The relation between peer social status and self-esteem in middle childhood

The aim of the study was to examine the relation between self-esteem and peer social status. A second aim was to investigate relations between peer descriptions and self-rated descriptions. The participants were 145 children (75 girls, 70 boys). The questionnaire "I think I am" measuring self-esteem, a questionnaire measuring social status through peer nomination, and an 8-item scale for peer description were administered to children in year 4 and year 6. Children were categorized into popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, average, and unclassified social status. Findings supported the hypothesis that different social status was related to different levels of self-esteem. The popular group stood out with the highest mean value on total self-esteem, on the subscale of relations to others, and showed a tendency for significance on the subscale of psychological well-being. The rejected group had the lowest mean value on total self-esteem and psychological well-being, and the neglected had the lowest on relations to others. Further, scores on "I think I am" correlated with peer descriptions of that child. Relations were stronger for negative peer nomination than for positive peer nomination. Implications of self-esteem and peer social status were discussed in relation to previous research