Self-esteem importance beliefs: A new perspective on adolescent self-esteem.

We propose that self-esteem importance has utility in research involving adolescents. Canadian adolescents ages 11–14 years (N =334) were compared to a large sample (N= 1792) and a validation subsample (n= 437) of young adults. Supplementary analyses established that our scale of self-esteem importance showed good psychometric performance among adolescents and adults. Structural equation modeling revealed that self-esteem and self-esteem importance had unique associations with bullying and victimization experiences, defending behaviors, and prosocial motivations. These associations were very similar across age groups. We propose that assessing young people's beliefs about self-esteem's importance provides useful information, not captured by self-esteem alone, about their identity and social experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]