of self-esteem. Many people have, therefore, become victims of lower self-esteem and, consequently, low self-growth.

In conclusion, social media has a very high impact on the self-esteem of individuals. Usage of social media for social networking, communication, and building and maintaining of relationships has diverse effects. There should be sufficient information to help people not fall victims of these adverse effects.”

From the self-esteem essay conclusion above, it is evident that we have not introduced any new idea. You only need to restate the thesis statement and provide a solution to the problem.

We are now going to explore some exciting self-esteem topics with explanations on what to cover in such essays.

“What is Self-Esteem Essay” Topics

Self-esteem essay, Low Self-Esteem: An expository essay

Here, you will have clearly and concisely investigate low self-esteem, evaluate pieces of evidence, expound on it, and provide an argument concerning it.

What is Self-esteem? A critical analysis of theories on the function of self-esteem.

Such an essay requires you to explore the various approaches that show the role of self-esteem in individuals or society at large.

Understanding the concept of self-esteem

It is a topic that digs deep into the breadth and depth of self-worth and makes readers get a clear picture.

A descriptive study of self-esteem

It is about describing or summarizing self-esteem using words instead of pictures.

State self-esteem

Topics on Social Media and Self-Esteem Essay

The Paradox Effect of social media on self-esteem

Describe how social media is giving off the illusion of different choices while making it harder to find viable options.

Self-esteem and ‘vanity validation’ effect of social media

Show how the interaction of people with social media for an extended period, inevitably feels compelled to continue to check for updates.

The Dark Side of Social Media: How It Affects Self-Esteem
Social Media and Confidence

How is one’s self-worth in terms of confidence boosted by social media?

Social media and depression

Let readers see how depression can result from the use of social media with real-life experiences.

Importance of Self-Esteem

Self-Concept and Self-Esteem Essay Topic Ideas

Explain how self-concept underpins self-esteem. Evaluate the different approaches to self-esteem. You can also discuss the application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of self-actualization. Giving the usefulness of the motivational theory for boosting self-esteem will add weight to your essay.

Topic Ideas on How to Improve Self-Esteem

Tips to Improve Self-Esteem

Give detailed and well-researched advice on how people can boost their self-esteem

Steps to Improving Self Esteem

Here are more topic ideas on how to improve self-esteem: 1. Top 5 tactics to change how to improve how you see yourself 2. Things you can do to boost your self-esteem 3. Understanding and building low self-esteem

Take a break from writing.

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Self-esteem: Take steps to feel better about yourself

Harness the power of your thoughts and beliefs to raise your self-esteem. Start with these steps.

Low self-esteem can affect nearly every aspect of life. It can impact your relationships, job and health. But you can boost your self-esteem by taking cues from mental health counseling.

Consider these steps, based on cognitive behavioral therapy.

1. Recognize situations that affect self-esteem

Think about the situations that seem to deflate your self-esteem. Common triggers might include:

A work or school presentation
A crisis at work or home
A challenge with a spouse, loved one, co-worker or other close contact
A change in roles or life events, such as a job loss or a child leaving home

2. Become aware of thoughts and beliefs

Once you've learned which situations affect your self-esteem, notice your thoughts about them. This includes what you tell yourself (self-talk) and how you view the situations.

Your thoughts and beliefs might be positive, negative or neutral. They might be rational, based on reason or facts. Or they may be irrational, based on false ideas.

Ask yourself if these beliefs are true. Would you say them to a friend? If you wouldn't say them to someone else, don't say them to yourself.

3. Challenge negative thinking

Your initial thoughts might not be the only way to view a situation. Ask yourself whether your view is in line with facts and logic. Or is there another explanation?

Be aware that it can be hard to see flaws in your logic. Long-held thoughts and beliefs can feel factual even if they're opinions.

Also notice if you're having these thought patterns that erode self-esteem:

All-or-nothing thinking. This involves seeing things as either all good or all bad. For example, you may think, "If I don't succeed in this task, I'm a total failure."
Mental filtering. This means you focus and dwell on the negatives. It can distort your view of a person or situation. For example, "I made a mistake on that report and now everyone will realize I'm not up to the job."
Converting positives into negatives. This may involve rejecting your achievements and other positive experiences by insisting that they don't count. For example, "I only did well on that test because it was so easy."
Jumping to negative conclusions. You may tend to reach a negative conclusion with little or no evidence. For example, "My friend hasn't replied to my text, so I must have done something to make her angry."
Mistaking feelings for facts. You may confuse feelings or beliefs with facts. For example, "I feel like a failure, so I must be a failure."
Negative self-talk. You undervalue yourself. You may put yourself down or joke about your faults. For example, you may say, "I don't deserve anything better."

4. Adjust your thoughts and beliefs

Now replace negative or untrue thoughts with positive, accurate thoughts. Try these strategies:

Use hopeful statements. Be kind and encouraging to yourself. Instead of thinking a situation won't go well, focus on the positive. Tell yourself, "Even though it's tough, I can handle this."
Forgive yourself. Everyone makes mistakes. But mistakes aren't permanent reflections on you as a person. They're moments in time. Tell yourself, "I made a mistake, but that doesn't make me a bad person."
Avoid 'should' and 'must' statements. If you find that your thoughts are full of these words, you might be putting too many demands on yourself. Try to remove these words from your thoughts. It may lead to a healthier view of what to expect from yourself.
Focus on the positive. Think about the parts of your life that work well. Remember the skills you've used to cope with challenges.
Consider what you've learned. If it was a negative experience, what changes can you make next time to create a more positive outcome?
Relabel upsetting thoughts. Think of negative thoughts as signals to try new, healthy patterns. Ask yourself, "What can I think and do to make this less stressful?"
Encourage yourself. Give yourself credit for making positive changes. For example, "My presentation might not have been perfect, but my colleagues asked questions and remained engaged. That means I met my goal."

You might also try these steps, based on acceptance and commitment therapy.

1. Spot troubling conditions or situations

Again, think about the conditions or situations that seem to deflate your self-esteem. Then pay attention to your thoughts about them.

2. Step back from your thoughts

Repeat your negative thoughts many times. The goal is to take a step back from automatic thoughts and beliefs and observe them. Instead of trying to change your thoughts, distance yourself from them. Realize that they are nothing more than words.

3. Accept your thoughts

Instead of resisting or being overwhelmed by negative thoughts or feelings, accept them. You don't have to like them. Just allow yourself to feel them.

Negative thoughts don't need to be controlled, changed or acted upon. Aim to lessen their power on your behavior.

These steps might seem awkward at first. But they'll get easier with practice. Recognizing the thoughts and beliefs that affect low self-esteem allows you to change the way you think about them. This will help you accept your value as a person. As your self-esteem increases, your confidence and sense of well-being are likely to soar.

In addition to these suggestions, remember that you're worth special care. Be sure to:

Take care of yourself. Follow good health guidelines. Try to exercise at least 30 minutes a day most days of the week. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Limit sweets, junk food and saturated fats.
Do things you enjoy. Start by making a list of things you like to do. Try to do something from that list every day.
Spend time with people who make you happy. Don't waste time on people who don't treat you well.

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Orth U, et al. Is high self-esteem beneficial? Revisiting a classic question. American Psychologist. 2022; doi:10.1037/amp0000922.
Levenson JL, ed. Psychotherapy. In: The American Psychiatric Association Publishing Textbook of Psychosomatic Medicine and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. 3rd ed. American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2019. https://psychiatryonline.org. Accessed April 27, 2022.
Kliegman RM, et al. Psychotherapy and psychiatric hospitalization. In: Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 21st ed. Elsevier; 2020. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed April 27, 2022.
Fusar-Poli P, et al. What is good mental health? A scoping review. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 202; doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.12.105.
Van de Graaf DL, et al. Online acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) interventions for chronic pain: A systematic literature review. Internet Interventions. 2021; doi:10.1016/j.invent.2021.100465.
Bourne EJ. The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook. 7th ed. New Harbinger Publications; 2020.
Ebert MH, et al., eds. Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions. In: Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Psychiatry. 3rd ed. McGraw Hill; 2019. https://www.accessmedicine.mhmedical.com. Accessed May 4, 2022.
Self-esteem self-help guide. NHS inform. https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/mental-health/mental-health-self-help-guides/self-esteem-self-help-guide. Accessed May 4, 2022.
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Building Self-Esteem

13 February, 2020

8 minutes read

Author: Donna Moores

Evidently, self-esteem is seen as a personal trait which tends to be enduring and stable, the one that encompasses within itself a host of beliefs about oneself. In reality, self-esteem means different things to diverse people. To some it means feeling good and loving yourself unconditionally. To others it is a feeling which is at the center of one's being of self-confidence, self-worth and respect. Therefore, it is vital for one to have high self-esteem since it paves the way for love and success in life (Bruceeisner, 2012).

Certainly, people often overlook the importance for individuals to have a healthy or positive self-esteem. On the very basic level, a positive self-esteem is delineated by various qualities. They include being able to accept responsibilities for one’s own actions, respect and tolerance for others, being able to handle criticisms, and of course, being able to take charge of one’s own life. Also, it’s about taking a great pride in your own achievements, possessing a great level of integrity and loving others while being loved. The majority of people in the community, especially those in the business and entrepreneurial sectors, believe that possessing a healthy or positive self-esteem will aid in being a successful professional in your field of work.

In the medical field of the economy, for example, doctors, nurses and other people working in the medical community have a belief that possessing a positive self-esteem is very crucial in the maintenance of a healthy life by individuals. In contrast to the thought that a positive or healthy self-esteem is vital in an individual’s professional life, it also plays a very important role in alleviating psychological disorders.

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What Are the Effects of Underappreciation?

When an individual possesses a low self-esteem, he or she tries to impress others or prove others a focal point in their lives. However, this is deemed to be a total waste of one’s time and energy and can even result in psychological issues. In particular, a person without a healthy or positive self-esteem tends to have contempt towards people and usually acts arrogantly. They usually blame themselves for their actions and failures, lack confidence in themselves and mostly doubt their acceptability and self-worth (Reasoner, 2012).

These elements do not only show the negative part of an individual’s life. They are also quite unhealthy to the emotional well-being of an individual. This is because an unhealthy or negative self-esteem is damaging to an individual’s emotional health. This backs the fact that a healthy or positive self-esteem indeed can aid in alleviating psychological disorders.

The Relation of Self-Esteem to Science

One of the peculiar psychological disorders that are mostly stroked by self-esteem is known as Borderline Personality Disorder. Individuals are not willing to validate their feelings for other people or trust others when they usually do not feel well about themselves. People who suffer from borderline personality disorder coupled with a poor self-esteem can exasperate the anger which is mostly present in this type of psychological issue. More often than not, a burst of angry tirade is as a result of a lot of unresolved matters which have been posponed for later. Hence, the only way a person with borderline personality can assert his or her feelings or thoughts is through anger. In addition, having a healthy or positive self-esteem can help alleviate this issue and curtail the feeling of anger associated with borderline personality.

In particular, an individual who experiences borderline personality psychological disorder most often associates some form of suspicion to people who want to be their friends. A person with this kind of issue has a feeling that their friendship with others will end as the time goes on. This is because they think they have nothing to offer in the new friendship, which is actually wrong. Therefore, possessing a healthy or positive self-esteem can aid an individual who has a psychological disorder like the borderline personality to comprehend the fact that they deserve to be happy and achieve success in everything they do. Specifically, this is linked to their professional life or personal life, and also to the sense of self-worth.

A typical example of it is when an individual gets a job that he or she has always wanted, let say a dream job. A person possessing a psychological disorder like borderline personality will position himself or herself for failure. Meanwhile, the staff may use the opportunity given a mistake and can even flare up at the employer for placing them in a position to fail. On the other hand, an individual with a healthy or positive self-esteem will realize that he or she indeed deserves the job. In addition, they’ll recognize and appreciate the opportunity given to him or her to achieve success. A person with a healthy self-esteem will thank and respect the one who gave him that opportunity.

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The Importance of Rational Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is significant to an individual’s well-being and mental health since it has the capability of leading him or her to a more deserving social behavior and better health. Obviously, low self-esteem is often characterized with a range of broad social problems and mental disorders like eating disorders, depression, suicidal tendencies and anxiety. Notably, some schools of thought in the field of medicine, most often in the field of psychological disorders, believe that healthy physical and mental health are a result of comprehending the development of self-esteem and its outcomes.

Self-esteem can, therefore, be explained as the sum of a person’s knowledge and beliefs about his or her personal qualities and attributes. It is a cognitive composition that combines the concrete and abstract views about oneself and also controls the possession of information of self-relevance. Moreover, an individual who possesses suicidal tendencies has the urge or feeling of hurting himself or herself as he/she is feeling unhappy and unworthy.

Consequently, having a healthy or positive self-esteem alleviates any negative emotions and feelings an individual with any form of suicidal tendencies might go through. In addition, research has proven that self-esteem is a crucial psychological factor which contributes to quality and healthy life. It has also been proven with research that subjective well-being extremely corresponds with high self-esteem (Zimmerman, 2000). Therefore, it plays a major role in the mental well-being and happiness of individuals.

Overall, self-esteem and mental well-being of an individual are directly related. Any alteration in a person’s self-esteem, be it high self-esteem or low self-esteem, will affect the psychology of that person. Likewise, a healthy or positive self-esteem definitely helps in alleviating psychological disorders and puts an individual on the pedestal of high belief and confidence in him or herself.

