Testing for Developmental Differences in the Function of Self-Esteem Between Early and Middle Childhood

• In Event: 3-055 - The Developing Self: New Findings on its Social Origins and Functions

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Since the 1980s, the field of self-esteem development has accepted the theoretical claim that the self-esteem of children younger than eight years old does not have the same function as the self-esteem of older children due to developmental delays in social and cognitive prerequisites for forming mature self-esteem (e.g., social comparison, non-dichotomous thinking; Harter, 2006). Contemporary researchers have brought this claim under question and have developed a new measure of self-esteem that is psychometrically sound as young as age five (Harris, Donnellan, & Trzesniewski, 2017). However, it is still unclear whether self-esteem has the same function for young children as it does for older children. Researchers have suggested that one function of high self-esteem is to buffer people from feeling badly about themselves in the face of failure (Brown & Dutton, 1995). Empirical evidence has supported this hypothesis in adult samples (Brown & Dutton, 1995), but this has not been tested among children. Thus, the current study will test whether the function of self-esteem differs between younger and older children by comparing the association between self-esteem and emotional reactions to failure across age groups. We will also test for age differences in cognitive reactions to failure as well as both emotional and cognitive reactions to social rejection.
Method: The sample consisted of children aged 5-7 (N=32) and 8-13 (N=32) who self-reported their global self-esteem using the Lifespan Self-Esteem scale (Harris, Donnellan, & Trzesniewski, 2017). Then, children were experimentally induced to fail to complete two puzzles “before the time is up” and to be rejected from two fictitious playmates who did not provide a reason for the rejection. An experimenter administered questionnaires regarding five emotions and between five and 11 cognitions (see Table 1) after both manipulations. One-tailed z tests for significant differences between correlations from two independent samples were calculated from http://vassarstats.net/rdiff.html.
Results: In response to failure, there were significant age differences in associations between self-esteem and six out of 10 observed emotions and cognitions, and the remaining four responses trended in expected directions (see Figure 1). Findings suggest that self-esteem may be related to experiencing less negative thoughts and feelings in response to failure for older but not for younger children.
In response to social rejection, age differences in associations with self-esteem trended in expected directions (e.g., older children’s self-esteem was related to perceiving smaller decreases in positive emotions and cognitions more than self-esteem was for younger children). Four out of 16 comparisons between correlations across age groups were significant (see Figure 1).
Discussion: This study provides the first empirical test of the differential function of self-esteem in early versus middle childhood as proposed by past theorists (Harter & Pike, 1984). Findings suggests the possibility of a developmental progression of self-esteem becoming more protective against negative experiences with increasing age.

Author

• Michelle A Harris, The University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author