Self-esteem Among Chinese Cohorts: Its Temporal Trend and Its Relationships with Socioecological Factors, 1993-2016

Self-esteem affects individuals in a variety of psychological processes substantially and extensively. While an increase in self-esteem over time was observed in the USA, different patterns of temporal change in self-esteem were observed in other societies. We analysed the responses (n = 305 229) collected between 1993 and 2016 from 609 articles to examine the patterns of temporal change in self-esteem in China and its relations with socioecological conditions. Additionally, we explored the patterns in different groups, including secondary school students (158 samples; n = 97 751), college students (427 samples; n = 153 474), and community participants (232 samples; n = 54 004). Some major findings were noted: (i) overall, the level of self-esteem increased over time. However, we also found a significant curvilinear trend in self-esteem with a decline followed by a recent increase; (ii) some evidence for the relationship between socioecological factors and self-esteem was obtained; and (iii) the patterns varied in different cohort groups. Specifically, secondary school students showed a different pattern, in which their self-esteem level did not show a significant linear trend and was not correlated with the examined socioecological factors. The implications on the theories for the relationship between personality characteristics and socioecological conditions were discussed. (c) 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology