# Self-esteem
**Self-esteem** is a person's evaluation of and resulting attitude toward themselves: the degree to which the qualities and characteristics contained in one's self-concept are perceived to be positive, reflecting physical self-image, views of one's accomplishments and capabilities, and perceived success in living up to one's values[1](https://dictionary.apa.org/self-esteem) • [2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5). A reasonably high degree of self-esteem is considered an important ingredient of mental health, while low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness are common depressive symptoms[1](https://dictionary.apa.org/self-esteem).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Definition | The degree to which the qualities in one's self-concept are perceived to be positive, covering self-image, accomplishments, capabilities, and success in living up to one's values[1](https://dictionary.apa.org/self-esteem) |
| Standard measure | The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965), 10 items with 5 negatively worded, 4-point response format; 1-week test-retest reliability of .82 and coefficient alpha of .88[3](https://www.tandfonline.com/servlet/linkout?dbid=16&doi=10.1080%2F00224499.2016.1143441&key=10.1037%2Ft01038-000&suffix=CIT0062) |
| Lifespan trajectory | Relatively high in childhood, a drop during adolescence (particularly for girls), a gradual rise through adulthood, and a sharp decline in old age[4](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/current-directions/j.0963-7214.2005.00353.x/) |
| Facets beyond level | Stability (robustness of feelings of self-worth) and contingency (dependence on meeting particular conditions) are studied alongside global level[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5) |
| Academic link | Correlations between self-esteem or related self-constructs and academic performance are consistently small to moderate, r = 0.20 to 0.40[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5) |
| Limits of high self-esteem | Self-esteem is essentially unrelated to aggression and does not predict use of alcohol and other drugs, according to an overview of the evidence[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5) |
## Definition and related concepts
Global self-esteem is an individual's overall evaluation of the self, reflecting an appraisal of personal value and a tendency toward feelings of self-liking, self-worth, and self-acceptance. It differs from domain-specific self-esteem, which consists of evaluations of specific abilities or qualities such as academic competence or physical appearance[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5). A 2016 review in *Advances in Psychological Science* noted that despite intensive study across fields of psychology, no widely accepted conclusion about the essence of the concept has emerged, and it distinguished true self-esteem, whose essential difference from related concepts lies in contingency and conditionality[5](https://journal.psych.ac.cn/adps/EN/Y2016/V24/I9/1427).
The concept has a long history in psychology, traced back to [William James](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-james)'s pioneering work. A review of the literature identified nine theorists with substantial impact: the sociologically oriented Mead and Rosenberg, and the psychologically oriented James, Adler, Horney, Fromm, Sullivan, Rogers, and Coopersmith[6](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?doi=e7af24285d991a6b26026f4bbc2b61dd1cf25ba4&repid=rep1&type=pdf). Morris Rosenberg (1965) and Stanley Coopersmith (1967) initiated systematic measurement with self-report scales[6](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?doi=e7af24285d991a6b26026f4bbc2b61dd1cf25ba4&repid=rep1&type=pdf).
## Measurement
The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, originally intended as a measure for adolescents, is probably the most widely used measure of self-esteem for adult populations and is described as the standard measure in psychological research. It contains 10 items, 5 of them negatively worded, answered on a 4-point format from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Fleming and Courtney (1984) reported a 1-week test-retest reliability of .82 and a coefficient alpha of .88, and Hensley (1977) reported a unidimensional factor structure[3](https://www.tandfonline.com/servlet/linkout?dbid=16&doi=10.1080%2F00224499.2016.1143441&key=10.1037%2Ft01038-000&suffix=CIT0062). Because self-esteem is a traitlike construct, researchers often use the scale as a moderator variable rather than a dependent variable[3](https://www.tandfonline.com/servlet/linkout?dbid=16&doi=10.1080%2F00224499.2016.1143441&key=10.1037%2Ft01038-000&suffix=CIT0062).
**Beyond a single score.** Research since the 1990s treats self-esteem as multidimensional. Stability, also called instability, is the extent of perceived fluctuations and the robustness of a person's feelings of self-worth; stable, secure self-esteem is associated with the absence of negative emotions, while unstable, fragile self-esteem is associated with threat, insecurity, anxiety, and increased sensitivity to psychological vulnerability. High self-esteem combined with instability leads to very different outcomes than high self-esteem alone, suggesting two subtypes of high self-esteem, secure and fragile[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5). Contingent self-esteem is the degree to which global self-esteem depends on meeting particular conditions; in the view of a person with contingent self-esteem, one's own value must be earned. Empirically established contingency domains include physical appearance, academic competence, and virtue, and domain-specific contingencies have been linked to outcomes such as self-regulation and depressive symptoms[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5).
## Development across the lifespan
In a 2005 article in *Current Directions in Psychological Science*, Richard W. Robins and Kali H. Trzesniewski describe an emerging agreement that self-esteem typically starts out fairly high in childhood, dips in adolescence (with girls especially affected), climbs slowly over the adult years, and then falls steeply among the elderly.[4](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/current-directions/j.0963-7214.2005.00353.x/) Alongside these average changes, individuals tend to maintain their ordering relative to one another: people with relatively high self-esteem at one point tend to have relatively high self-esteem years later. This rank-order stability is somewhat lower during childhood and old age than during adulthood, but its overall level is comparable to that found for other personality characteristics[4](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/current-directions/j.0963-7214.2005.00353.x/).
