Gender differences in self-esteem: A meta-analysis

Two analyses were conducted to examine gender differences in global self-es teem. In Analysis I, a computerized literature search yielded 216 effect si zes, representing the testing of 97,121 respondents. The overall effect siz e was 0.21, a small difference favoring males. A significant quadratic effe ct of age indicated that the largest effect emerged in late adolescence (d = 0.33). In Analysis Di gender differences were examined using 3 large, nat ionally representative data sets from the National Center for Education Sta tistics (NCES). All of the NCES effect sizes, which collectively summarize the responses of approximately 48,000 young Americans, indicated higher mal e self-esteem (ds ranged from 0.04 to 0.24). Taken together, the 2 analyses provide evidence that males score higher on standard measures of global se lf-esteem. than females, but the difference is small. Potential reasons for the small yet consistent effect size are discussed.