CHUNG ET AL prisingly litle xmining mean-level change in self steem and whether individuals who enter college expecting to dually inere s durine the transition from eet their we exam d individuals sof how their self 2013).Hows ver.relatively little research has specifically charted in self-esteem ve review previous research on these topics. ignificant mean-level changes have not been found (va e Rank-Order Stability of Self-Esteem During College decline (Pritchard.Wilson.&Yamnitz.2007:Shim Dver the past few decade o which selfesteem should be 012) ptualized as a trait-like These latter at th ruct that er tim or as a stat out the study suggests that emere adults acros this difficul C2012. find high ne self-este n to rde bility:that individuals who】 rela deeline.plateau at a lower level than w hen they entere the sed by the relation be ween pers ality scores across twe e models in structural quation mode s over the entirety of the colle .Rank-order st nd then in over the 201 that change ur in spi wski et al's(2003)meta-an the rank-order stability of 2000 self for a hypo es in the 50s over the 4-vear period examined in the presen tud period even Mean-Level Changes in Self-Esteem During College age-de dent ta ons ng ho ons in self-esteem reflect changes artner)c (.g. death of c riend famil in old age.When these changes ar s th tran time.Mean-level hang iso sition to adoles which typically coin he t junior hi ch scho elf-esteem drop g.Eccles.Vigfield.a Mill ,1989 ersely lack of mean-level change does not indicate high stability Eccles.Wigfield.Midgley.&Reuman 1989:S1m the te m"ale changes i ot be reflected in aggregate mean-level change (e..if the nur s in RSE of people who decrease offsets the number of people who find ngs ca the ment. Specifically, we tested whether individuals who receive good (poor) grades in college tend to increase (decrease) in self￾esteem, and whether individuals who enter college expecting to receive very high grades maintain their self-esteem, or experience a drop in self-esteem when they fail to meet their expectations. Finally, we examined individuals’ perceptions of how their self￾esteem changed during college and the degree to which these perceptions correspond to actual changes in self-esteem.1 Below, we review previous research on these topics. Rank-Order Stability of Self-Esteem During College Over the past few decades, researchers have debated the degree to which self-esteem should be conceptualized as a trait-like con￾struct that remains relatively stable over time, or as a state-like process that continually fluctuates in response to environmental and situational stimuli (Donnellan, Kenny, Trzesniewski, Lucas, & Conger, 2012; Kuster & Orth, 2013; Trzesniewski et al., 2003). If self-esteem is trait-like, then we would expect to find high rank￾order stability; that is, individuals who have relatively high (or low) self-esteem at one point in time will tend to have high (or low) self-esteem years later. Rank-order stability is commonly assessed by the correlation between personality scores across two time points, but it can also be evaluated with first-order autore￾gressive models in structural equation modeling. Rank-order sta￾bility is reduced by maturational or experiential factors that dif￾ferentially affect people’s self-esteem, as well as by measurement error. The rank-order stability of self-esteem varies across the lifespan. Specifically, stability is relatively low during early childhood and increases throughout adolescence and adulthood (Donnellan et al., 2012; Kuster & Orth, 2013; Trzesniewski et al., 2003). In Trzesni￾ewski et al.’s (2003) meta-analysis, the rank-order stability of self-esteem over a 4-year period for a hypothetical sample of 18-year-olds was .55. Accordingly, we expected to find test–retest estimates in the .50s over the 4-year period examined in the present study. Mean-Level Changes in Self-Esteem During College As individuals go through life, their self-esteem inevitably waxes and wanes. These fluctuations in self-esteem reflect changes in our social environment as well as maturational changes such as puberty and cognitive declines in old age. When these changes are normative, age-dependent, and affect individuals in a similar man￾ner, they will lead to aggregate (or mean-level) changes in self￾esteem over time. Mean-level change is both theoretically and statistically distinct from rank-order stability. Considerable mean￾level change does not indicate low rank-order stability, and con￾versely lack of mean-level change does not indicate high stability. For example, a group of people might increase substantially on a trait, but their rank ordering would stay the same if everyone in the group increased by the same amount. In the same way, the rank ordering of individuals could change substantially over time but not be reflected in aggregate mean-level change (e.g., if the num￾ber of people who decrease offsets the number of people who increase). Although we know that self-esteem shows normative changes across the lifespan (Robins & Trzesniewski, 2005), there is sur￾prisingly little research examining mean-level change in self￾esteem during the critical college period. Recent research suggests that self-esteem gradually increases during the transition from adolescence into adulthood (Erol & Orth, 2011; Orth, Trzesni￾ewski, & Robins, 2010; Wagner, Lüdtke, Jonkmann, & Trautwein, 2013). However, relatively little research has specifically charted changes in self-esteem from the beginning to the end of college. When self-esteem has been assessed at the beginning and end of college, significant mean-level changes have not been found (van der Velde, Feij, & Taris, 1995). In contrast, two studies that examined self-esteem during the first year of college found a significant decline (Pritchard, Wilson, & Yamnitz, 2007; Shim, Ryan, & Cassady, 2012). These latter studies suggest that the transition to college may challenge emerging adults’ self-views, but the former study suggests that emerging adults are able to maintain their self-esteem across this difficult transition and throughout college. Taken together, these studies suggest a need to examine self-esteem across college in addition to during the tran￾sition to college. Such a study could provide insight into what happens after the initial self-esteem drop— do students continue to decline, plateau at a lower level than when they entered college, or show a recovery to their initial level. The present study aims to provide a more precise picture of the specific, year-by-year changes over the entirety of the college experience. Studies of self-esteem development across the lifespan have found that self-esteem decreases during the transition to adoles￾cence and then increases gradually over the course of adulthood, before declining in old age (Erol & Orth, 2011; Orth et al., 2012; Robins, Tracy, Trzesniewski, Potter, & Gosling, 2001). These studies suggest that change can occur in response to transitions or major life events (e.g., Caspi & Roberts, 2001), although matura￾tional changes such as hormonal changes in puberty (Williams & Currie, 2000) may also contribute to self-esteem change. For example, Rutter (1996) stated that, although there is stability in many types of behavior from childhood through adulthood, turning points modify or redirect life trajectories; turning points are tran￾sitional periods or events that have the potential to alter behavior, affect, cognition, or context, all of which could result in lifelong change. Normative, age-dependent transitions (e.g., leaving home for college) might explain normative change, whereas transitions that are not age dependent (e.g., breaking up with a romantic partner) or nonnormative (e.g., death of close friend or family member) may produce individual differences in change. The most frequently studied turning point for self-esteem de￾velopment is the transition to adolescence, which typically coin￾cides with the transition to junior high school. This school transi￾tion has been implicated as a major cause of the adolescent self-esteem drop (e.g., Eccles, Wigfield, Flanagan, & Miller, 1989; Eccles, Wigfield, Midgley, & Reuman, 1993; Marsh, 1989; Sim- 1 We use the term “actual” because we examined actual changes in a person’s self-esteem scale scores. We are not necessarily equating these changes in RSE scores with “real” changes in self-esteem. However, if one accepts scales such as the RSE as valid measures of self-esteem, then the present findings can be conceptualized as contrasting perceived and real changes in self-esteem. Indeed, in the literature, self-esteem is most com￾monly measured using standardized self-report scales, and therefore we are assessing (albeit imperfectly) actual change as it is represented in the current tradition of self-esteem assessment. This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. 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