Citation

Robins RW, Donnellan MB, Widaman KF, Conger RD. J. Adolesc. 2010; 33(3): 403-410.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA. rwrobins@ucdavis.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.07.009

PMID

19740537

PMCID

PMC2862796

Abstract

The present study examined the relation between self-esteem and temperament in a sample of 646 Mexican-American early adolescents (mean age=10.4). Findings show that (a) early adolescents with high self-esteem exhibit higher levels of Effortful Control but, contrary to findings in adult samples, do not differ from low self-esteem adolescents in Negative Affectivity; (b) low self-esteem is associated with Depression; and (c) low self-esteem is associated with Aggression. These findings replicated for boys and girls, two measures of self-esteem, and child and mother reports of temperament. The present study contributes to an emerging understanding of the link between self-esteem and temperament, and provides much needed data on the nature of self-esteem in ethnic minority populations.

Language: en