Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-esteem.

Abstract

College students in 31 nations (N = 13,118) completed measures of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and satisfaction with specific domains (friends, family, and finances). The authors assessed whether cross-cultural variations in the strength of associations were related to societal dimensions including income and individualism. At the national level, individualism correlated -.24 (ns) with heterogeneity and .71 (p < .001) with wealth. At the individual level, self-esteem and life satisfaction were correlated .47 for the entire sample. This relation, however, was moderated by the individualism of the society. The associations of financial, friend, and family satisfactions with life satisfaction and with self-esteem also varied across nations. Financial satisfaction was a stronger correlate of life satisfaction in poorer countries. It was found that life satisfaction and self-esteem were clearly discriminable constructs. Satisfaction ratings, except for financial satisfaction, varied between slightly positive and fairly positive.

Simultaneous Administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in 53 Nations: Exploring the Universal and Culture-Specific Features of Global Self-Esteem.

“…Moreover, we did not find, as many researchers have expected, that people in collectivistic countries express much lower levels of global self-esteem than people in individualistic countries (see also Diener & Diener, 1995). Nor did we find particularly positive self-esteem is a unique characteristic of individualistic countries.…”

“…Previously, the largest cross-cultural study of self-esteem, based on a single-item measure of self-satisfaction, covered 31 countries on five continents (Diener & Diener, 1995). Rather surprisingly, there was no correlation between the culture-level self-satisfaction and culture-level individualism-collectivism.…”

“…Diener and Diener (1995) published singleitem data about satisfaction with self across 31 countries. Although a single-item rating of the self-satisfaction is not identical to how global self-esteem is conceptualized by the RSES, it is logical to expect that these two measures would be associated.…”

“…Sedikides et al, 2003) because all reviewed studies were carried out in North America. Studies carried out in Japan, for example, often show that mean self-esteem scores approach the theoretical midpoint of the scale (Diener & Diener, 1995;Heine et al, 1999). On the basis of strong contrasts between North America and Japan, Heine and colleagues (1999) advanced the notion that positive self-evaluation is far from universal.…”

Executive Self, Self-Esteem, and Negative Affectivity: Relations at the Phenotypic and Genotypic Level.

“…Lack of control and feelings of helplessness put people at an increased risk for depressive symptoms (Chorpita, Brown, & Barlow, 1998;Kistner, Ziegert, Castro, & Robertson, 2001), whereas feelings of mastery are associated with greater life satisfaction (Lachman & Weaver, 1998) and lower occurrence of depressive symptoms (Hobfoll, Johnson, Ennis, & Jackson, 2003). People with higher levels of self-esteem have lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of positive affect (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1992;Tarlow & Haaga, 1996), enjoy greater life satisfaction (Diener & Diener, 1995;Sedikides, Rudich, Gregg, Kumashiro, & Rusbult, 2004), and report lower levels of depressive symptoms (J. E. Roberts, Kassel, & Gotlib, 1995;. Both aspects of the self-system-executive self and selfesteem-relate to individuals' overall affective experience.…”