Boosting yourself? Associations between momentary self-esteem, daily social interactions, and self-esteem development in late adolescence and late adulthood.

Abstract

Research over the past 2 decades has repeatedly shown that the evaluation of one's own worth-trait self-esteem-is closely linked to the quality of social relationships and perceptions of social inclusion. However, there is limited evidence on the dynamics between momentary self-esteem and perceptions of social inclusion in everyday life, as well as on their possible long-term (bottom-up) effects on the development of trait self-esteem. We addressed this research gap using longitudinal data from a German multimethodological study (N = 324) in which N = 235 late adolescents (M_age = 17.7; 76% female) and N = 89 older adults (M_age = 63.8; 64% female) were followed over 1 year. Based on three trait questionnaires with 6-month intervals and a 7-day experience-sampling burst at the first measurement point, we investigated momentary dynamics in self-esteem and longitudinal change by using multilevel and latent growth modeling. Results confirmed the positive association between momentary self-esteem and perceptions of social inclusion in everyday life, that is, self-esteem reactivity in both age groups. In addition, both self- and other-reports showed a consistent increase in trait self-esteem over 1 year. However, because the slope parameters did not indicate substantial interindividual variance, we were unable to test for bottom-up effects of self-esteem reactivity. We discuss the importance of daily social experiences for momentary self-esteem in late adolescence and late adulthood but also point to the need for further multimethodological research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).