. 2021 May;26[2]:106-113.
doi: 10.1111/camh.12392. Epub 2020 May 13.
Affiliations
- PMID: 32400105
- DOI: 10.1111/camh.12392
The association of self-esteem and psychosocial outcomes in young adults: a 10-year prospective study
Julie Arsandaux et al. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2021 May.
Abstract
Background: This study investigates the association between self-esteem assessed either in adolescence or in adulthood with adult academic and psychosocial outcomes.
Method: One hundred and thirty-one junior high school students were selected based on their experience of academic difficulty or success, and both groups were selected equally from regular or low-performing schools. Ten years later, 100 of these individuals participated in a follow-up assessment of academic, socioprofessional, and health-related outcomes. Logistic and linear regression models were performed to estimate the association of self-esteem [measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale] at baseline and at follow-up, as well as change in self-esteem categories [high vs. low] on all outcomes.
Results: Fifty-four percent of adolescents were consistently high in self-esteem over the 10-year period, 17% experienced an improvement, 21% a decrease, and 8% stayed at a low level. Outcomes at follow-up were more consistently associated with young adult self-esteem than adolescent self-esteem. Self-esteem was associated with several outcomes [i.e., personal goals, life satisfaction, alcohol, and health outcomes] and its effects were different depending on the period considered and categories of self-esteem change.
Conclusions: The self-esteem difficulties which are common in adolescence raise concerns about their potential impact on important outcomes later in life. However, self-esteem difficulties in young adulthood were more associated with negative outcomes at this phase of life [whether low self-esteem persisted into adulthood, or emerged only during adulthood]. Relative to outcomes in young adulthood, the period of greatest interest for improving well-being may be concentrated in the years immediately surrounding the studied outcomes.
Key practitioner message: Self-esteem change from adolescent to adulthood is associated with a large diversity of outcomes. Less is known concerning the extent to which adolescent self-esteem may independently determine outcomes in young adulthood as compared to more temporally proximal self-esteem levels. Only self-esteem difficulties in young adulthood were associated with negative outcomes at this phase of life [whether they persisted from adolescence into adulthood, or emerged for the first time during adulthood]. Targeting self-esteem difficulties that are temporally proximal to the period of interest may improve mental health and well-being.
Keywords: adolescent; longitudinal study; self-esteem; young adult.
© 2020 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
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