Evaluating sociometer theory in children’s everyday lives: Inclusion, but not exclusion by peers at school is related to within-day change in self-esteem

Abstract

Sociometer theory proposes that a person’s self-esteem is a permanent monitor of perceived social inclusion and exclusion in a given situation. Despite this within-person perspective, respective research in children’s everyday lives is lacking. In three intensive longitudinal studies, we examined whether children’s self-esteem was associated with social inclusion and exclusion by peers at school. Based on sociometer theory, we expected social inclusion to positively predict self-esteem and social exclusion to negatively predict self-esteem on within- and between-person levels. Children aged 9–12 years reported state self-esteem twice per day (morning and evening) and social inclusion and exclusion once per day for two (Study 1) and four weeks (Studies 2–3). Consistently across studies, we found that social inclusion positively predicted evening self-esteem on within- and between-person levels. By contrast, social exclusion was not associated with evening self-esteem on the within-person level. On the between-person level, social exclusion was negatively linked to evening self-esteem only in Study 1. Multilevel latent change score models revealed that children’s self-esteem changed from mornings (before school) to evenings (after school) depending on their perceived daily social inclusion, but not exclusion. The findings are discussed in light of sociometer theory and the bad-is-stronger-than-good phenomenon.

Good can be stronger than bad: the daily relationship among maternal warmth, mother-teen conflict and adolescents’ self-esteem

“…They may also hold motivation of selfprotection and then tend to avoid or neglect information that may threat their self-image (Sedikides et al, 2016). Supporting this proposal, Schmidt and colleges (Schmidt et al, 2020) found that for school-aged children, it is social inclusion, not exclusion that predict their evening self-esteem.…”

Boosting yourself? Associations between momentary self-esteem, daily social interactions, and self-esteem development in late adolescence and late adulthood.

“…Each time participants reported a social interaction during the ESM period, they were asked to what degree they rated the social interaction as positive and as interesting on a 10-point scale from 0 ( not at all ) to 10 ( very ). Assessments of social inclusion have varied widely across studies, ranging from explicit measures of rejection to measures of relationship or interaction quality (Denissen et al, 2008; Schmidt et al, 2021). Overall, the sociometer effect appears to be robust across these different assessment methods (Harris & Orth, 2020).…”

“…Based on evolutionary notions, one key ingredient boosting self-esteem should be the perceptions of social belonging and inclusion (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Empirical research based on samples from Western industrialized countries highlights that perceptions of social inclusion and social interaction quality are indeed related to state self-esteem, both in experimental settings (Leary et al, 1995; Pass et al, 2010; Thomaes et al, 2010) and in real-life situations (Denissen et al, 2008; Schmidt et al, 2021). We will refer to the association between perceptions of social inclusion and self-esteem as self-esteem reactivity 2 .…”

Reciprocal relations of subjective sleep quality and affective well-being in late childhood.

“…Data of this study was collected within the SASCHA project (Social and Academic School transition CHAllenges), which comprised two intensive measurement bursts and a follow-up assessment. Prior work using data from this study has targeted the association between social relatedness and well-being or self-esteem (Schmidt et al, in press; Schmidt, Dirk, et al, 2020; Schmidt, Neubauer, et al, 2020), and between daily goal orientations and daily experiences of success and failure (Neubauer, Schmidt, et al, 2020). Thus far, no other work has utilized information on children’s sleep collected in this project.…”