## Global and domain-specific self-esteem
Two models describe how global and domain-specific self-esteem relate. The bottom-up model assumes domain-specific self-esteem influences global self-esteem; the top-down model assumes the reverse. A 2023 meta-analysis by Laura C. Dapp, Samantha Krauss, and Ulrich Orth of the University of Bern synthesized longitudinal data from 43 independent samples totaling 24,668 participants across eight domains: academic abilities, physical appearance, athletic abilities, morality, romantic relationships, social acceptance, mathematics, and verbal abilities. It reported reciprocal prospective effects, with bottom-up effects significant in all domains except verbal abilities (mean effect sizes .05 to .19) and top-down effects significant in all domains except mathematics (mean effect sizes .05 to .12, and .01 in mathematics)[7](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36326678/).
A 2024 reanalysis of that meta-analysis challenged the conclusion. Because the cross-lagged effects were estimated while adjusting for a prior measurement of the outcome, they can be spurious due to correlations with residuals and regression to the mean; the reanalysis found all of the prospective effects to be spurious and concluded that claims about top-down and bottom-up processes between general and domain-specific self-esteem can be questioned[8](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10863855/).
## Self-esteem and achievement
Self-esteem is related to school performance, with consistently small to moderate positive correlations (r = 0.20 to 0.40) between self-esteem or related constructs and academic performance[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5). The mechanisms remain under study. In a two-study program with 600 university students and 1,052 school students, path analyses identified effort-management and test anxiety as meaningful mediators of the effects of self-esteem facets on academic achievement, though the three self-esteem facets showed no significant direct main effects on performance[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5). One self-esteem regulation strategy, [self-handicapping](https://www.edgepedia.org/self-handicapping), in which a learner seeks an external reason for anticipated failure, is predominantly associated with worse performance or lower motivation[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5).
Earlier expectations that high self-esteem broadly produces good outcomes have been qualified: self-esteem is essentially unrelated to aggression and is not relevant for predicting the use of alcohol and other drugs, and much of the research lacks a convincing theoretical rationale for the mechanisms through which self-esteem would affect outcomes[2](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5).
## Self-esteem and social media
A large body of recent work examines how social media use relates to self-esteem. A systematic review of 37 studies of adults (18 years and older) indexed in PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus examined outcomes including self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and loneliness in connection with social media and digital device use, and reported links to factors such as Fear of Missing Out, social anxiety, and emotional investment; the review noted limitations of small sample sizes, cross-sectional designs, and self-reporting[9](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245195882400188X).
Findings among adolescents point to a bidirectional relationship shaped by usage patterns. A meta-analytical review concluded that excessive, passive, and comparison-based use is associated with lower self-esteem, while active and supportive engagement may enhance self-worth[10](https://journal.canadian-ots.ca/index.php/ots/article/view/94). A systematic review of 25 studies on adolescents' [emotional intelligence](https://www.edgepedia.org/emotional-intelligence) found that social media use shows a negative correlation with adolescents' self-esteem, and that lower emotional intelligence is associated with increased problematic social media use[11](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40894-024-00245-z). Experience-sampling work with 297 adolescents who completed 126 momentary questionnaires in each of two 3-week studies found that the effects of social media use on psychosocial functioning, including self-esteem, had low rank-order stability (r = .05 to .25), varying between individuals and changing substantially within individuals over time[12](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.14207). The [United Nations Development Programme](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-nations-development-programme)'s *Human Development Report 2025* notes that social media increases upward social comparison, which reduces subjective well-being indicators such as life satisfaction, self-worth, and self-esteem[13](https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2025-05/human_development_report_2025.pdf).
## References
1. [Self-esteem, APA Dictionary of Psychology](https://dictionary.apa.org/self-esteem)
2. [Kärchner, H., Schöne, C., & Schwinger, M. (2021). Beyond level of self-esteem: exploring the interplay of level, stability, and contingency of self-esteem, mediating factors, and academic achievement. Social Psychology of Education, 24, 319-341.](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-021-09610-5)
3. [Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, APA PsycTests citation and description](https://www.tandfonline.com/servlet/linkout?dbid=16&doi=10.1080%2F00224499.2016.1143441&key=10.1037%2Ft01038-000&suffix=CIT0062)
4. [Robins, R. W., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2005). Self-Esteem Development Across the Lifespan. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(3).](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/current-directions/j.0963-7214.2005.00353.x/)
5. [Fang, P., Ma, Y., Zhu, W., & Jiang, Y. (2016). The status and issues of research on self-esteem. Advances in Psychological Science, 24(9), 1427-1434.](https://journal.psych.ac.cn/adps/EN/Y2016/V24/I9/1427)
6. [Review of the literature on self-esteem (thesis, Iowa State University via CiteSeerX)](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?doi=e7af24285d991a6b26026f4bbc2b61dd1cf25ba4&repid=rep1&type=pdf)
7. [Dapp, L. C., Krauss, S., & Orth, U. (2023). Testing the bottom-up and top-down models of self-esteem: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(5), 1111-1131.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36326678/)
8. [Spurious prospective effects between general and domain-specific self-esteem: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies (2024).](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10863855/)
9. [Social media in the adult population: Potential outcomes and its relationship with self-esteem and well-being - A systematic literature review. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 17 (2025).](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245195882400188X)
10. [Youssef, F. (2025). The Effects of social media on Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analytical Approach. OTS Canadian Journal, 4(7), 56-64.](https://journal.canadian-ots.ca/index.php/ots/article/view/94)
11. [Adolescent Social Media Use and Emotional Intelligence: A Systematic Review. Adolescent Research Review (2024).](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40894-024-00245-z)
12. [Pouwels, J. L., et al. (2025). Changing or stable? The effects of adolescents' social media use on psychosocial functioning. Child Development, 96(2), 752-770.](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.14207)
13. [Human Development Report 2025, United Nations Development Programme](https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2025-05/human_development_report_2025.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social life and human behavior › Psychology and behavior › Personality psychology*
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