Level of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth: unique effects on academic, social, and financial problems in college students
Abstract
The unique effects of level of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth assessed prior to college on academic, social, and financial problems experienced during the freshman year were examined in a longitudinal study of 642 college students. Low self-esteem predicted social problems, even controlling for demographic and personality variables (neuroticism, agreeableness, and social desirability), but did not predict academic or financial problems with other variables controlled. Academic competence contingency predicted academic and financial problems and appearance contingency predicted financial problems, even after controlling for relevant personality variables. We conclude that contingencies of self-worth uniquely contribute to academic and financial difficulties experienced by college freshmen beyond level of self-esteem and other personality variables. Low self-esteem, on the other hand, appears to uniquely contribute to later social difficulties.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Academic pressures are a significant source of stress for students.
“Academic pressures of meeting grade requirements, test taking, volume of material to be learned and time management has been shown to be a signi fi cant source of stress for students (Crocker and Luhtanen, 2003; Kumaraswamy, 2013; Misra and McKean, 2000).”
From The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students (2015) · cites this paper as Crocker and Luhtanen, 2003
Cites
The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1207/s15327965pli1104_01 · Cited by 34,210 · see citing works
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Rosenberg, M. (1965) · doi:10.1515/9781400876136 · Cited by 30,126 · see citing works
Perceived locus of causality and internalization: Examining reasons for acting in two domains.
Ryan, R. M., & Connell, J. P. (1989) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.5.749 · Cited by 3,311 · see citing works
Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem.
Baumeister, R. F., Smart, L., & Boden, J. M. (1996) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.103.1.5 · Cited by 2,378 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Baumeister and his colleagues reviewed a wide range of evidence and concluded that fragile egotism, or high but vulnerable self-esteem, is associated with hostility and aggression (Baumeister et al., 1996).”
BackgroundCollins, N. L., & Feeney, B. C. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.6.1053 · Cited by 1,303 · see citing works
Contingencies of Self-Worth in College Students: Theory and Measurement.
Crocker, J., Luhtanen, R. K., Cooper, M. L., & Bouvrette, A. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.894 · Cited by 1,018 · see citing works
Self-citationCrocker, J., Karpinski, A., Quinn, D. M., & Chase, S. K. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.507 · Cited by 364 · see citing works
Self-citationHopes Dashed and Dreams Fulfilled: Contingencies of Self-Worth and Graduate School Admissions
Crocker, J., Sommers, S. R., & Luhtanen, R. K. (2002) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/01461672022812012 · Cited by 233 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Because selfesteem is unstable and vulnerable when people experience positive and negative events in domains of contingency (Crocker et al., 2002; Crocker & Wolfe, 2001), people with high and contingent self-esteem may experience more stresses in domains of contingency.”
BackgroundSelf-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students
Beiter, R., Nash, R., McCrady, M., Rhoades, D., Linscomb, M., Clarahan, M., & Sammut, S. (2015) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.054 · Cited by 2,030 · see citing works
The Costly Pursuit of Self-Esteem
Crocker, J., & Park, L. E. (2004) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.392 · Cited by 1,402 · see citing works
Self-citationContingencies of Self-Worth in College Students: Theory and Measurement.
Crocker, J., Luhtanen, R. K., Cooper, M. L., & Bouvrette, A. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.894 · Cited by 1,018 · see citing works
Self-citationDevelopment of self-esteem from age 4 to 94 years: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
Orth, U., Erol, R. Y., & Luciano, E. C. (2018) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000161 · Cited by 438 · see citing works
Jonas, E., McGregor, I., Klackl, J., Agroskin, D., Fritsche, I., Holbrook, C., Nash, K., Proulx, T., & Quirin, M. (2014) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-800052-6.00004-4 · Cited by 447 · see citing works
Crocker, J., Karpinski, A., Quinn, D. M., & Chase, S. K. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.507 · Cited by 364 · see citing works
Self-citationUziel, L. (2010) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691610369465 · Cited by 348 · see citing works
Continuity and change in self-esteem during emerging adulthood.
Chung, J. M., Robins, R. W., Trzesniewski, K. H., Noftle, E. E., Roberts, B. W., & Widaman, K. F. (2014) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0035135 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Contingencies of Self–Worth and Depressive Symptoms in College Students
Sargent, J. T., Crocker, J., & Luhtanen, R. K. (2006) · Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1521/jscp.2006.25.6.628 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Self-citationWagner, J., Lüdtke, O., Jonkmann, K., & Trautwein, U. (2013) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0029680 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Kolubinski, D. C., Frings, D., Nikčević, A. V., Lawrence, J. A., & Spada, M. M. (2018) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2018.06.025 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
“, 1993, 1989; Kernis and Goldman, 2006), externally or internally contingent (Crocker and Luhtanen, 2003; Crocker and Park, 2004; Vonk and Smit, 2011), implicit (how you feel about yourself) or explicit (what you think about yourself)”
BackgroundProximal and Distal Terror Management Defenses
Kosloff, S., Anderson, G., Nottbohm, A., & Hoshiko, B. (2019) · Handbook of Terror Management Theory · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-811844-3.00002-0 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
- Authors
- Crocker, J., & Luhtanen, R. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- ORCID
- Crocker, Jennifer
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-06
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 701-712
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2131090276
- Cited by
- 336
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 10.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1k02mh001747-01a1)
- National Institute of Mental Health (K02 MH01747-01, R01 MH5886901, R01MH058869)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Keywords
- self-esteem, contingencies of self-worth, academic difficulties, financial problems, social problems, first-year students, personality traits, neuroticism, agreeableness, social desirability
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Educational Status, Female, Financial Management, Humans, Male, Regression Analysis, Self Concept, Social Adjustment, Students, United States
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