Bruceeisner, D. (2012). Meaning of Self-Esteem. Squidoo Journal Website Retrieved from: http://www.squidoo.com/self_esteem
Reasoner, R. (2012). The True Meaning of Self-Esteem. National Association for Self-Esteem Website Retrieved from:http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/what.php
Zimmerman, S.L. (2000). Self-Esteem, Personal Control and Optimism. Midwestern University. Dissertation Abstract. Retrieved from:http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/4/357.full#ref-123

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Ethical Research Paper Topics

Writing a research paper on ethics is not an easy task, especially if you do not possess excellent writing skills and do not like to contemplate controversial questions. But an ethics course is obligatory in all higher education institutions, and students have to look for a way out and be creative. When you find an […]

Art Research Paper Topics

Students obtaining degrees in fine art and art & design programs most commonly need to write a paper on art topics. However, this subject is becoming more popular in educational institutions for expanding students’ horizons. Thus, both groups of receivers of education: those who are into arts and those who only get acquainted with art […]

101 Self Esteem Topics, Research Questions, & Examples

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Self Concept and Self Esteem in Interpersonal Communication
Concept of Self, Self-Esteem, and Behavior
Self-Esteem and Students’ Health
Promoting Self-Esteem in School-Age Children
Concept of the Self and Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem and Confidence in the Workplace
Instagram Addiction and Impact on Self-Esteem
Instagram Addiction and Self-Esteem in Kuwaiti High School Students
Instagram Addiction and Self-Esteem in High School Students
Child Neglect Might Affect a Child’s Self-Esteem in Adulthood
Self-Handicapping, Self-Esteem, and Self-Compassion The higher the level of stress tolerance, the more successfully a person copes with anxiety, and, on the contrary, the lower the level, the more challenging it is for one to handle an unusual situation. […]
The Relationship Between Polygamy and Self-Esteem in Children in Saudi Arabia Family cohesion in polygamous families is crucial for exploring in the context of this study because it directly involves the psychological well-being of children as well as the subsequent development of their self-esteem and adaptation […]
The Role of Self-Esteem in Education Speaking about practice, it is also possible to note the ambiguous nature of schools that promote self-esteeming by constantly saying to children that they can do anything, while teachers manipulate them by means of rewards […]
Psychology. “Self-Esteem” Book by Dr. Matthew McKay Self-Esteem: A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques for Assessing, Improving, and Maintaining Your Self-Esteem is the book which teach people to live in piece with our society and with oneself.
The Increasing of Self-Esteem Importance This is part of a consciousness process in which one goes beyond what comes to be recognized as the illusion of separate selfhood.
The Self Esteem: Scientific Approach In this respect the reliability of the research props up against the analysis of what is known at the time. The thing is that it is really the better predictor of high results compared to […]
Concept Analysis of Loneliness, Depression, Self-esteem The purpose of this direct study was to look at levels of depression, self-esteem, loneliness, and communal support, and the relationships stuck between these variables, in the middle of teenage mothers participating in the New […]
Evaluating the Self-Esteem of the Homeless The mission statement of the program indicates the central role played by the agency to the welfare of the society.”The Doe Fund’s mission is to develop and implement cost-effective, holistic programs that meet the needs […]
Self-Esteem and Rejection: It Is Not Personal Taking things personally is problematic for many reasons, one of which is the bias connected to the perception of a situation.
Striving for Self-Esteem in Business The learning points from these articles are that self-assessment is only possible in the latter stages of business development and not the beginning, all businesses must go through ISO 9000 certification series and excellence models […]
Social Psychology Role: Self-Esteem and Human Development The relation between the concepts and the response is closely analyzed to determine the most important criteria people’s actions can be judged by. A person is stereotyped and the thinking leads to over-generalize towards others.
Mean Self-Esteem Scores for Boys and Girls The aim of this study was to determine if there was any difference in mean self-esteem scores for boys and girls.
Facebook Effects on Our Self-Esteem The title of the article “Facebook envy: how the social network affects our self-esteem” speaks for itself: the author Andrea Shea reflects on the impact that the social media has on its users, and in […]
Counseling Low Self-Esteem and Decision Making John was allowed to go out and meet with his friends, and the aunt was less concerned about the kind of company that he kept.
The Link Between Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy In explaining the dynamics of how self-esteem affects self-efficacy, it is important to note that low sense of self-worth will incapacitate the ability of an employee to succeed in specific situations due to lack of […]
Psychology Issues: Self-Esteem and Violence In my opinion, the argument by Boden, Fergusson, and Horwood is sociological since its main aim is to test the link between our self-esteem and later hostility and violent behavior.
High Self-Esteem Development Towards Self-Image People’s health and appearance have to be satisfactory and correspond to people’s idea of ‘a norm’ as it has been proven that the better a person’s health is the higher self-esteem he/she has.
Effects of Self-Esteem and Gender on Goal Choice The paper contains a discussion about the relationship between self esteem and gender to the type of goals that people make. Therefore, there is a link between high self-esteem and the behavior to make difficult […]
Women, Alcohol, Self-Concept, and Self-Esteem: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Person-Centred Counselling This essay discusses the research setting and sample, the selection of the setting and the data collection procedure to be used during the project.
Raising a Child With High Self Esteem A good illustration of this is can be observed early on in babyhood growth of children who act in response and connect themselves to the adults or caregivers who show utmost love and care and […]
Social Networks and Self-Esteem Due to this fact, the main aim of this paper it to determine the impacts that social networks have on people and the role they play in the determination of the self-esteem of an individual.
Self Esteem and Culture in a Learning Environment Reflectively, the conceptual idea of this treatise is an in-depth analysis of the aspects of social environment and objective and their influence on quality of learning, self-evaluation, goal setting, decision making, and inclusive education as […]
The Effects of the Media on Creativity and Self-Esteem The controversy surrounding British sprinter Linford Christie and the British tabloid press in the mid nineties illustrates a crucial and heart breaking example of the media’s might in the area of self esteem.

Finding the perfect research title will be a piece of cake if you follow the tips below:

Pinpoint your interest. When you work on something you like, it brings you more joy than boring projects you hate. Plus, you stay focused, so the results will likely be better.
Make sure the theme is relevant. Remember to check recent articles and news on your chosen research area.
Pick a focused topic. Instead of leaving a title vague, narrow down the research area. Covering a specific question is more accessible than a broad topic.

Here are the most promising areas of research on self-confidence:

Genetics of confidence. Does having confident parents give people more chances to be self-confident? This area of study seeks to answer this question.
Brain activity studies. This branch is related to the study of neural activity related to self-esteem.
Narcissism. The line between being extraordinarily self-confident and showing narcissistic traits is fine. You can analyze why one is helpful and the other is harmful.
Work values and confidence. This field looks into the connection between having intrinsic motivation to work and self-esteem in adults.
The Connection Between Low Self-Esteem and Abusive Relationships
Adolescence and Impact of Self-Esteem Factors
Building Student Self-Esteem and Feelings of Security
Understanding Teenagers With Low Self-Esteem
The Connection Between Self-Esteem and Income
Bullying and Its Relationship to Self-Esteem
The Correlation Between Self-Esteem and Competition for Grades
Being Healthy Can Help With Self-Esteem and the Brain
Anticipated Regret and Self-Esteem in the Allais Paradox
Linking of Self-Esteem With the Tendency to Engage in Financial Planning
Linking of Alcohol Abuse, Self-Esteem, and Teenage Pregnancy Among Adolescents
Alcoholism and Its Link to Poor Self-Esteem
How Low Self-Esteem Predicts Future Unemployment
Impact of Social Media on One’s Self Esteem
Beauty Pageants Promote Self-Esteem and Confidence
Low and Decreasing Self-Esteem During Adolescence
Using Implicit and Explicit Self-Esteem
Authenticity and Its Influence on Psychological Well-Being and Contingent Self-Esteem of Leaders
Womanhood and Failures Through the Burden of Self-Esteem
Understanding Children’s Self-Esteem Development

Feelings of Security

Feeling safe and secure is one of the basic human necessities. The whole pyramid of needs crumbles without it. People who feel secure are confident in their choices and their future. It allows them to relax and focus on the things that matter. It’s no wonder that such people have stronger relationships.

Lack of Boundaries

Individuals who depend on other people usually lack boundaries and an understanding of their self-worth. Codependent people only feel confident when someone else needs them. This self-esteem problem often causes other personality issues.

Assertiveness Training

Therapy addressing self-esteem issues is called assertiveness training. It is, in fact, possible to learn to be more confident. Many people attend assertiveness programs to learn the skills of expressing themselves. It’s important to stay respectful to others while becoming more self-confident, which is also taught in such training.

Difficulty Accepting Compliments

Having trouble accepting compliments is an issue that goes beyond simple shyness. People with low self-esteem become anxious when they receive words of praise because of the conflict between reality and their internal self-perception. As a result, they may feel misunderstood because their self-worth doesn’t match the compliments.

Social Anxiety and the Self

People who are content with themselves are happy to be a part of society, while self-conscious people tend to have high social anxiety. Such individuals concentrate more on their negative traits. In turn, not being compassionate to themselves increases their stress. The key to improving the situation is addressing the root cause and working on self-esteem.

Boost Your Self-Esteem With Acne Treatment
The Cause and Effects of Low Self-Esteem
Anxiety and Self-Esteem Among Undergraduate Students
The Factors That Affect the Self-Esteem of Women
Why Women Have Lower Self-Esteem
Linking of The Collective Self-Esteem and Social Identity Theory
Self Esteem Among Working and Non Working Woman
Self-Esteem: How It Is Built and Different Influencing Factors
The Connection Between Body Image, Self-Esteem, and the Fashion Industry
The Dark Side: Inflated Self-Esteem Is the Culprit of Negative Results
The Connection Between Low Self-Esteem and Depression in the Elderly
The Differences Between the Self-Esteem of Boys and Girls During Puberty
Discussion About Self-Esteem, It’s Differences and Relation to Sociology
Achieving Increased Self-Esteem Through Adaptive Sports
Building Self-Esteem in Children and Adolescents
The Different Causes and Effects of Low Self-Esteem
Impact of Makeup on the Self-Esteem of Young Girls
The Benefits and Importance of Boosting Self-Esteem in Children
The Adolescent’s Search for Self-Esteem and the Role of Professors in the Search
Social Phobia and Low Self-Esteem as Factors Behind Unhealthy Eating Behavior

Here’s a short guide on how to create a good research question on self-esteem topic:

Check the requirements. See what your assignment instructions say and whether they state a clear research purpose.
Choose an intriguing issue. Regarding self-esteem, most research questions are presented from a psychological perspective. You can look into it and find what you like.
Do basic research. At this stage, you need to figure out the main aspects of the topic. You can also highlight different points of view to help you create a good research question.
Narrow the topic down. Try to create a more focused version of your topic if it’s too vague.
Write a research question. Your research question should prompt a discussion and analyze the issue.

You can find a few examples of the self-esteem research questions below:

How can parents help children grow up confident in today’s dynamic world?
Why does surviving abusive relationships in childhood lead to low self-esteem and social anxiety?
What are the ways to reverse the adverse effects of social media on adolescents’ self-esteem?
How Do Bad Habits Affect People’s Self-Esteem and Self-Worth?
What Are Some Tips and Tools for Building Your Self-Esteem?
Can Positive Self-Esteem Lead to Positive Interactions and Connections with Others?
Does Divorce Cause Low Self-Esteem in Children?
What Is the Relationship Between Self-Reinforcement and Self-Esteem?
Are Media Images Harmful to Young People’s Bodies and Self-Esteem?
Does Yoga Increase Subjective Energy and Self-Esteem?
What Are the Causes and Consequences of Low Self-Esteem?
Is Self-Esteem or Self-Confidence More Important?
What Are the Differences Between Happiness and Self-Esteem?
How Do Peers and Media Influence the Development of Body Satisfaction and Self-Esteem?
What Is the Interrelated Role of Self-Esteem and Interpersonal Stressors in Predicting Adolescent Depression?
Do Social Phobia and Low Self-Esteem Cause Unhealthy Eating Behaviors?
Is There a Relationship Between Adolescent Plastic Surgery and Self-Esteem?
What Is the Correlation Between Self-Esteem and Competition for Grades?
Does Social Media Reduce the Self-Esteem of Young Girls?
What Are the Differences Between Boys’ and Girls’ Self-Esteem During Puberty?
How Does Our Self-Esteem Affect Interpersonal Communication?
Is There a Link Between Low Self-Esteem and Depression?
How Does Self-Esteem Relate to Our Level of Confidence?
Do School Uniform Policies Increase Student Self-Esteem and Improve Learning?
What Factors Contribute to Low Self-Esteem?
Has the Self-Esteem Movement Caused Young People to Overestimate Their True Skills and Disillusioned Many of Them?
Are Self-Esteem and Satisfaction in Romantic Relationships Related?
What Can Trigger Depression and Low Self-Esteem?
Does Physical Activity Affect Self-Esteem?
Are Self-Esteem and Impulsive Buying Behavior Related?
How Do Fashion Magazines and Television Affect Girls’ Self-Esteem?
Critical Thinking Essay Ideas
Mental Illness Research Topics
Personal Growth Research Ideas
Moral Development Essay Topics
Narcissism Essay Titles
Personal Identity Paper Topics
Personality Development Ideas
Self-Awareness Research Topics
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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Self Esteem - List of Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

Self-esteem refers to an individual’s overall opinion of themselves and the value they place on their own worth. Essays on self-esteem might delve into the factors influencing self-esteem, such as early childhood experiences, social comparisons, or achievements and failures. Discussions could also cover the impact of self-esteem on mental health, relationships, or life satisfaction, or explore the strategies for improving self-esteem and fostering a positive self-image. Other topics might include a discussion on the societal pressures affecting self-esteem, the portrayal of self-esteem in media, or the relationship between self-esteem and other psychological concepts like self-compassion or self-efficacy. Analyzing the effectiveness of various interventions aimed at boosting self-esteem, exploring the cultural or gender differences in self-esteem, or discussing the challenges associated with low self-esteem could provide a nuanced understanding of this essential aspect of psychological well-being. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Self Esteem you can find in Papersowl database. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Self Esteem Among the LGBT

Abstract This study observed how self-esteem is seen among those who are a part of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. At times it will be referred to as LGBTQ which includes queer as well. Data from multiple studies on each part of the LGBT was studied to see if self-esteem is affected. Minority stress scales, self-esteem scales, mindfulness acceptance, and family and friends were looked at to see if any of those might influence stress. Self-esteem is […]

Low Self Esteem in Teens

Low self-esteem is when someone looks at themselves in a negative way. This doesn't just happen teens don't just hate themselves for no reason, the something that they experienced that is making them feel that way about themselves. Once formed, this negative view permeates every thought, producing faulty assumptions and ongoing self-defeating behavior. In high school there is a rising epidemic with low self-esteem with teens. Over 70% of girls in high school avoid normal daily activities, such as attending […]

Social Media and Body Image Essay

Have you ever looked in the mirror and said something negative about yourself? According to the Merriam Webster dictionary body image is, ""a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of other. Negative body image and low self-esteem are real problems and I want to discover the causes, how much of a factor social media is, and ways that people can get help to move past it. Many people see things […]

We will write an essay sample crafted to your needs.

