GENDER AND GRADE DIFFERENCES IN ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL CHILDRENS DESCRIPTIVE AND EVALUATIVE SELF-STATEMENTS AND SELF-ESTEEM

Gender and developmental differences in self-description, self-evaluat ion and self-esteem were investigated using 957 elementary school chil dren in grades 3 to 7. Gender differences were found for six of the se ven descriptive statements and for five of the seven evaluative statem ents. The major gender stereotypical findings from previous studies we re replicated. Boys reported higher scores than girls on descriptive a nd evaluative statements about their physical abilities and mathematic s, while girls reported higher scores on descriptive and evaluative st atements about reading. Declines over time were noted for all self-eva luations except having good relations with peers and for global self-e steem, providing some support for the notion that the decline in self- concepts and self-esteem may be attributed to the children's perceptio ns of themselves becoming more accurate and less egocentric in line wi th their cognitive capacity to integrate external feedback realistical ly.