Self-esteem and socioeconomic status: A meta-analytic review

Socioeconomic status (SES) has a small but significant relationship with self-esteem (d = .15, r = .08) in a meta-analysis of 446 samples (total participant N = 312,940). Higher SES individuals report higher self-esteem. The effect size is very small in young children, increases substantially during young adulthood, continues higher until middle age, and is then smaller for adults over the age of 60. Gender interacts with birth cohort: The effect size increased over time for women but decreased over time for men. Asians and Asian Americans show a higher effect size, and occupation and education produce higher correlations with self-esteem than income does. The results are most consistent with a social indicator or salience model.