Global and domain-specific self-esteem from middle childhood to early adolescence: Co-developmental trajectories and directional relations

Abstract

Objective

The study used both person-centered (i.e., parallel process latent class growth modeling) and variable-centered (i.e., random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling) approaches to examine developmental changes in global and domain-specific self-esteem from middle childhood to early adolescence.

Method

A total of 715 Chinese youth participated (54.3% boys; 45.7% girls; M_age = 9.96; SD = 0.51) in a 6-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals.

Results

Parallel process latent class growth modeling identified three co-developmental trajectories of global and domain-specific self-esteem: Congruent high increasing and then flattening global and domain-specific self-esteem, congruent moderate domain-specific self-esteem with convex global self-esteem, and congruent low with concave appearance and global self-esteem. Results from random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling found reciprocal within-person associations between academic self-esteem and global self-esteem; global self-esteem significantly predicted social self-esteem, while physical appearance self-esteem significantly predicted global self-esteem.

Conclusion

Evidence was provided for top-down and bottom-up effects of self-esteem among Chinese youth. The findings provided new insight into the development of self-esteem in youth.