Body Image and Self Esteem

The impact of low self-esteem and negative body image is adversely affecting adolescents as they try to fit in in a never-ending society of expectations. The definition of body image according to Merriam-Webster's dictionary is "a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others. Body image is not just decided by ourselves, it is also decided by others. This occurs when people have physical reactions and facial expressions. The definition […]

Teacher-Student Interaction Motivational Strategy and its Influence on Students Self Esteem

Abstract The strategies applied by the instructor's guides the change in the collection of data and this institutes the constant interaction with the students in helping to give the guidance that is required towards the management of the college applications. The relation of the different strengths of the students to the programs chosen is important as this helps in the influence of the enrollment in the different colleges and the analysis of the experiences that help in shaping the students' […]

The Relationship between Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy and their Development of Self-Concept

Numerous studies have been done on the development of one's self-concept. Self-concept is defined as how a person perceives, evaluates, or thinks about oneself (Azeez et al., 2015). This term was made widely popular by psychologist Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow who explained self-concept as being a compilation of many different domains of self and as being developed over time. Self-concepts encompass peoples likes and dislikes, physical and mental attributes, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Although self-concept is […]

The Relationship between Self-esteem and Academic Achievement

This paper discusses the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement, two variables that have been shown to influence and/or predict all students' academic successes and failures. The purpose of diving into the relationship between these is to be able to identify and develop interventions to enhance both, while assisting students in developing their academic, career and personal/social selves. Following is a description of self-esteem and academic achievement, the relationship between the two. Sadaat, Ghasemzadeh & Soleimani (2012), conducted a research, […]

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Self-esteem could be described as one’s worth in his/her own eyes. I realized early in my life that we usually give huge weight to others’ opinions of ourselves and as a result strive to be what others want us to be rather than who we actually are. This led to a life full of contradiction and I eventually decided to learn more about myself including my strengths and weaknesses. Surprisingly, this approach also helped me better understand other people and my friends soon started trusting me just as one trusts his/her own family members. They would share everything with me because they claimed I do not judge people and can put myself in others’ shoes. The experience proved to be more educational than I could have ever imagined as if I had completed an academic degree in human relations or psychology. As I learnt more about myself and about other people, I became more confident in my abilities and also learnt to ignore others’ skepticism regarding my abilities and goals. But at the same time, improved self-esteem has also made me more appreciative of human potential and I now focus more on the good side of the people rather than the negative side. I make active efforts to recognize the true potential in people and encourage them to become the best they are and this approach doesn’t only define my personal life but also my professional life. As I see the world, there are seven billion people on earth but everyone wants to feel important and be valued. They want to be appreciated for their individual traits and they are constantly seeking approval from others to boost their own morale. Just as negative opinions hurt one’s morale and even self-esteem, positive reinforcements sometimes do more to inspire people than any other incentive.

Self-esteem has also taught me to be respectful towards people from different generations as well as cultural backgrounds. Just as there are certain universal truths, there are also universal traits shared by different cultures. I have also learnt that respect is the key to open communication and ensuring cooperation from others. Everyone has a different view of life and the world and one may have different opinions but it is always possible to make others feel important by showing respect for their views. Similarly, when we display positive behavior such as protecting others’ self-esteem, we also influence others to adopt the same behaviors in their lives.

I am proud of what I have been able to achieve but I have not come this far just because I had self-esteem but also because many others demonstrated their trust in me. A society prospers when we take care of those who are most vulnerable and this is why I have been inspired to pursue in career in nursing whether as a care provider at the moment or a nurse educator in the near future. People surprise us when they are in a supportive environment. Thus, the key to a more prosperous society is to have high self-esteem and also to encourage others to be their best.

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Family Environment and Self-Esteem Development: A Longitudinal Study from Age 10 to 16

Samantha krauss, ulrich orth, richard w robins.

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Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Samantha Krauss, Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. [email protected]

Issue date 2020 Aug.

In this study, we examined the effect of family environment on self-esteem development from late childhood (age 10) through adolescence (age 16), using 4-wave longitudinal data from 674 Mexican-origin families living in the United States. To assess family environment, a multi-informant approach was used (i.e., mother, father, child) to construct latent variables that minimize the influence of response biases. Using cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) and random intercepts cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs), we tested the prospective effects of parenting behaviors (warmth, hostility, monitoring, involvement in child’s education) and other characteristics of the family environment (quality of parental relationship, positive family values, maternal and paternal depression, economic conditions of the family, and presence of father). In the CLPMs, significant positive effects on children’s self-esteem emerged for warmth, monitoring, low maternal depression, economic security (vs. hardship), and presence (vs. absence) of father. With regard to the reciprocal effects, children’s self-esteem predicted positive family values (i.e., importance and centrality of the family) of mother and father. In the RICLPMs, the pattern of results was similar (in terms of point estimates of the effects); however, only the effect of maternal depression on child self-esteem, and the effect of child self-esteem on family values of father, were statistically significant. In all models, the effects did not differ significantly for boys and girls, or across ages 10 to 16. The findings suggest that multiple features of the family environment shape the development of self-esteem during late childhood and adolescence.

Keywords: family environment, parenting behavior, self-esteem, childhood and adolescence, longitudinal

Research suggests that self-esteem—which has been defined as the “individual’s subjective evaluation of her or his worth as a person” ( Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2013 , p. 60)—is positively associated with important life outcomes in the work, relationship, and health domains (for a review, see Orth & Robins, 2014 ). Specifically, longitudinal studies indicate that high self-esteem prospectively predicts relationship satisfaction, job success, and physical health, and reduces the risk of depression ( Marshall, Parker, Ciarrochi, & Heaven, 2014 ; Orth, Robins, & Widaman, 2012 ; Sowislo & Orth, 2013 ; Trzesniewski et al., 2006 ). Given the importance of self-esteem, it is critical to understand how individuals develop a positive self-image. Despite the voluminous literature on self-esteem, only a few influential factors have been identified. A review of the literature ( Orth & Robins, 2019 ) indicated that there is now relatively strong evidence suggesting that stressful life events ( Orth & Luciano, 2015 ) and relationships ( Denissen, Penke, Schmitt, & van Aken, 2008 ; Gruenenfelder-Steiger, Harris, & Fend, 2016 ; Luciano & Orth, 2017 ; Mund, Finn, Hagemeyer, Zimmermann, & Neyer, 2015 ) lead to changes in people’s self-esteem. However, there remains a considerable lack of knowledge with regard to the question of why some individuals see themselves in a positive light while others suffer from feelings of inadequacy.

It may be particularly important to identify factors that shape the emergence of individual differences in self-esteem early in life, that is, in childhood and adolescence. Individual differences in personality characteristics, including self-esteem, become more stable and more difficult to change as individuals grow up and become adults ( Donnellan, Kenny, Trzesniewski, Lucas, & Conger, 2012 ; Kuster & Orth, 2013 ; Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2003 ). Thus, interventions attempting to increase self-esteem might be more effective in childhood and adolescence compared to adulthood.

Research focusing on early childhood has suggested that family environment is a crucial factor for the development of the self ( Harter, 2015 ). A recent longitudinal study by Orth (2018) even suggested that the early childhood family environment has a long-term, and possibly enduring, effect on self-esteem that can still be observed in adulthood. In Orth (2018) , the most important predictor was the quality of home environment, including quality of parenting and parental stimulation of learning. Moreover, the quality of the home environment partially mediated the effects of other characteristics of the family environment, such as the quality of parental relationship, maternal depression, presence of father, and poverty. However, an important limitation in that study was that initial levels of self-esteem could not be controlled for.

Therefore, in the present research, we examined prospective effects of the family environment on children’s self-esteem, using data from a longitudinal study in which repeated assessments of both constructs were available over time. The goal of the research was to identify factors that affect the development of self-esteem in children and adolescents. Specifically, we examined the effects of parenting behaviors (such as warmth, hostility, monitoring, and involvement in child’s education) and other characteristics of the family environment (such as quality of parental relationship, family values, maternal and paternal depression, economic conditions of the family, and presence of father). Research from the broader field of child temperament suggests that self-esteem could show a reciprocal relation with parenting; that is, parenting behavior may lead to changes in children’s self-esteem, and children’s self-esteem may elicit changes in parenting behavior ( Bates, Schermerhorn, & Petersen, 2012 ; Schofield & Atherton, in press ). Consequently, we examined prospective effects in both directions, from parenting to self-esteem and from self-esteem to parenting. For reasons of completeness, we also tested whether self-esteem had prospective effects on other family environment variables (in addition to parenting).

Parenting Behavior and Children’s Self-Esteem

In this section, we describe the key categories of parenting behavior and how they are related to children’s self-esteem. Specifically, we will discuss warmth, hostility, monitoring, and parental involvement in children’s education. However, before focusing on specific categories of parenting behavior, we outline three theoretical frameworks suggesting that parenting has an important influence on the development of children’s self-esteem. First, the theory of symbolic interactionism ( Blumer, 1986 ; Cooley, 1902 ; Mead, 1934 ) proposes that the self develops, and is continuously shaped throughout the life course, through social interactions. It is assumed that social interactions reflect how much others appreciate an individual. Therefore, the individual might then interpret these social interactions as symbolic for his or her self-worth. In early life, a large proportion of children’s social interaction occurs in the relationship with parents, so these interactions could be particularly formative. Second, attachment theory ( Bowlby, 1969 , 1973 , 1980 ) posits that a secure attachment to the caregiver contributes to the development of a positive internal working model in the child (i.e., the mental representation of being accepted and valuable). Empirical findings suggest that attachment security is related to higher self-esteem in children ( Verschueren & Marcoen, 1999 ; Verschueren, Marcoen, & Schoefs, 1996 ) and adolescents ( Arbona & Power, 2003 ; Laible, Carlo, & Roesch, 2004 ; Wilkinson, 2004 ). Since sensitive and responsive caregiving fosters secure attachment ( Cassidy, 2008 ), attachment theoretical perspectives suggest that parenting is an important factor in the development of children’s self-esteem. Third, sociometer theory ( Leary, 2012 ) proposes that self-esteem belongs to a psychological system that monitors social acceptance and inclusion. According to this theory, self-esteem reflects the person’s relational value as subjectively perceived by the person him- or herself (i.e., assumptions about how desirable a relationship with oneself is for others). Correspondingly, longitudinal studies suggest that being valued by others increases self-esteem in children and adolescents ( Gruenenfelder-Steiger et al., 2016 ; Reitz, Motti-Stefanidi, & Asendorpf, 2016 ).

Parental Warmth

Research on the effects of parental warmth—which is characterized by love, support, nurturance, affection, involvement, responsiveness, and acceptance (e.g., Maccoby & Martin, 1983 ; Schaefer, 1965 )—shows that there is a positive association with children’s self-esteem ( Rollins & Thomas, 1979 ). In a meta-analysis ( Khaleque, 2013 ), including studies with participants ranging from 9 to 18 years, parental warmth was correlated with self-esteem at medium effect size (i.e., the correlations were .26 for maternal warmth and .21 for paternal warmth). Moreover, a small number of longitudinal studies have found that parental warmth positively predicts children’s self-esteem ( Amato & Fowler, 2002 ; Brummelman et al., 2015 ; Felson & Zielinski, 1989 ; Harris et al., 2017 ). Some of these longitudinal studies also suggested that there is a reciprocal link between parental warmth and children’s self-esteem ( Brummelman et al., 2015 ; Felson & Zielinski, 1989 ).

