Causes and Consequences of Low Self-Esteem in Children and Adolescents

The preceding comments from studies of young people by myself and colleagues are personally very distressing. Theoretically, they are perplexing. It is commonly asserted in the literature that the self-concept is a theory, a cognitive construction, and that its architecture—by evolutionary design—is extremely functional (see Allport, 1961; Bartlett, 1932; Brim, 1976; Damon & Hart, 1988; Epstein, 1973, 1981, 1991; Greenwald, 1980; Harter, 1983; Kelly, 1955; Lecky, 1945; Lynch, 1981; Markus, 1980; Piaget, 1965; Rogers, 1951; Sarbin, 1962). One such widely touted function is to maintain high self-esteem. Considerable evidence now exists that most people do exhibit a modest self-enhancing bias (Taylor & Brown, 1988).

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