Age Trends in Male and Female Self‐Esteem in Norwegian Samples

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Abstract
Skaalvik, E.M. 1986. Age Trends in Male and Female Self‐Esteem in Norwegian Samples. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 30, 107‐119. Four studies of sex differences in global and academic self‐esteem in grades 3, 6, and 8 in Norwegian schools are reported. Self‐esteem was measured by a 13 item context‐free instrument. In grade 3 girls tended to have higher academic self‐esteem than boys (two studies), while there were no sex differences in global self‐esteem. In grades 6 and 8 boys tended to have both higher academic self‐esteem (two studies) and higher global self‐esteem (four studies) than girls. A significant sex x grade interaction was found in 3 of the studies for academic self‐esteem and in two of the studies for global self‐esteem. The sex differences in academic self‐esteem were not a function of differences in academic performance, but could be explained by the differences in global self‐esteem. Some antecedents of global self‐esteem were found to be different for boys and girls.