Parental Hostility

Parental hostility is characterized by rejection, neglect, maltreatment, punishment, and verbal and physical aggression ( Schaefer, 1965 ). When children are ignored, humiliated, or beaten by their parents, they may learn from their parents’ behavior that they are incompetent and worthless. In a recent meta-analysis by Khaleque (2017) , parental hostility was negatively correlated with self-esteem at medium to large effect size (i.e., the correlations were −.33 for maternal hostility and −.37 for paternal hostility). Moreover, the few available longitudinal studies suggest that parental hostility negatively predicts children’s self-esteem ( Amato & Fowler, 2002 ; Heaven & Ciarrochi, 2008 ).

Parental Monitoring

Parental monitoring is characterized by awareness, attention, watchfulness, and tracking and supervision of children’s activities (e.g., Dishion & McMahon, 1998 ; Small & Kerns, 1993 ). Monitoring may contribute to setting appropriate boundaries that help parents in protecting the child from potentially harmful situations (including self-esteem threatening situations). Cross-sectional research suggests that parental monitoring is positively associated with children’s self-esteem ( Bush, Peterson, Cobas, & Supple, 2002 ; Bush, Supple, & Lash, 2004 ; Parker & Benson, 2004 ; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992 ). However, a longitudinal study found no evidence for a prospective effect of monitoring on children’s self-esteem ( Amato & Fowler, 2002 ). It is important to distinguish parental monitoring from parental control. In contrast to parental control, parental monitoring does not necessarily restrict the autonomy of the child. Moreover, parental control is negatively associated with self-esteem, whereas parental monitoring shows positive associations ( Bean, Bush, McKenry, & Wilson, 2003 ; Garber, Robinson, & Valentiner, 1997 ; Gecas & Schwalbe, 1986 ).

Parental Involvement in Child Education

Parental involvement in the child’s education represents a parenting behavior characterized by interest, participation, encouragement, and supervision of the child’s schoolwork (e.g., Cotton & Wikelund, 1989 ). Flouri (2006) argues that parents’ interest in their child’s education conveys respect that leads to a sense of personal significance and thus, to heightened feelings of self-esteem in the child. Also, parental involvement in the child’s education might lead to better learning conditions, improved school performance, and an increase in the child’s sense of competence. Empirical research suggests that interventions aimed at parental involvement in education improve children’s self-esteem ( Hara & Burke, 1998 ; Henderson, 1987 ). Yet, there is a dearth of longitudinal research on the effects of parental involvement in child’s education on children’s self-esteem.

Parental Characteristics and Children’s Self-Esteem

In addition to parenting behavior, other characteristics of the family environment may be influential in the development of children’s self-esteem. In this article, we will use the term parental characteristics to denote these other characteristics of the family environment (i.e., nonparenting variables).

Quality of Parental Relationship

The quality of the relationship between parents could be an important influence on children’s self-esteem. Cross-sectional studies indicate that the quality of parental relationship is positively associated with children’s self-esteem ( Amato, 1986 ; Doyle & Markiewicz, 2005 ). In a longitudinal study, quality of parental relationship had a small, but significant, effect on children’s self-esteem when measured several years and even decades later ( Orth, 2018 ). However, as yet, only little longitudinal research examined the effect of quality of parental relationship on children’s self-esteem.

Family Values

The concept of family values (also referred to as familism) captures the importance and centrality of the family, as perceived by the individual ( Kuhlberg, Peña, & Zayas, 2010 ). Positive family values include a strong orientation towards the family, commitment to the family, and prioritizing the interests of the family over personal interests (e.g., Bush et al., 2004 ; Corona, Campos, & Chen, 2017 ). Family values are of particular importance in Hispanic cultural contexts (e.g., Knight et al., 2010 ; Rodriguez, Mira, Paez, & Myers, 2007 ; Sabogal, Marín, Otero-Sabogal, Marín, & Perez-Stable, 1987 ), and are positively associated with self-esteem among Hispanic adolescents ( Bush et al., 2004 ; Kuhlberg et al., 2010 ; Li & Warner, 2015 ). However, longitudinal evidence on the relation between family values and children’s self-esteem is not yet available.

Maternal and Paternal Depression

Another relevant characteristic of the family environment is the mental health of parents. Research focusing on maternal depression has reported consistent negative associations with children’s emotional and behavioral functioning ( Goodman et al., 2011 ). A longitudinal study based on data from the sample used in the present research suggested that maternal depression has a negative effect on children’s self-esteem ( Orth, Robins, Widaman, & Conger, 2014 ). 1 Moreover, cross-sectional evidence on fathers suggests that paternal depression may have negative effects similar to maternal depression ( Sweeney & MacBeth, 2016 ). However, it is important to note that most studies on maternal and paternal depression focused on the child’s functioning in general, but not specifically on the child’s self-esteem.

Economic Hardship

Poverty is a characteristic of the family environment that is associated with many problems in child development ( Bradley & Corwyn, 2002 ; Conger, Conger, & Martin, 2010 ; McLoyd, 1998 ). The family stress model of economic hardship suggests that poverty leads to parental emotional distress (e.g., depression), interparental conflict, impaired parenting behavior, and, in turn, to adjustment problems in children (e.g., Conger & Donnellan, 2007 ). In line with this theory, several studies reported a negative effect of family economic hardship on children’s self-esteem that was mediated by maladaptive parenting; however, a limitation of the evidence is that all of these studies used cross-sectional designs ( Conger, Ge, Elder, Lorenz, & Simons, 1994 ; Mayhew & Lempers, 1998 ; Whitbeck et al., 1991 ).

Presence of Father

Finally, an important objective characteristic in children’s family environment is whether the father is present (i.e., lives in the same household as mother and child). There are many reasons for why a father might be absent, for instance, due to divorce or separation, illness, death, work abroad, or because the mother was never in a committed relationship with the father. Findings from cross-sectional studies indicate that the absence of the father is associated with lower self-esteem among children and adolescents ( Luo, Wang, & Gao, 2012 ; Smith Hendricks et al., 2005 ). A possible mechanism for this effect may be that children interpret the absence of their father as a sign that he does not love and accept them. Moreover, if the father is absent, there is one less significant other who could potentially show warmth, love, and interest towards the child.

Parenting Behavior as a Mediator of the Effects of Parental Characteristics on Child Self-Esteem

Theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence on most of the parental characteristics reviewed in the previous section suggest that their effects on children’s self-esteem may be mediated by parenting behavior. For example, the spillover hypothesis posits that the quality of the parental relationship leads to changes in other domains such as parenting behavior ( Easterbrooks & Emde, 1988 ; Engfer, 1988 ). Empirical support for the spillover hypothesis is provided by a meta-analysis showing a medium-sized negative association between interparental conflict and adaptive parenting behaviors ( Krishnakumar & Buehler, 2000 ). Also, in a longitudinal study with a large sample, parenting behavior mediated the self-esteem effects of quality of parental relationship, maternal depression, poverty status of the family, and presence of father ( Orth, 2018 ). In sum, parents having a high-quality relationship with each other, good mental health, secure economic conditions and support by a second parent might have more emotional resources to respond with warmth and devotedness to the child’s needs (e.g., Cummings & Davies, 1994 ; Lamb, 2010 ; Orth, 2018 ). Thus, these parental characteristics could influence the quality of parenting behavior and thereby affect children’s self-esteem. In the present research, we therefore tested whether the effects of parental characteristics are mediated, at least partially, by parenting behavior. We conducted these tests for the non-parenting and parenting variables that showed significant effects on children’s self-esteem.

The Importance of Controlling for Shared Method Variance

In the present research, we used a multi-informant approach (i.e., mothers, fathers, and children from the same families), allowing us to control for the influence of shared method variance. Specifically, we constructed latent variables that helped control for response biases unique to individual raters and, consequently, captured only the construct variance shared among raters (in theory at least). In fact, shared method variance is an important methodological problem in many fields of the behavioral sciences ( Bagozzi & Yi, 1991 ; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003 ). Shared method variance is even considered more critical than random error because it may provide an alternative explanation of the observed relations ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ).

Shared method variance arises when information on two or more variables is obtained from the same source. In particular, reports from the same rater frequently are influenced by response biases, such as implicit theories, social desirability, or mood ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). For example, if family environment and child self-esteem were both assessed by parent report, then the association between the constructs might reflect, at least partially, shared method variance rather than a true association between the constructs. This is the case for two reasons. First, implicit theories of parents about how their parenting behavior affects their child’s adjustment could bias their reports of both parenting and child self-esteem in similar ways. Second, although many parents prefer not to fail at being good caregivers and therefore tend to rate their parenting behavior and the adjustment of their child in positively biased ways, parents differ in the degree of social desirable responding, which leads to inflated correlations between variables that are assessed by parent report. To give another example, if family environment and child self-esteem were both assessed by child report, then the correlation between the constructs could be inflated by mood effects. More precisely, a child with negative affectivity tends to view everything in a bad light (in this case, his or her self-esteem and family environment), as opposed to a child with positive affectivity. In sum, if information on family environment and self-esteem comes from a single source, then the relation between the constructs could simply result from response biases.

In this research, we therefore used the ratings by mothers, fathers, and children (where available) as multiple indicators of family environment characteristics and allowed for correlations between the residuals of indicators from the same source of information (e.g., the residuals of the child report on mother and the child report on father). Self-esteem of children was measured by self-report only, which is widely considered the best method to assess a phenomenological construct like self-esteem ( Donnellan, Trzesniewski, & Robins, 2011 ). However, given that the family environment latent variables were controlled for method variance, the analyses ensured that any observed relation between family environment and self-esteem cannot be explained by shared method variance.

The Present Research

The goal of the present research was to examine prospective reciprocal associations between family environment and children’s self-esteem. For the analyses, we used 4-wave longitudinal data from a large sample of Mexican-origin youth (and their parents) followed from age 10 years (Time 1) to 16 years (Time 4).

The present research extends previous research in several ways. First, we examined a large number of characteristics of family environment, including measures of parenting behaviors (i.e., parental warmth, parental hostility, parental monitoring, and parental involvement in child’s education) and measures of other characteristics of the family environment (i.e., quality of parental relationship, family values, maternal and paternal depression, economic hardship, and presence of father). The comprehensive assessment enabled us to compare the effects of key characteristics of the family environment within the same sample. Second, for many of these variables (e.g., parental involvement in child’s education, family values, paternal depression), the present research provides the first longitudinal test of their effects on children’s self-esteem. For all variables, the longitudinal design of the research allowed us to control the effects for previous levels in the constructs. Third, since there were four waves of repeated assessments of all constructs, all effects were aggregated across waves, which increased the precision and robustness of the estimates. Fourth, the multi-informant approach (i.e., for many of the family environment variables, the study included assessments by mothers, fathers, and children) allowed us to construct latent variables that were free, at least theoretically, from the confounding influence of response biases inherent in the unique perspectives of mothers, fathers, and children.

Based on the previous research reviewed above, we derived the following hypotheses. Regarding parenting behaviors, we predicted that warmth, monitoring, and involvement in child’s education would have a positive effect on children’s self-esteem, and that hostility would have a negative effect. Also, we predicted that children’s self-esteem would have a positive effect on parental warmth and a negative effect on parental hostility. We did not expect any effects of children’s self-esteem on parental monitoring or parental involvement in child’s education. Regarding the other characteristics of the family environment (i.e., non-parenting variables), we predicted that the quality of parental relationship, family values, and presence of father would have a positive effect on children’s self-esteem and that maternal depression, paternal depression, and poor economic conditions of the family would have a negative effect. However, we did not expect effects of children’s self-esteem on these factors.

In addition, we conducted the following analyses. First, we tested whether child gender or child age moderated the reciprocal associations between family environment and self-esteem. Based on past research, we did not expect either gender or age to moderate any of these associations. Second, we tested whether parental monitoring has a curvilinear effect on children’s self-esteem, such that the effect becomes smaller and, possibly, negative at very high levels of monitoring (for this analysis, we had no expectations about the results). Finally, we tested whether any of the observed effects of non-parenting variables on self-esteem were mediated, at least partially, by parenting behavior.

To examine our research questions, we originally planned to exclusively use cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs; for information on the preregistered research plan, see the beginning of the Method section ). During the review process, the editor and reviewers recommended additional analyses with an alternative model. Currently, there is considerable debate about the most appropriate model that should be used when testing for prospective effects between constructs on the basis of longitudinal data (e.g., Berry & Willoughby, 2017 ; Hamaker, Kuiper, & Grasman, 2015 ; Orth, Clark, Donnellan, & Robins, 2018 ; Usami, Hayes, & McArdle, 2016 ; Usami, Murayama, & Hamaker, 2019 ).

A major concern about the CLPM is that the stable between-person variance (i.e., in the present context, the stable between-family variance) is not controlled for in the wave-specific construct factors and that the cross-lagged effects could be confounded by the unmodeled influence of the stable components of the constructs ( Berry & Willoughby, 2017 ; Hamaker et al., 2015 ). This problem is not solved simply by specifying autoregressive paths in the model. Consequently, a number of alternative models have been proposed that explicitly model stable individual differences (e.g., Bollen & Curran, 2004 ; Curran, Howard, Bainter, Lane, & McGinley, 2014 ; Hamaker et al., 2015 ; Kenny & Zautra, 1995 ).

