Self‐esteem development during the transition to work: A 14‐year longitudinal study from adolescence to young adulthood

Abstract

Introduction Previous studies examined the trajectory of self‐esteem during critical developmental periods and over the life‐span. However, little is known about how self‐esteem changes during the school‐to‐work transition. Method We examined the effect of beginning a job for the first time on self‐esteem development, using data from 368 adolescents assessed up to six times across a 14‐year time span. Specifically, we analyzed the pattern of self‐esteem change during the transition to work and whether the self‐esteem trajectory varied as a function of several school‐ and job‐related variables, while controlling for important covariates. Results Results revealed linear increases in self‐esteem across the 14‐year study period, with partial support that the rate of increase slowed slightly after the school‐to‐work transition. We found significantly greater variability in the slopes after the transition, supporting the idea that people differ in the way they cope with the developmental tasks associated with important life transitions. We also found evidence for an interaction between college graduation and educational expectations, such that the positive effect of college graduation on self‐esteem change was stronger for those who graduated with low (vs. high) educational expectations. Conclusion School‐to‐work transition has an effect on self‐esteem development. Developmental processes of findings were discussed.

Short-Term Dynamics of Pride and State Self-Esteem Change During the University-to-Work Transition

“…Since some individuals increased, whereas others decreased, these effects could have canceled each other out. Similar patterns of substantial individual differences in self-esteem change have been found in two previous studies on university-to-work transition (Filosa et al, 2022, Reitz et al, 2020 and one study on transition to (re)employment . Considerable individual differences in self-esteem change during the university-to-work transition reiterate the importance of examining individuals' subjective experiences of the transition to understand why individuals differ in their self-esteem change (Luhmann et al, 2021).…”

“…Some job beginners increased in their self-esteem, whereas others decreased, which suggested a destabilization of self-esteem during the transition. A recent study found that self-esteem steeply increased before Italian high school and university students' transition to work, and that the increase was slower, more gradual after the transition (Filosa et al, 2022). This study also found that individuals differed in self-esteem change to a greater extent after than before the transition.…”

“…We found that on average, both pride and self-esteem did not increase across the 8 months. For self-esteem, previous studies have found average increases in trait self-esteem during the transition to work (Filosa et al, 2022, Reitz et al, 2020. For pride, previous evidence has shown age differences in authentic pride across young adulthood using cross-sectional samples (Orth, Robins, & Soto, 2010).…”

Testing the bottom-up and top-down models of self-esteem: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.

“…For example, research suggests that global self-esteem has benefits for many life outcomes (Orth & Robins, 2022), but if global self-esteem influences domain-specific self-esteem, it is possible that changes in domain-specific self-esteem account for (i.e., mediate) some of the positive effects of global self-esteem. Third, if domain-specific self-esteem influences global self-esteem, this knowledge could help to better understand how global self-esteem is influenced by people’s experiences in important life domains, such as social relationships, school, and work (Filosa et al, 2022; Harris & Orth, 2020; Krauss & Orth, 2021; Reitz et al, 2022; Wagner et al, 2018). Thus, it is possible that domain-specific self-esteem mediates some of the effects of life experiences on global self-esteem.…”

Personal Narratives as a Predictor of Trait Change and State Fluctuations in Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction during the Transition from Education to Work

“…When having found a job, they need to find out what their new role as a member of the workforce is and how to perform well, while they also need to adjust to a new social group of colleagues (Bauer et al, 2007). People differ in how they experience and adjust to this transition, with vast differences in how their self-esteem and life satisfaction changes (Filosa et al, 2022;Haase et al, 2012;Reitz et al, 2020). In the present study, we examined whether a salient personal narrative helps explain these individual differences in self-esteem and life satisfaction.…”