The nature and correlates of self-esteem trajectories in late life

Jenny Wagner, D Gerstorf, C Hoppmann, Mary Luszcz

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    58 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Is it possible to maintain a positive perspective on the self into very old age? Empirical research so far is rather inconclusive, with some studies reporting substantial declines in self-esteem late in life, whereas others report relative stability into old age. In this article, we examine long-term change trajectories in self-esteem in old age and very old age and link them to key correlates in the health, cognitive, self-regulatory, and social domains. To do so, we estimated growth curve models over chronological age and time-to-death using 18-year longitudinal data from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N 1,215; age 65-103 years at first occasion; M 78.8 years, SD 5.9; women: 45% of sample). Results revealed that self-esteem was, on average, fairly stable with minor declines only emerging in advanced ages and at the very end of life. Examination of the vast between-person differences revealed that lower cognitive abilities and lower perceived control independently related to lower self-esteem. Also, lower cognitive abilities were associated with steeper age-related and mortality-related self-esteem decrements. In our discussion, we consider a variety of challenges that potentially shape self-esteem late in life and highlight the need for more mechanism-oriented research to better understand the pathways underlying stability and change in self-esteem.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)139-153
    Number of pages15
    JournalJournal of Personality and Social Psychology
    Volume105
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 2013

    Keywords

    • Adulthood
    • Age-related and mortality-related
    • Longitudinal data
    • Self-esteem trajectories

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