Change in Self‐esteem Between Year 2 and Year 6: a longitudinal study

Abstract

All Year 2 children in six randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) comprised the sample to which the Lawseq self‐esteem questionnaire was administered. Four years later, when they were Year 6, they completed the Lawseq again. A two‐way analysis of variance with Sex and Occasions was carried out on the 12 individual items of the instrument and the total. There were no significant differences between occasions or sexes on the overall score, but there were significant differences between occasions on seven of the 12 items and between sexes on two items. On only one item was there a significant interaction between sexes and occasions. The mean for the total fell over the 4 years. The means for both occasions were considerably below the mean of 19.00 obtained when Lawrence standardised the test in 1981. Discussion centred on possible reasons for this, such as appropriacy of the instrument for the age‐groups under study, stability of administration and changes within society and school.