Self-Evaluation Differences Among Swedish Children and Adolescents Over a 30-Year Period

Hoff, Eva V.; Daukantaitė, Daiva; Birgerstam, Pirjo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00802

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol., 28 April 2020

Sec. Personality and Social Psychology

Volume 11 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00802

Self-Evaluation Differences Among Swedish Children and Adolescents Over a 30-Year Period

$\r\nEva V. Hoff*$ Eva V. Hoff^*

Daiva Daukantaitė $Pirjo Birgerstam\r\n$ Pirjo Birgerstam

Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

International research has found changes in how today’s young people evaluate themselves. The present Swedish research contributes with new findings by distinguishing different patterns of change in self-evaluation in two age groups. The study investigates generational and gender differences in five self-evaluation dimensions in two samples, one from 1983 (N = 3052 10–16-year-old students) and one from 2013 (N = 1303 10–18-year-old students). Three age groups were analyzed. The generational comparison for primary school (ages 10–12) showed higher scores in 2013 than in 1983 for all five self-evaluation dimensions. Interactions between generation and gender were found for psychological well-being, relations to others, school competence evaluations, and the total score, demonstrating, in contrast to international research, a greater increase for girls than for boys. Noteworthy is that girls in primary school had higher scores in 2013. The generational comparison for lower secondary school (ages 13–15) demonstrated higher scores for school competence, relational self-evaluations, and a total higher score in 2013. Interactions between generation and gender were found for total, physical, and psychological well-being evaluation scores, indicating an increase for boys and a decrease for girls in 2013 compared to 1983. The gender comparison for secondary school (ages 16–18, 2013), showed gender differences for physical, psychological well-being, school competence evaluations, and for the total score to the advantage of boys. The study discusses changes in self-evaluation in relation to phenomena such as permissive child-rearing, decreased demands in school, increased self-enhancement behavior through social media, and narrow body ideals in today’s society. The study recommends that interventions directed toward groups with low self-evaluation scores should be considered.

Introduction

International studies suggest self-evaluation differences between today’s young generation, ‘the Millennials’¹ and those born some decades earlier, ‘Generation X’² (Twenge and Campbell, 2001; Gentile et al., 2010; Bachman et al., 2011; Von Soest and Wichstrøm, 2014). Some scholars maintain that there is an increased self-focus in today’s society owing to changes in cultural values and ideas (Twenge and Campbell, 2009). Simultaneously, scientific reports in many Western countries show a decrease in well-being and an increase in depression and self-harm behavior among adolescents (Collishaw et al., 2010; Fleming et al., 2014). Phenomena, such as an increase in permissive child-rearing methods, changed demands in school, increased self-enhancement behavior through the Internet and social media, and increasingly narrow body ideals, are used to explain why Millennials demonstrate seemingly contradictory trends – increases in self-esteem and decreases in subjective well-being. Eckersley and Dear (2002; also Park et al., 2014) claim that these results do not conflict because the increase in self-focus in individualistic cultures produces inflated feelings of self-worth. These inflated feelings of self-worth are accompanied by unrealistic expectations on choice, opportunity, and attainment in many aspects of life. Because such high expectations cannot be met, they may lead to experiences of failure that result in decreased subjective well-being (Eckersley and Dear, 2002; Park et al., 2014).

Scientific studies (Hagquist, 2010; Petersen et al., 2010; National Board of Health and Welfare, 2013) and the media in Sweden (Glimberg, 2012; Sjöberg, 2013) report that depression and anxiety have increased among adolescents, but there is a lack of research on how self-evaluations in Sweden have changed from Millennials to Generation X. Therefore, the present study investigates self-evaluation differences between two cross-sectional samples from 1983 and 2013.

There are several self-constructs, of which one is dimensional self-evaluation (also termed self-concept), that refer to how individuals evaluate different self-aspects, such as physical self-image, psychological self-image, family relations, friend relations, and school competencies. Another self-construct is global self-esteem, which refers to how much value individuals generally attribute to themselves (Harter, 2012; Orth et al., 2014b) measured with items such as I am satisfied with myself. This is the construct used most often in studies of generational self-trends. Meta-studies have primarily found increases in global self-esteem (Twenge and Campbell, 2001; Gentile et al., 2010; Von Soest and Wichstrøm, 2014). However, researchers have also demonstrated small or non-existent changes between generations in global self-esteem (Trzesniewski et al., 2008; Trzesniewski and Donnellan, 2010; Orth and Robins, 2014; Orth et al., 2014a). The construct global self-esteem has been criticized. One influential review (Baumeister et al., 2003) has demonstrated that global self-esteem poorly predicts academic achievement, work performance, and health-related behaviors. This is one reason to use other self-constructs in generational comparisons, such as dimensional self-evaluations, which in contrast to global self-esteem, are consistently associated with performance (within the same dimension). For instance, academic self-evaluation predicts academic performance well (Valentine et al., 2004; Marsh et al., 2006). There is a lack of studies in generational comparisons of dimensional self-evaluations, particularly in the Nordic countries. In the present study, we examine whether two cross-sectional samples of Swedish students (from 1983 and 2013) score differently on five self-evaluation dimensions. As there are developmental differences between primary and secondary school students, the groups’ self-evaluation scores have been analyzed separately in research.

