Book Description

Study 1: This paper introduces the Lifespan Self-Esteem scale (LSE), a short measure of global self-esteem suitable for populations drawn from across the lifespan. Many existing measures of global self-esteem cannot be used across multiple developmental periods due to changes in item content, response formats, and other scale characteristics. This creates a need for a new lifespan scale so that changes in global self-esteem over time can be studied without confounding maturational changes with alterations in the measure. The LSE is a 4-item measure with a 5-point response format using items inspired by established self-esteem scales. The scale is essentially unidimensional, internally consistent, and converges with existing self-esteem measures across ages 5 to 93 (N=2,714). Thus, the LSE appears to be a useful measure of global self-esteem suitable for use across the lifespan as well as contexts where a short measure is desirable such as populations with short attention spans or large projects assessing multiple constructs. Moreover, the LSE is one of the first global self-esteem scales to be validated for children younger than age 8, which provides the opportunity to broaden the field to include research on early formation and development of global self-esteem, an area that has previously been limited. Study 2: The current study provides a qualitative analysis of the meaning of self-esteem to individuals across ages 5 to 93 (N = 2,285). Psychologists assume that individuals base their self-esteem on sources such as physical appearance, achievements, and relationships, but there is little empirical research identifying these sources. Identifying sources can inform existing gaps in research on self-esteem mean levels (i.e., whether children younger than age 8 can reliably rate their self-esteem; whether self-esteem sources explain mean levels in adolescence and older adulthood). To address these questions, we asked participants to explain their responses to the Lifespan Self-Esteem scale (see Study 1). We classified responses into seven broad categories (physical, achievement, relational, psychological, biological, meta-cognitive, and uninformative) using grounded theory and methods from qualitative self-concept research. The majority of participants listed only one self-esteem source, especially in the youngest age group. There were no age differences in use of source categories to suggest that young children lack understanding of quantitative self-esteem measures. Six source categories were unrelated to self-esteem mean levels (physical was negatively related), and there were no age interactions with categories to suggest that sources explain the relatively low levels of self-esteem in adolescence and older adulthood compared to the rest of adulthood. We encourage future researchers to replicate the current study and apply qualitative methods such as those reported in the current study to shed further insight on the construct of self-esteem.