Global and domain‐specific self‐esteem from middle childhood to early adolescence: Co‐developmental trajectories and directional relations

Abstract Objective The study used both person‐centered (i.e., parallel process latent class growth modeling) and variable‐centered (i.e., random intercept cross‐lagged panel modeling) approaches to examine developmental changes in global and domain‐specific self‐esteem from middle childhood to early adolescence. Method A total of 715 Chinese youth participated (54.3% boys; 45.7% girls; M age = 9.96; SD = 0.51) in a 6‐wave longitudinal study with 6‐month intervals. Results Parallel process latent class growth modeling identified three co‐developmental trajectories of global and domain‐specific self‐esteem: Congruent high increasing and then flattening global and domain‐specific self‐esteem , congruent moderate domain‐specific self‐esteem with convex global self‐esteem , and congruent low with concave appearance and global self‐esteem . Results from random intercept cross‐lagged panel modeling found reciprocal within‐person associations between academic self‐esteem and global self‐esteem; global self‐esteem significantly predicted social self‐esteem, while physical appearance self‐esteem significantly predicted global self‐esteem. Conclusion Evidence was provided for top‐down and bottom‐up effects of self‐esteem among Chinese youth. The findings provided new insight into the development of self‐esteem in youth.