Abstract
Recent research indicates that adolescent girls'self-esteem is lower than that of boys, and adolescence has been identified as a particularly problematic period for female self-esteem. However, many studies use global self-esteem measures that mask important differences within the domains of self-concept that contribute to self-esteem. Further, some self-esteem measures assess components of male self-esteem but overlook aspects of female self-esteem. The possible selves approach was used to identify categories of adolescent male and female self-concept that correlate with self-esteem. Subjects were 212 high-school students. The sample was primarily (96%)Caucasian. Results indicate that female self-esteem is related to perceived likelihood of hoped-for and feared possible selves in multiple domains, whereas male self-esteem is related only to the likelihood of one domain of hoped-for possible selves.
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Knox, M., Funk, J., Elliot, R. et al. Adolescents' Possible Selves and Their Relationship to Global Self-Esteem. Sex Roles 39, 61–80 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018877716225
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018877716225