From these alternative models, we selected the random intercepts cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM; Hamaker et al., 2015 ) for three reasons. First, this model has received a great deal of attention, and was suggested by the reviewers. Second, compared to other models that distinguish within-person and between-person variance, the RI-CLPM is a relatively simple extension of the CLPM by including two random intercept factors that are correlated between constructs. Third, in a study that tested the CLPM and six alternative cross-lagged models across 10 longitudinal samples (most of which included four waves of data, as in the present study), the RI-CLPM showed a perfect convergence rate (as did the CLPM), whereas all of the other models frequently did not converge properly or did not converge at all ( Orth, Clark, et al., 2018 ). The analyses with the RI-CLPM were preregistered in a supplemental research plan (see beginning of Method section ).

It is important to note that those models that control for stable between-person variance in the constructs do not allow to examine prospective effects at the between-person level; in these models, between-person effects are modeled as correlations (e.g., as correlation between the random intercepts, as in the RI-CLPM). However, researchers are frequently interested in gaining information not only about the consequences of within-person variance, but also of between-person differences. For example, in the context of the present research, a central question is whether children growing up in a relatively warm family environment (i.e., warmer than most other families included in the sample) tend to show more positive changes in self-esteem (as indicated by positive changes in the rank order in the construct) than children growing up in less warm family environments. Although the CLPM does not model stable between-person variance, it does provide information on how individual differences in one construct predict changes in individual differences in the other construct over time, which is the reason for why we originally had planned, as described in our preregistration, to use the CLPM. In contrast, the RI-CLPM is mute with regard to whether differences between families in their level of warmth predict later differences between children in their level of self-esteem (or even more specifically, predict changes in the rank-order of children in their level of self-esteem). Instead, the RI-CLPM focuses on within-person effects by examining cross-lagged paths after residualizing out stable between-person differences (for a more detailed description of the model, see Results section ). In this model, the residualized scores are deviations that fluctuate, in the long term, around the trait level. Consequently, the RI-CLPM provides insight into whether a within-person deviation from the trait level of one construct (e.g., the level of warmth in a family) predicts subsequent change in the within-person deviation from the trait level of another construct (e.g., children’s self-esteem). Given that these models provide complementary information, we believe that it is informative to use both types of models (i.e., CLPM and RICLPM) when examining the prospective association between family environment and children’s self-esteem.

This research has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of California, Davis (217484–25, “Mexican Family Culture and Substance Use Risk and Resilience”). The present study has been preregistered on the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/yajmp ). During the review process, the editor and the reviewers recommended additional analyses (see above), which have been registered in a supplemental research plan prior to conducting these analyses ( https://osf.io/jz7nv ). Code and results for all models are available at https://osf.io/gjw3e .

Since we preregistered analyses with existing data, we briefly describe our familiarity with the data prior to registering the analyses. The first author had no previous exposure to the data (i.e., the California Families Project, CFP). The second author had conducted two studies with data from the CFP ( Orth, Robins, Meier, & Conger, 2016 ; Orth et al., 2014 ). These studies involved analyses with self-esteem and maternal depression; however, the second author had not conducted analyses with any of the other variables examined in the present research. The third author is the principal investigator of the CFP and is deeply familiar with the overall dataset. The research plan was written by the first and second author, on the basis of the CFP codebook. The third author provided required information and gave general feedback on the research plan. After preregistering the research plan, the analyses were conducted by the first author, with support from the second author.

Participants and Procedures

Data came from the CFP, an ongoing longitudinal study of 674 Mexican-origin families that began in 2006. 2 The focal child had to be in the 5 th grade, of Mexican origin, and living with his or her biological mother, in order to participate in the study. Children and their families were drawn at random from rosters of students in the school districts of Sacramento and Woodland, California. Of the eligible families, 73% agreed to participate.

Participants were interviewed in their homes in Spanish or English, depending on their preference. Interviewers were all bilingual and most were of Mexican heritage. Sixty-three percent of mothers and 65% of fathers had less than a high school education (median = 9 th grade for both mothers and fathers). Median total household income was between $30,000 and $35,000 at Wave 1. Eighty-four percent of mothers, 88% of fathers, and 29% of children were born in Mexico. At Wave 1, 549 of the families were two-parent households and 124 of the families were single-parent households (mothers only).

The present study used four waves of data, with a two-year interval between waves. Specifically, data came from Waves 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the CFP, because nearly all constructs relevant to this research were measured only at these assessments (at Waves 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9, only limited assessment interviews were conducted). For reasons of clarity, in the remainder of this article the four waves used in the present research are denoted as Time 1 to Time 4. At Time 1, mean age of the children (50% female) was 10.4 years ( SD = 0.60).

Data on study variables were available for 672 families at Time 1, 579 families at Time 2, 610 families at Time 3, and 607 families at Time 4. Thus, from Time 1 to Time 4, the overall attrition was 10%. To investigate the potential impact of attrition, we compared families who did and did not participate at Time 4 on study variables assessed at Time 1. From families who dropped out, mothers reported significantly less economic hardship on one subscale (Can’t Make Ends Meet; M s = 2.25 vs. 2.54; d = −0.38); for all other variables, differences were nonsignificant.

Self-esteem.

Given that two measures of self-esteem were available in the CFP, we employed both measures and used them as indicators of a latent self-esteem factor. The first measure was the General Self scale from the Self-Description Questionnaire II short-form (SDQII-S; Marsh, Ellis, Parada, Richards, & Heubeck, 2005 ). The General Self scale includes six items, as for example “Overall, you have a lot to be proud of” and “You can do things as well as most people.” Responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = not at all true ; 2 = somewhat true ; 3 = mostly true ; 4 = very true ). The second measure was the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE; Rosenberg, 1965 ). Item examples are “On the whole, I am satisfied with myself” and “I feel that I have a number of good qualities.” Responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = totally disagree ; 2 = disagree ; 3 = agree ; 4 = totally disagree ). Both the SDQII and RSE are well-validated and widely used measures of self-esteem ( Donnellan, Trzesniewski, & Robins, 2015 ).

Parental warmth towards the child was assessed with two measures, both originally developed for the Iowa Youth and Families Project (e.g., Conger et al., 1992 , 1993 ). For both measures, reports by multiple raters were available, specifically (a) child report on mother’s behavior, (b) child report on father’s behavior, (c) mother report on father’s behavior, and (d) father report on mother’s behavior. The first measure was the 9-item Behavioral Affect Rating Scale (BARS; Conger, 1989a ). Raters were instructed to assess the behavior within the preceding three months. Item examples for the child report are “During the past 3 months when you and your [mom/dad] have spent time talking or doing things together, how often did your [mom/dad] listen carefully to your point of view?” and “During the past 3 months, how often did your [mom/dad] let you know that [she/he] appreciates you, your ideas or the things you do?” Items for the parent report were appropriately modified and parentheses were replaced by the persons’ names (e.g., “During the past 3 months when your partner and [child] have spent time talking or doing things together, how often did [mother/father] listen carefully to [child’s] point of view?”). The second measure was the 9-item Iowa Parenting Scale (IPS; Conger, 1989b ). In this measure, warmth is measured with items assessing positive reinforcement (e.g., “When you have done something your [mom/dad] likes or approves of, how often does [she/he] let you know [she/he] is pleased about it?”) and inductive reasoning (e.g., “How often does your [mom/dad] give you reasons for [her/his] decisions?”). In both the BARS and IPS, responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = almost never or never ; 2 = sometimes ; 3 = a lot of the time ; 4 = almost always or always ).

Parental hostility towards the child was assessed with items from the same measures as parental warmth, namely, BARS and IPS. Again, for both measures reports by multiple raters were available, that is, (a) child report on mother’s behavior, (b) child report on father’s behavior, (c) mother report on father’s behavior, and (d) father report on mother’s behavior. The BARS assesses hostility with 13 items. Raters were instructed to assess the behavior within the preceding three months. Item examples are “During the past 3 months when you and your [mom/dad] have spent time talking or doing things together, how often did your [mom/dad] get angry at you?” and “During the past 3 months, how often did your [mom/dad] call you bad names?” In the IPS, hostility is measured with four items assessing harsh discipline, for example, “When you do something wrong, how often does your [mom/dad] hit or slap you?” and “When you do something wrong, how often does your [mom/dad] tell you to get out or lock you out of the house?” Again, in both the BARS and IPS, responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = almost never or never ; 2 = sometimes ; 3 = a lot of the time ; 4 = almost always or always ).

Monitoring.

Parental monitoring of the child was assessed with a 14-item scale adapted from Small and Kerns (1993) . Reports by multiple raters were available, specifically (a) child report on mother’s behavior, (b) child report on father’s behavior, (c) mother report on her own behavior, (d) mother report on father’s behavior, (e) father report on his own behavior, and (f) father report on mother’s behavior. Raters were instructed to assess the behavior within the preceding three months. Item examples for the child reports are “Over the past 3 months, your [mom/dad] knew what you were doing after school” and “When you went out at night, your [mom/dad] knew where you were going to be.” Responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = almost never or never ; 2 = sometimes ; 3 = a lot of the time ; 4 = almost always or always ).

Involvement in child’s education.

The extent to which the parents are involved in their child’s education was assessed with a 4-item measure adapted from Epstein and Salinas (1993) . Reports by multiple raters were available, specifically (a) child report on mother’s behavior, (b) child report on father’s behavior, (c) mother report on her own behavior, and (d) father report on his own behavior. Raters were instructed to assess the behavior within the past year. Item examples are “In the past year, [your parent/you] helped [you/child] with homework or a school project” and “[Your parent/you] encouraged [you/child] to study.” Responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = never ; 2 = once or twice ; 3 = a few times ; 4 = many times ).

Quality of parental relationship.

The quality of parental relationship was assessed with a 5-item scale (e.g., Yeh, Lorenz, Wickrama, Conger, & Elder, 2006 ). Reports were provided by mothers and fathers. Item examples are “You have a good relationship” and “Your relationship with [father/mother] is very stable.” Responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = not at all true ; 2 = somewhat true ; 3 = mostly true ; 4 = very true ).

Family values.

Family values were assessed with a 5-item scale adapted from Villarreal, Blozis, and Widaman (2005) . Validity and factorial invariance have been confirmed in a representative sample of U.S. Hispanics ( Villarreal et al., 2005 ). Reports were provided by mothers and fathers. Item examples are “You are proud of your family” and “Your family members and you share similar values and beliefs.” Responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = strongly disagree ; 2 = disagree ; 3 = agree ; 4 = strongly agree ).

Maternal and paternal depression.

Maternal and paternal depression were assessed with the 10-item short form ( Cole, Rabin, Smith, & Kaufman, 2004 ) of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977 ). The CES-D is a well-validated measure ( Eaton, Smith, Ybarra, Muntaner, & Tien, 2004 ). For each item, mothers and fathers reported how frequently they experienced the symptom during the past month. Item examples are “You felt that everything you did was an effort” and “You felt lonely.” Responses were measured on a 4-point scale (1 = almost never or never ; 2 = sometimes ; 3 = a lot of the time ; 4 = almost always or always ).

Economic hardship.

Economic hardship of the family was assessed with three subscales measuring economic pressure (see Conger et al., 2002 ). The subscale Can’t Make Ends Meet included two items, the subscale Unmet Material Needs six items, and the subscale Financial Cutbacks nine items (thus, the total scale included 17 items). Ratings were provided by both mothers and fathers. All items were assessed with regard to the past three months. An item example of the subscale Can’t Make Ends Meet is, “Now, think back over the past 3 months and tell me how much difficulty you had with paying your bills. Would you say you had …,” with responses measured on a 4-point scale (1 = no difficulty at all ; 2 = some difficulty ; 3 = quite a bit of difficulty ; 4 = a great deal of difficulty ). An item example of the subscale Financial Cutbacks is, “Your family changed food shopping or eating habits a lot to save money during the past 3 months.” For the subscale Financial Cutbacks, responses were measured on a dichotomous scale (1 = no ; 2 = yes ).

Presence of father.

At each wave, mothers reported which adults (i.e., father, new partner, etc.) were living in the home with her and the child. We created a dichotomous variable, with 0 indicating that only the mother was living with the child, and 1 indicating that both mother and father were living with the child. All other situations (e.g., biological mother with a new partner) were treated as missing values; however, other situations were rare (6%).

Statistical Analyses

Analyses of structural equation models were conducted with the Mplus 8 program ( Muthén & Muthén, 2017 ). To deal with missing values, we employed full information maximum likelihood estimation to fit models directly to the raw data ( Schafer & Graham, 2002 ). Model fit was assessed with the comparative fit index (CFI; Bentler, 1990 ), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI; Tucker & Lewis, 1973 ), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA; Steiger, 1990 ). Good fit was indicated by values equal to or higher than .95 for CFI and TLI, and equal to or less than .06 for RMSEA ( Hu & Bentler, 1999 ). Model comparisons were made by using the test of small difference in fit ( MacCallum, Browne, & Cai, 2006 , Program C).

To assess the reliability of the measures, we used coefficient omega ( Revelle & Zinbarg, 2009 ). Omega was computed with the “psych” package ( Revelle, 2018 ) in R ( R Core Team, 2018 ). However, this package does not allow computing omega for two-item scales. Therefore, in these cases we computed omega following the procedure described by Widaman, Little, Preacher, and Sawalani (2011) .

Wherever possible, we used multiple indicators to measure the constructs as latent variables, which allowed us to control for measurement error and systematic bias included in the measures. In particular, for family environment variables, we used the ratings by mothers, fathers, and children (where available) as multiple indicators of latent variables, thereby controlling for the unique biases of family members. To fully control for bias due to specific raters, the residuals between appropriate indicators were correlated (e.g., the residuals of the child report on mother and the child report on father were correlated). Furthermore, the residuals of identical indicators were correlated across waves, to control for additional bias due to indicator-specific variance ( Cole & Maxwell, 2003 ).

