Gender differences in the basis and level of adult self-esteem: A cross-cultural perspective

Six hundred and nine middle class adults from the USA, Hong Kong, and Lithuania were asked to rate the importance of and satisfaction with twenty different aspects of their self. As predicted the American sample reported the highest global self-esteem. Participants from all three countries tended to be more satisfied with self-components they considered more important. This trend as predicted was stronger for the highly individualist American participants. Within all three countries there was strong agreement between the sexes about the salience and satisfaction of these components for the self. However, between country effects were much stronger than gender effects. Components considered to be aspects of the Interdependent self tended to be rated more salient and to be a greater source of satisfaction than aspects of the Independent self in all three countries. Across countries, the US and Hong Kong response patterns were very similar but the Lithuanians differed markedly, perhaps surprisingly rating as relatively more important a number of individualistic aspects of the self. Overall the results question the claims in the literature that gender differences in the nature of self-concept generalize across cultures.