Child self-esteem was measured by three indicators: The General Self scale of the SDQII-S and two parcels from the RSE based on item valence (i.e., positive and negative item wording). A methodological complication was that at Time 1, only the SDQII-S but not the RSE was available. We resolved this issue by imposing measurement invariance on the SDQII-S, which allows using the SDQII-S indicator as an anchor to equate the latent self-esteem factors across waves ( Edwards & Wirth, 2009 ). Maternal and paternal depression, as well as family values of mother and father, were each measured by three parcels (based on the balancing technique; Little, Cunningham, Shahar, & Widaman, 2002 ; Little, Rhemtulla, Gibson, & Schoemann, 2013 ). Presence of father was a single-item indicator, and appropriately defined as a categorical variable in Mplus. 3

Descriptive information on means, standard deviations, and reliability of study variables across waves is reported in Tables 1 and 2 . Intercorrelations among all family environment characteristics at Time 1 (averaged across raters) can be found in Supplemental Table S1 .

Means and Standard Deviations of Study Variables

Note . Response scales ranged from 1 to 2 for Subscale C (Economic Hardship) and from 1 to 4 for all other measures. Presence of Father was a dichotomous variable (0 = no ; 1 = yes ). Dash indicates that variable was not assessed at a given wave. SDQ = Self-Description Questionnaire; RSE = Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; Subscale A = Can’t Make Ends Meet; Subscale B = Unmet Material Needs; Subscale C = Financial Cutbacks.

Reliability of Study Variables

Note . Dash indicates that variable was not assessed at a given wave (RSE) or that coefficient omega is not applicable for single item measures (presence of father). SDQ = Self-Description Questionnaire; RSE = Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; Subscale A = Can’t Make Ends Meet; Subscale B = Unmet Material Needs; Subscale C = Financial Cutbacks.

In this case, the model for computing coefficient omega with the psych package in R did not converge. Therefore, omega was computed as described in Widaman et al. (2011) .

Measurement Invariance

For each construct, we tested whether longitudinal metric measurement invariance was supported by the data ( Widaman, Ferrer, & Conger, 2010 ). When using cross-lagged models such as the CLPM and RI-CLPM, this level of measurement invariance is required to ensure that latent constructs have the same meaning across waves ( Schmitt & Kuljanin, 2008 ). To test measurement invariance, we compared the fit of two measurement models. In the first model, factor loadings were constrained to be equal across time, whereas in the second model, factor loadings were free to vary across time. For all constructs, the test of small difference in fit indicated that the constraints did not significantly decrease model fit, supporting metric measurement invariance ( Supplemental Table S2 ). Consequently, we used these constraints in the remainder of the analyses.

Cross-Lagged Panel Models

Bivariate analyses..

Because of the large number of family environment variables examined in this research, each of the factors was tested in a separate model. Figure 1 provides a generic illustration of the bivariate CLPMs. The cross-lagged paths indicate the prospective effect of one variable on the other (e.g., effect of parental warmth at Time 1 on self-esteem at Time 2), after controlling for their concurrent associations (e.g., family environment at Time 1 with self-esteem at Time 1) and their stabilities across time (e.g., effect of self-esteem at Time 1 on self-esteem at Time 2). Overall, the fit of the models tested was good ( Table 3 ).

Generic cross-lagged panel model of a family environment factor and child self-esteem. Residual variances (i.e., disturbances) are indicated by d1 to d6 . Only latent constructs are shown (i.e., observed variables are omitted).

Fit of Cross-Lagged Panel Models of the Relation Between Self-Esteem and Family Environment Variables

Note . CFI = comparative fit index; TLI = Tucker-Lewis index; RMSEA = root-mean-square error of approximation; CI = confidence interval.

Table 4 shows the standardized estimates of the cross-lagged effects and the Time 1 correlations from the CLPMs (standardized estimates of the stability effects can be found in Supplemental Table S3 ). Unstandardized estimates, standard errors, and exact p -values are reported in Supplemental Table S4 . A number of family environment variables had significant cross-lagged effects on child self-esteem. As expected, parental warmth, parental monitoring, and the presence of father positively predicted later child self-esteem, whereas depression of mother and economic hardship negatively predicted later child self-esteem. 4 However, contrary to our predictions, no significant effects emerged for parental hostility, parental involvement in child’s education, the quality of parental relationship, family values of mother and father, and paternal depression. 5

Standardized Estimates from Cross-Lagged Panel Models (CLPM) and Random Intercepts Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPM) of Self-Esteem and Family Environment

Note . For the CLPM , r X,SE is the correlation between the latent constructs at Time 1. For the RI-CLPM, r X,SE is the correlation between the random intercepts. Cross-lagged effects were averaged across intervals. Dash for CLPM indicates that coefficient was not included in the model (see Footnote 4 for explanation). Dash for RI-CLPM indicates that model did not converge or did not converge properly (see Results section for explanation). Unstandardized estimates, standard errors, and exact p -values are reported in Supplemental Table S5 (CLPM) and Supplemental Table S6 (RI-CLPM). SE = self-esteem.

Regarding the reciprocal effect of child self-esteem on family environment, there were only two significant effects: child self-esteem positively predicted subsequent family values of mother and father. 6 Contrary to our expectations, child self-esteem did not predict parental warmth or hostility. However, all other nonsignificant effects of child self-esteem on family environment were as expected.

Moreover, for each family environment construct, we tested whether child gender moderated the prospective effects between the construct and self-esteem. For this purpose, we compared the fit of two models. In the first model, structural coefficients were constrained to be equal across gender, whereas in the second model, the coefficients were allowed to vary across gender. For all family environment variables, the test of small difference in fit indicated that the constraints across gender did not significantly decrease model fit, suggesting that child gender did not moderate the effects between family environment and child self-esteem ( Supplemental Table S5 ).

Also, for each family environment construct, we tested whether the effect of the construct on child self-esteem differed across waves and, consequently, across age, given that participants were of the same age and went through adolescence between Time 1 to Time 4, from age 10 to 16 years. For each family environment variable, the test of small difference in fit indicated that cross-wave constraints on structural coefficients did not significantly decrease model fit, suggesting that the participants’ age did not moderate the effects of the family environment on their self-esteem ( Supplemental Table S6 ).

Finally, we tested whether parental monitoring had a curvilinear effect on child self-esteem. Specifically, we included the squared latent variable of the monitoring construct in the model and tested its effect over and above the effect of the non-squared latent variable. The results showed that there was no evidence of a curvilinear effect of monitoring ( p = .344).

Mediation analyses.

As reported above, parental warmth and parental monitoring were both associated with child self-esteem. As described in the Introduction (and in the preregistration), we therefore used longitudinal mediation analyses to test whether parental warmth and parental monitoring account for the prospective effects of the more distal parental characteristics that showed significant effects on child self-esteem (i.e., depression of mother, economic hardship, and presence of father). 7 Each mediation effect was tested in one model, resulting in six analyses. Figure 2 provides a generic illustration of the mediation models used, following the recommendations by Cole and Maxwell (2003) .

Longitudinal mediation model of parental characteristics, parenting behaviors, and child self-esteem. Figure 2A shows the paths included in the overall direct effect (i.e., all paths from the parental characteristic at Time 1 to child self-esteem at Time 4 that do not pass through parenting behavior at any wave) and Figure 2B shows the paths involved in the overall indirect effect (i.e., all paths from the parental characteristic at Time 1 to child self-esteem at Time 4 that pass through parenting behavior at least once).

To test for mediation and assess its effect size, we examined the overall direct and indirect effect from the parental characteristic at Time 1 to child self-esteem at Time 4. Figure 2A shows the paths included in the overall direct effect (i.e., all paths from the parental characteristic at Time 1 to child self-esteem at Time 4 that do not pass through parenting behavior at any wave) and Figure 2B shows the paths involved in the overall indirect effect (i.e., all paths from the parental characteristic at Time 1 to child self-esteem at Time 4 that pass through parenting behavior at least once).

The results of the mediation analyses are reported in Table 5 , including the standardized and unstandardized estimates of the total effect, the overall direct effect, and the overall indirect effect. For the unstandardized estimates, bootstrapped bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals were computed. In three of the six models, the overall indirect effect differed significantly from zero. First, the effect of economic hardship on child self-esteem was mediated by parental warmth. The standardized estimate of the overall indirect effect was −.020, indicating a small effect (accounting for 20% of the total effect). Second, the effect of economic hardship on child self-esteem was mediated also by parental monitoring. The standardized estimate of the overall indirect effect was −.015, indicating a small effect (accounting for 17% of the total effect). These two mediation effects suggested that economic hardship reduces parental warmth and parental monitoring and thereby decreases child self-esteem. Third, there was an indirect effect of presence of father on child self-esteem through parental monitoring. The standardized estimate of the indirect effect was .020, indicating a small effect (accounting for 38% of the total effect). However, we note that in this case the total effect was nonsignificant. Therefore, this mediation effect should be interpreted with caution.

Total Effect, Overall Direct Effect, and Overall Indirect Effect of Parental Characteristic at Time 1 on Self-Esteem at Time 4 (Cross-Lagged Panel Models)

Note . The significance of the estimates was tested using the bootstrapped bias-corrected 95% CI. Std. Est. = standardized estimate;

Unstd. Est = unstandardized estimate; CI = confidence interval.

Random Intercepts Cross-Lagged Panel Models

In addition to using CLPMs, we tested the relations between family environment and child self-esteem also on the basis of RI-CLPMs. Figure 3 provides a generic illustration of the bivariate RI-CLPMs. In the RI-CLPM, the residual variances of the latent constructs are set to zero and the variances of the latent constructs are completely decomposed into a stable component and residualized scores. In the context of the present study, the stable components, called random intercept factors, capture the between-family variances in the constructs while the residualized scores capture the within-family variances. In each of our models, there was one random intercept factor for child self-esteem and one random intercept factor for the family environment variable. These two random intercepts were allowed to be correlated. All structural relations were then modeled as in the traditional CLPM but between the residualized scores (for a multiple indicator version of the RI-CLPM, see Hamaker, 2018 ).

Generic random intercepts cross-lagged panel model of a family environment factor and child self-esteem. Error terms are indicated by e1 to e6 . Only latent constructs are shown (i.e., observed variables are omitted). FE = family environment; SE = self-esteem; FEr = family environment residualized; SEr = self-esteem residualized.

In contrast to the CLPM, the RI-CLPM explicitly models the stable between-family variance for each construct. Consequently, a cross-lagged effect tests for the prospective effect of a within-family deviation from the trait level of one construct (e.g., parental hostility) on change in the within-family deviation from the trait level of the other construct (e.g., child self-esteem). For example, a negative cross-lagged effect from hostility to child self-esteem would indicate that when parents act more hostile than usual at a given time point, the child shows a drop in self-esteem at a subsequent time point.

As in the analyses with the CLPM, we tested each family environment variable in a separate model. Also, all measurement models and statistical procedures remained the same. Overall, the fit of the models tested was good ( Table 6 ). However, we were unable to test the effects of four of the constructs examined because the RI-CLPMs did not converge, or did not converge properly, for warmth, monitoring, involvement in education, or presence of father.

Fit of Random Intercepts Cross-Lagged Panel Models of the Relation Between Self-Esteem and Family Environment Variables

Note . Dash indicates that model did not converge or did not converge properly (see Results section for explanation). CFI = comparative fit index; TLI = Tucker-Lewis index; RMSEA = root-mean-square error of approximation; CI = confidence interval.

Table 4 shows the standardized estimates of the cross-lagged effects and the correlations between the random intercepts from the RI-CLPMs (standardized estimates of the stability effects can be found in Supplemental Table S3 ). Unstandardized estimates, standard errors, and exact p -values are reported in Supplemental Table S7 . The only family environment variable that had a significant cross-lagged effect on child self-esteem was depression of mother. Thus, there was a negative prospective effect from maternal depression to child self-esteem. Regarding the reciprocal effect of child self-esteem on family environment, there was one significant cross-lagged effect: Child self-esteem had a positive prospective effect on family values of the father. The stability effects in the RI-CLPMs capture autoregressive effects between the within-family deviations from the trait level of a construct. Therefore, it was not surprising that these stability effects were smaller than those from the CLPMs (in the CLPM, the stability effect is an indicator of rank-order stability in a construct, which is not the case in the RI-CLPM).

Next, as in the analyses with the CLPM, we tested whether child gender moderated the prospective associations between family environment and self-esteem. These tests were possible for 3 of the 11 family environment constructs (i.e., eight of the models showed convergence issues). The test of small difference in fit indicated that the constraints across gender did not significantly decrease model fit, suggesting that child gender did not moderate the effects between family environment and child self-esteem ( Supplemental Table S8 ). Then, we tested whether the effect of the family environment on child self-esteem differed across waves and, consequently, across age. These tests were possible for 6 of the 11 family environment constructs (i.e., five of the models showed convergence issues). The tests of small difference in fit indicated that cross-wave constraints did not significantly decrease model fit, suggesting that the participants’ age did not moderate the effects of the family environment on their self-esteem ( Supplemental Table S9 ). Given that the RI-CLPM for parental monitoring did not converge properly, we did not test for a curvilinear effect of monitoring on child self-esteem.

Given that none of the parenting behaviors showed a significant effect on child self-esteem, we did not conduct any mediation analyses for the RI-CLPMs.

In the present study, we examined the relation between family environment and children’s self-esteem in a large sample of Mexican-origin families. Data came from the CFP, a longitudinal study that uses a multi-informant approach (i.e., including assessments of mothers, fathers, and children from the same families). Results from the CLPMs indicated that a number of family environment variables affected child self-esteem. Specifically, parental warmth, parental monitoring, and presence of father positively predicted subsequent child self-esteem, whereas maternal depression and economic hardship negatively predicted subsequent child self-esteem. Regarding the opposite direction of the relation, the results suggested that child self-esteem positively shaped family values of mother and father. Moreover, longitudinal mediation analyses suggested that the effect of economic hardship on child self-esteem was partially mediated by parental warmth and by parental monitoring. In terms of point estimates, results from the RI-CLPMs evidenced a similar pattern compared to the results from the CLPMs. However, the RI-CLPMs yielded only two significant cross-lagged effects: a negative effect of maternal depression on child self-esteem, and a positive effect of child self-esteem on family values of father. These two effects were consistent with the effects found using CLPMs, but all other cross-lagged effects that were significant with CLPMs were nonsignificant with the RICLPMs.

Implications Based on the Findings from the CLPMs

As expected, parental warmth and parental monitoring significantly predicted later child self-esteem. These findings are in line with multiple theories, such as symbolic interactionism ( Blumer, 1986 ; Cooley, 1902 ; Mead, 1934 ), attachment theory ( Bowlby, 1969 , 1973 , 1980 ), and sociometer theory ( Leary, 2012 ). The present research provides empirical support for a key hypothesis that can be derived from these theories, specifically, that parenting behavior influences the development of children’s and adolescents’ self-esteem.

Theory might suggest that very high levels of parental monitoring could have a negative effect on child self-esteem through compromising the development of the child’s autonomy ( Ryan & Deci, 2002 ). Overly protective parents who frequently intervene in their children’s affairs and make all decisions for them are also called “helicopter parents” ( Cline & Fay, 2014 ). Research suggests that high levels of psychological control and low levels of autonomy of the child are negatively associated with self-esteem (e.g., Bean et al., 2003 ). However, in the present research we did not find any evidence for a curvilinear effect that would qualify the positive effect reported above. Thus, the present findings indicate that even very high levels of monitoring promote children’s and adolescents’ self-esteem. In our opinion, the concept of monitoring as a parenting behavior needs to be clearly distinguished from the concept of parental control. If monitoring entails being aware of, and genuinely interested in, the child’s activities rather than interfering, then its positive effect on child self-esteem is no longer surprising.

In contrast to our predictions, parental hostility and the parents’ involvement in the child’s education did not show prospective effects on children’s self-esteem. However, it is important to note that the concurrent relations between these family environment variables and child self-esteem were substantial and in the expected direction (as indicated by the Time 1 correlations between the constructs). Thus, even if no prospective effects emerged, the present findings do not suggest that hostility and involvement in the child’s education are unrelated to the child’s self-esteem. A possible explanation of the nonsignificant hostility effect, and potential limitation of the present research, is that the means of the hostility measures were relatively low (from the perspective of parents and children), suggesting that floor effects may have suppressed a negative effect of hostility. However, although floor effects are undesirable from a methodological perspective, in this particular case they are positive from a substantive perspective, because they indicate a low level of severe hostility in this sample. A similar, but slightly different explanation for the nonsignificant hostility effect might be that the effect of parenting behavior on child self-esteem depends on the predominant interaction style between parents and children. Thus, even if hostile interactions occur, if they are much less frequent than warm interactions, then these hostile interactions might not have a detrimental effect on children’s self-esteem. In any case, although in the present research no significant hostility effect emerged, we believe that future research should continue to test for effects of parental hostility on child self-esteem.

Consistent with our hypotheses, maternal depression negatively predicted child self-esteem. However, in contrast to our predictions, this effect was not mediated by parenting behavior, suggesting that other mechanisms might account for the effect. For example, maternal depression might result in a stressed and dismal atmosphere at home, which in turn might lead to a higher likelihood of social isolation of the child if he or she is hesitant to take peers and friends home. Another possible explanation for the nonsignificant mediation effect of parenting behavior is that maternal depression exerts a direct effect on child self-esteem. For example, the child might perceive him- or herself as less valuable because the mother frequently shows depressive symptoms. Still another possibility is that the effect of maternal depression on child self-esteem can be explained by underlying genetic effects. However, in the present case it is unlikely that genes account for the effect of maternal depression on children’s self-esteem, given that paternal depression did not show any effect. If the genetic explanation were correct, then we would expect that the depression levels of mothers and fathers show at least similar effects on the child’s self-esteem. For this reason, we believe that the effect of maternal depression should be explained by an environmental, not genetic, pathway. The environmental explanation is also consistent with the fact that, in most families, mothers spend more time with the child than fathers do ( Phares, Fields, & Kamboukos, 2009 ), which could account for stronger effects of affective characteristics of mothers compared to fathers.

As hypothesized, family economic hardship had a negative prospective effect on child self-esteem, which was partially mediated by parental warmth and by parental monitoring. The mediation effects are consistent with the family stress model, which proposes that economic hardship initiates a sequential cascade of problems including disruptions in parenting, which in turn increase the risk for adolescent adjustment problems (e.g., Conger & Donnellan, 2007 ). However, the mediation effects were relatively small and the confidence intervals of the indirect effects were very close to including zero, indicating that the evidence for the indirect effects is weak. Nevertheless, given the strong theoretical support for the mediation effects, we believe that the findings are potentially important. Future research should address the mediational processes that lead from economic hardship to low self-esteem in more detail. For example, in addition to parenting behavior, the effect could be accounted for by other mediators such as peer approval. If adolescents have much more limited financial resources than their peers, they cannot afford joining at least some social activities and may need to do without fashionable and popular products, such as clothes, smartphones, and so on. Consequently, economic hardship may compromise the popularity of adolescents among their peers, which in turn may compromise their self-esteem.

Presence of father had a positive effect on child self-esteem. 8 However, this finding should be interpreted only tentatively, because the model converged only when imposing additional constraints (see Footnote 4 ). The constraints could be removed in the mediation analyses, which, however, resulted in a nonsignificant total effect of presence of father on child self-esteem. We therefore concluded that the present evidence on the effect of presence of father is not sufficiently robust. In future research, it would be interesting to test whether the family situation (single parent vs. two parents, heterosexual parents vs. homosexual parents, biological parents vs. adoptive parents, etc.) affects self-esteem development in children and adolescents.

Based on research on the relation between child temperament and parenting behavior ( Bates et al., 2012 ; Schofield & Atherton, in press ), we hypothesized that child self-esteem prospectively predicts parental warmth (with a positive sign) and parental hostility (with a negative sign). However, the present findings did not support these hypotheses. With regard to parental warmth, it is possible that two different effects cancel each other out. First, the temperament literature suggests that positive affectivity of the child (which is related to high self-esteem) prospectively predicts parental warmth ( Bates et al., 2012 ). Second, however, insecurity and anxiety (which is related to low self-esteem) frequently elicits compensatory soothing and protective parental behavior and, over time, also predicts parental warmth ( Bates et al., 2012 ). Thus, if both mechanisms are present (i.e., high self-esteem leading to more parental warmth due to its relation to positive affectivity, and low self-esteem leading to more parental warmth due to its relation to insecurity and anxiety) and of similar size, then the resulting overall effect of self-esteem on parental warmth might be a null effect. Nevertheless, although research suggests that the concurrent reciprocal relations between child temperament and parenting behaviors are robust ( Bates et al., 2012 ), few longitudinal studies have tested for prospective effects between the constructs and, moreover, their findings are inconsistent. Future research might benefit from using meta-analytic methods to gain more robust insights into the reciprocal relation between parenting behavior and child personality characteristics, including self-esteem.

The only significant effects from child self-esteem on family environment emerged for the family values of mother and father. A possible explanation for this effect is that children with high self-esteem may contribute to their parents’ feelings of pride about their family, which in turn may contribute to positive family values. We note, however, that such an effect could be qualified by cultural and ethnic differences since familism is a central value in Hispanic Americans more than in other ethnic groups in the United States ( Knight et al., 2010 ). Thus, future research is needed to replicate the effect of child self-esteem on parents’ family values.

Implications Based on the Findings from the RI-CLPMs

With regard to parenting behaviors, due to convergence issues it was only possible to test the effect of parental hostility on child self-esteem. We expected that when parents act more hostile than usual on a given occasion, the child would show a drop in self-esteem at a subsequent occasion. However, this effect was not statistically significant. With regard to parental characteristics, the only significant effect on child self-esteem emerged for maternal depression. Adolescents whose mothers were more depressed than usual experienced a subsequent decrease in their self-esteem relative to their baseline level across all waves. This within-person effect suggests that interventions aimed at preventing the recurrence of depression in mothers are likely to lead to improvements in their children’s self-esteem. In contrast to the results from the CLPM, the negative effect of economic hardship on child self-esteem was not significant. This result suggests that a within-family deviation from the usual level of financial resources does not predict subsequent change in the child’s self-esteem.

Due to convergence issues in fitting the models, the effects of child self-esteem on parenting behaviors could only be tested for hostility. However, this effect was not significant, indicating that within-person deviations from the child’s trait level of self-esteem did not predict changes in parental hostility at a later time point. The only significant effect from child self-esteem to family environment emerged for family values of father. Thus, fathers whose children showed higher self-esteem than usual experienced a subsequent increase in their family values. In contrast to the results from the CLPM, the effect of child self-esteem on family values of the mother was not significant in the RI-CLPM.

We note that two methodological issues emerged in the analyses with the RI-CLPM. First, a substantial number of the RI-CLPMs (4 out of 11 models) did not converge or did not converge properly. These convergence issues are likely due to the complexity of the models in the present research (the models were complex because of the multi-informant measurement models and the residual correlations needed to control for shared method variance). 9 Second, in the RI-CLPM, even moderate effects (such as standardized coefficients at a size of .20) were not significant, which is notable given a sample size of 674 families. In fact, for the RI-CLPM, the standard errors indicated that the coefficients were estimated with relatively low precision, and none of the correlations between the random intercept factors (ranging from .09 to .22 in absolute values) were significant, which is difficult to reconcile with the many significant (and generally much stronger) concurrent associations between self-esteem and family factors. In future research, it would be informative to systematically investigate the conditions under which RI-CLPMs converge properly and provide precise estimates.

When focusing on effect sizes in terms of point estimates (and when leaving significance levels aside), the pattern of findings was actually quite similar for the CLPMs and RI-CLPMs (see Table 4 ). If anything, the cross-lagged effects from the RI-CLPMs tended to be larger than the effects from the CLPMs. Thus, if the observed point estimates replicate in larger samples (and, consequently, would then be statistically significant), both models would lead to similar conclusions about the effects between family environment and children’s self-esteem.

If family environment exerts a causal influence on child self-esteem, it is possible that the effects are reflected in the results from both the CLPM and RI-CLPM. For example, the cross-lagged effect in the CLPM would tell us that children raised in a warm parenting environment are more likely to develop high self-esteem than children raised in a less warm parenting environment. The cross-lagged effect in the RI-CLPM would tell us that children who experience more parental warmth than usual will show a subsequent increase in self-esteem, whereas children who experience less parental warmth than usual will show a subsequent drop in self-esteem. Although developmental theorizing about effects between constructs often takes place at the level of the individual (consequently, these effects should be reflected by the RI-CLPM, which focuses on within-person effects), theory frequently also addresses the developmental consequences of differences between persons or between families (e.g., research on risk and resilience factors). If we take parenting as an example, we would expect individuals raised in a warm parenting environment to develop higher self-esteem than individuals raised in a less warm parenting environment. Typically, a within-person effect of parental warmth should also occur, but in a scenario where parental warmth is stable across time (i.e., no variability in the level of warmth), according to the RI-CLPM, parental warmth cannot possibly have any influence on how the child’s self-esteem develops, which does not make sense from a theoretical perspective.

Thus, at this point we return to the debate about cross-lagged models that we raised in the Introduction. Although the CLPM has the limitation that it does not distinguish within-person and between-person variance ( Hamaker et al., 2015 ), the RI-CLPM does not test the prospective effect of between-person differences. In our opinion, to fully understand the relations between psychological constructs it is important to examine the consequences of differences on both the within-person and the between-person level. With regard to the substantive issue of this article, we hope that by using two of the most frequently applied models (i.e., the CLPM and RICLPM), the present research contributes to a better understanding of the link between family environment and children’s self-esteem.

Effect Sizes

For both models, the prospective effects between family environment and child self-esteem were not large, which raises the question of whether the observed effects are practically important or not. We believe that the effects are meaningful for several reasons. First, all effects were controlled for the previous levels of the constructs, or, more precisely – in the case of the RI-CLPM – for the previous deviation in the construct from the trait level. These autoregressive effects already account for a large portion of variance in the outcomes, which strongly limits the theoretically-possible range of cross-lagged effects from other constructs. For this reason, effect size conventions for correlation coefficients ( Cohen, 1992 ; e.g., with .10 indicating a small effect) do not apply to cross-lagged effects ( Adachi & Willoughby, 2015 ). In fact, as shown in the CLPM analyses, most of the constructs examined in the present research showed substantial stability across the two-year intervals. Second, the effects of family environment on self-esteem may accumulate over childhood and adolescence; thus, effect sizes based on two-year intervals likely underestimate the aggregate effect of family environment over time. Third, other socialization agents, such as peers and teachers gain increasing importance over the course of childhood and adolescence ( Maccoby, 2000 ), which consequently may reduce the relative importance of parents in adolescent development. Thus, it is possible that studies testing the influence of family environment on children’s self-esteem would show larger effect sizes in samples from childhood than in adolescence. If so, then the present research with an adolescent sample should be considered a conservative test of the self-esteem effects of family environment.

Limitations and Future Directions

Several limitations merit consideration when interpreting the findings. First, the present research does not provide a test of causality, given the non-experimental design of the study. Longitudinal designs provide some information about the hypothesized model by testing the effects over time (i.e., having a clear temporal order of predictor and outcome) and by controlling for previous levels of the constructs (i.e., autoregressive effects; Finkel, 1995 ; Gollob & Reichardt, 1987 ). However, as in all observational studies, it is possible that the effects are confounded by third variables that were not controlled for, such as genetic factors or environmental factors outside of the family (omitted variable problem; Little, Preacher, Selig, & Card, 2007 ).

Second, the present research used data from Mexican-origin families living in the United States, raising the question of whether the findings generalize to other ethnic groups in the United States and to other countries. Whereas some studies suggest that characteristics of the family environment such as parenting behavior differs across ethnic and cultural contexts (e.g., Chao & Kanatsu, 2008 ), other studies find more similarities than differences (e.g., Julian, McKenry, & McKelvey, 1994 ). Nevertheless, even if there are cultural differences in mean levels of family environment variables, this does not necessarily imply differences in the relation between family environment and socio-emotional development. For example, research suggests that many attachment-related processes are universal ( Mesman, van IJzendoorn, & Sagi-Schwarz, 2016 ). Also, even if there are ethnic differences in mean levels of self-esteem— specifically, Hispanic adolescents tend to have slightly lower levels of self-esteem than Whites ( Bachman, O’Malley, Freedman-Doan, Trzesniewski, & Donnellan, 2011 ; Erol & Orth, 2011 )— research suggests that the patterns and mechanisms of self-esteem development do not substantially differ between cultures ( Bleidorn et al., 2016 ; Orth, Erol, & Luciano, 2018 ; Robins, Trzesniewski, Tracy, Gosling, & Potter, 2002 ). In sum, there is reason to believe that the present findings may replicate in samples from other ethnic groups and countries, but future research is needed to address this issue empirically.

Third, the present research did not test for the effects of other social factors in the family environment that might influence children’s self-esteem. Especially siblings are a relevant part of the family environment of children and adolescents. Their temperament and the quality of the relationship with the focal child might play an important role in self-esteem development. A cross-sectional study indicated that social support from siblings is associated with higher self-esteem and may even compensate for low support from parents ( Milevsky, 2005 ). Future research should address the prospective impact that siblings and other family members (e.g., grandparents) might have on self-esteem development in childhood and adolescence.

Important strengths of the present study include the prospective longitudinal design, the availability of multiple waves of data, the large sample size, the systematic control of previous levels of the outcomes, and the multi-informant approach allowing us to control for specific biases in the reports of children, mothers, and fathers. Since measurement error and response biases have been controlled, the observed effects are unlikely to be due to shared method variance. Finally, in conducting the research, we followed the preregistered hypotheses, methods, and procedures. Taken together, these methodological characteristics significantly strengthen confidence in the robustness and validity of the findings.

The present research improves our understanding of the link between family environment and children’s self-esteem. Overall, the pattern of findings suggests that parental warmth, parental monitoring, low maternal depression, economic security, and presence of father positively predict child self-esteem, and that these effects hold across children’s gender and age. In sum, the present research provides crucial information about factors in the family environment that affect children’s self-esteem.

Thus, the findings suggest that effective interventions aimed at improving the self-esteem of children and adolescents should target relevant factors of the family environment. Improving the family environment might be particularly beneficial because research suggests that some of its effects on self-esteem might be enduring and shape children’s self-esteem even when these children have grown up and become adults ( Orth, 2018 ). Moreover, improving family environment has positive consequences in many other domains of children’s and adolescents’ development, such as well-being, health, and education ( Biglan, Flay, Embry, & Sandler, 2012 ; Bradley, Corwyn, Burchinal, McAdoo, & García Coll, 2001 ; Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, 2002 ; Shek, 1997 ). Admittedly, it might be difficult, or even impossible, to improve some of the relevant factors of the family environment through interventions, such as maternal and paternal depression, economic hardship, and presence of father. Consequently, one of the most promising targets of interventions could be parenting behavior, given that effective interventions are available (e.g., Sanders, Kirby, Tellegen, & Day, 2014 ) and given that some of the effects of other family environment characteristics, such as economic hardship, might be mediated by parenting behavior.

The present research suggests that parental warmth and monitoring are key parenting behaviors for self-esteem development. Warmth can be realized for example by showing affection and care, accepting the child, helping, encouraging, and praising ( Rollins & Thomas, 1979 ). In particular, contingent praise and attributional feedback effectively improve the self-esteem of children and adolescents ( O’Mara, Marsh, Craven, & Debus, 2006 ). However, we also note that noncontingent praise (e.g., “You are so smart”) and inflated praise (e.g., “You drew an incredibly beautiful picture”) can be dysfunctional and may even worsen children’s self-esteem ( Brummelman, Crocker, & Bushman, 2016 ; Brummelman, Nelemans, Thomaes, & Orobio de Castro, 2017 ). Good monitoring includes being generally informed about the child’s activities (i.e., where and with whom is the child and what is he or she doing), without being intrusive. Monitoring thus provides the basis for protecting the child (e.g., from deviant behavior; Dishion & McMahon, 1998 ) and for setting boundaries that are appropriate for the developmental status of the child. Protecting the child in appropriate ways may be as important for self-esteem development as supporting autonomy and independence.

Supplementary Material

Acknowledgments.

This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant DA017902 to Richard W. Robins and Rand D. Conger. The present study has been preregistered on the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/yajmp ; supplemental analyses have been preregistered at https://osf.io/jz7nv ). Code and results for all models are available at https://osf.io/gjw3e . The findings of this research have been presented at the 19th European Conference on Personality (2018, July) in Zadar, Croatia, and at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2019, February) in Portland, OR.

The data used in Orth et al. (2014) overlap slightly with the present study. In Orth et al., maternal depression was examined as control variable for the link between child self-esteem and child depression, but no other family environment variables (or paternal depression) were examined. In the present report, we included the findings on maternal depression for reasons of completeness and because the effect could now be tested over four waves instead of two. Except for this overlap, the present analyses do not overlap with any analyses reported in previous publications using data from the California Families Project (CFP). Moreover, the research questions addressed in the present article have not been examined in previous publications with the CFP data.

The data are not publicly available because of confidentiality risks when data from family studies are public; in particular, it is possible that participants could identify data from other members of their family, which would compromise the confidentiality of their individual responses ( Finkel, Eastwick, & Reis, 2015 ). Information on how to access the data, a codebook with descriptions of the measures, and a list of publications using the data are available at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NAHDAP/studies/35476 .

When a dichotomous outcome variable is defined as categorical in Mplus, it is treated as a binary dependent variable in the model and its estimation (i.e., probit regression with a robust weighted least squares estimator).

In the model for presence of father, the cross-lagged effect of self-esteem on presence of father, and the correlations between self-esteem and presence of father, had to be omitted to allow for convergence of the model. A likely reason is that presence of father was very stable across waves (the estimated stability was .89, averaged across the two-year intervals).

In the model for depression of father, we constrained the residual variance of one indicator to zero to allow for proper convergence of the model ( Chen, Bollen, Paxton, Curran, & Kirby, 2001 ).

A deviation from the preregistration is that family values were examined separately for mothers and fathers, instead of creating a single latent construct combining the different perspectives. When constructing a family-level latent variable, the factor loadings were small and did not allow to measure a meaningful latent construct, corresponding to small zero-order correlations between the different perspectives (.13 averaged across waves).

In the mediation analyses with presence of father, the constraints described in Footnote 4 were not needed for proper convergence. We therefore computed the model without these constraints.

Since presence (vs. absence) of father might be associated with socioeconomic status of the family, we tested whether the effect of presence of father on children’s self-esteem was reduced when controlling for family income (specifically, we used mother’s and father’s report on estimated family income at Time 1). However, the effect of presence of father was virtually unaltered.

Some readers might wonder whether the four RI-CLPMs with convergence issues would converge, if the cross-lagged paths were set to zero. For exploratory reasons, we tested those models. The results showed that the convergence issues remained. However, we generally do not recommend modifying the models in an exploratory way, to maintain the confirmatory character of the analyses.

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Essay on Self Esteem
500 Words Essay on Self Esteem Introduction. Self-esteem, a fundamental aspect of psychological health, is the overall subjective emotional evaluation of one's self-worth. It is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self. The importance of self-esteem lies in the fact that it concerns our perceptions and beliefs about ...
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Self-esteem is your subjective sense of overall personal worth or value. Similar to self-respect, it describes your level of confidence in your abilities and attributes. Having healthy self-esteem can influence your motivation, your mental well-being, and your overall quality of life. However, having self-esteem that is either too high or too ...
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Self-Esteem: Definition, Types, Examples, and Tips
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Self-esteem in a broad-spectrum approach for mental health promotion
Self-esteem is the evaluative and affective dimension of the self-concept, and is considered as equivalent to self-regard, self-estimation and self-worth (Harter, 1999). It refers to a person's global appraisal of his/her positive or negative value, based on the scores a person gives him/herself in different roles and domains of life ( Rogers ...
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Essentially, high self-esteem is a frame of mind that lets you celebrate your strengths, challenge your weaknesses, and feel good about yourself and your life. It allows you to put daily ups and downs in perspective because, at your core, you value, trust, and respect yourself. High self-esteem helps you say, "I've had a bad day," for example ...
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Self-esteem is crucial because it shapes behavior and choices, influencing overall well-being and the ability to achieve your potential. High self-esteem leads to self-care, confidence, and perseverance toward goals, while low self-esteem can result in negative life choices and decreased motivation. Self-esteem refers to someone's beliefs ...
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Self-esteem refers to the overall sense of self-worth or personal value we attribute to ourselves. It's an internal assessment of how much we value and appreciate ourselves, regardless of external circumstances or others' opinions. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about yourself (for example, "I am competent," "I am worthy") as well ...
8 Steps to Improving Your Self-Esteem
Following are eight steps you can take to increase your feelings of self-worth. 1. Be mindful. We can't change something if we don't recognize that there is something to change. By simply ...
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Debates about the benefits of self-esteem have persisted for decades, both in the scientific literature and in the popular press. Although many researchers and lay people have argued that high self-esteem helps individuals adapt to and succeed in a variety of life domains, there is widespread skepticism about this claim. The present article takes a new look at the voluminous body of research ...
Self-Esteem and Self-Compassion: A Narrative Review and Meta-Analysis
Self-esteem and self-compassion are both constructs that involve a positive attitude towards the self, which are thought to serve psychological resilience and as such play a role in the preservation of people's mental health and well-being. 78 While self-esteem is already an older concept that has been a topic of psychological investigation ...
Self Esteem Essay: Example And Writing Prompts
Learn how to write a self-esteem essay with examples and tips. Explore various topics on self-esteem, such as its definition, effects, importance, and improvement.
Self-esteem: Take steps to feel better about yourself
You might also try these steps, based on acceptance and commitment therapy. 1. Spot troubling conditions or situations. Again, think about the conditions or situations that seem to deflate your self-esteem. Then pay attention to your thoughts about them. 2. Step back from your thoughts.
Self-Esteem Essay
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Self-Esteem Essay Sample
Evidently, self-esteem is seen as a personal trait which tends to be enduring and stable, the one that encompasses within itself a host of beliefs about oneself. In reality, self-esteem means different things to diverse people. To some it means feeling good and loving yourself unconditionally. To others it is a feeling which is at the center of ...
Concept of the Self and Self-Esteem Essay (Critical Writing)
Among the most common and widely used ways of self, the approach is self-esteem and self-concept. self-esteem refers to how an individual views himself from an emotional or affective aspect. This refers to how an individual feels about himself and also how the individual values himself. This can also be referred to as self-worth.
101 Self Esteem Topics, Research Questions, & Examples
Women, Alcohol, Self-Concept, and Self-Esteem: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Person-Centred Counselling. This essay discusses the research setting and sample, the selection of the setting and the data collection procedure to be used during the project. Raising a Child With High Self Esteem.
Self Esteem Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas
18 essay samples found. Self-esteem refers to an individual's overall opinion of themselves and the value they place on their own worth. Essays on self-esteem might delve into the factors influencing self-esteem, such as early childhood experiences, social comparisons, or achievements and failures. Discussions could also cover the impact of ...
Self-Esteem, Essay Example
Self-Esteem, Essay Example. HIRE A WRITER! You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work. Self-esteem could be described as one's worth in his/her own eyes. I realized early in my life that we usually give huge weight to others' opinions of ourselves and as a result strive to be what others want us to be rather than ...
Family Environment and Self-Esteem Development: A Longitudinal Study
Research suggests that self-esteem—which has been defined as the "individual's subjective evaluation of her or his worth as a person" (Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2013, p. 60)—is positively associated with important life outcomes in the work, relationship, and health domains (for a review, see Orth & Robins, 2014).Specifically, longitudinal studies indicate that high self ...