Generational Differences in Self-Measures in Different Age Groups

In American studies, larger cohort differences have been found among children than among adolescents. The Gentile et al. (2010) meta-analysis on global self-esteem change between 1988 and 2006 reported a large difference (Cohen’s d = 0.78) in the age group 11–13. Self-esteem was higher in 2006. Gentile et al. (2010) have demonstrated smaller differences (d = 0.39 for the whole sample and d = 0.17 for Caucasian participants) for secondary school students (ages 14–17). The Twenge and Campbell (2010) meta-analysis of 14-year-olds’ global self-esteem found a very small difference (d = 0.12) between the years 1991 to 2007. Studies of generational differences in dimensional self-evaluations are few.

Very few generational comparisons have been undertaken in the Nordic countries on global self-esteem or on different self-evaluation dimensions. The few comparisons that do exist only compare one age group (Wångby et al., 2005; Frisén and Anneheden, 2014), include a limited time period (Frisén and Anneheden) or only study one dimension or solely global self-esteem (Wångby et al., 2005; Frisén et al., 2014). Frisén and Anneheden did not detect any changes between 2000 and 2010 in Swedish 10-year-olds’ body-related self-evaluation. A comparison of 15-year-old girls from two Swedish samples (1970 and 1996) revealed a tendency toward more global self-esteem problems in 1996 than in 1970 (Wångby et al., 2005). A Norwegian study compared 16-year-old adolescents’ global self-esteem and also the dimension physical appearance between the years 1992 and 2010 (Von Soest and Wichstrøm, 2014). They found a small increase in trends in both the appearance dimension (d = 0.19 for girls and 0.27 for boys) and the global self-esteem dimension (d = 0.12 for girls and 0.19 for boys). Our study investigates self-evaluation differences in two different age groups (10–12 and 13–15 years) in order to present separate generational trend analyses for primary and for lower secondary school. Gender differences is another self-related aspect that influences self-evaluation trends in different stages of development.

The Development of Gender Differences in Self-Measures

Most gender studies of global self-esteem find gender differences to the advantage of males. The effect sizes of the self-esteem gender differences over a life span, however, are generally small (d = 0.25 in Bleidorn et al.’s, 2016; d = 0.21 in Kling et al., 1999). The largest gender differences have been found during adolescence (d = 0.33 in Kling et al., 1999 for 15–18-year-olds).

Girls have been found to score equally with boys on global self-esteem in the early years (4–9 years in Noordstar et al., 2016; 9–12 years in Robins et al., 2002). Girls score even higher than boys in self-evaluations in some dimensions, such as reading (ages 7–11 in Marsh, 1989), honesty (at the ages of 10 and 12), and school competence and peer relations (at the age of 12: Orth et al., 2014b).

Both girls and boys show a drop in global self-esteem worldwide around the transition to lower secondary school at the age of 12 or 13 (Marsh, 1989; Twenge and Campbell, 2001; Robins et al., 2002; Cantin and Boivin, 2004). This decrease in self-esteem runs parallel to an increase in cognitive ability to evaluate oneself more realistically and in relation to others (Harter, 2012). Global self-esteem increases from the age of 15 or 16 (Erol and Orth, 2011; Bleidorn et al.’s, 2016). A widening of the gender gap begins around the transition to lower secondary school as indicated in some Western countries (Marsh, 1989 in Australia; Twenge and Campbell, 2001 in the United States) in that girls’ self-esteem declines more than that of boys. Girls’ self-esteem does not recover from the adolescent dip until the last year of secondary school and during college years (at the age of 17 or 18). One Swedish study has indicated that the turning point for young men might come somewhat later, around the age of 21 (Frisén et al., 2014). Young men’s scores on global self-esteem (Robins et al., 2002), the five-dimensional self-evaluation (Räty et al., 2005), and the body-related self-dimension (Frisén et al., 2015) were found to decrease slightly during late adolescence. Women do not reach the same level of global self-esteem as men until very old age (age 80), despite that the gender gap narrows, as shown in two studies (US sample: Orth et al., 2010; mixed sample: Robins et al., 2002). However, no significant gender difference in global self-esteem has been found by the age of 31 in a Norwegian sample (13–31 years of age) (von Soest et al., 2016). Cross-cultural variation has been found in gender differences (see Bleidorn et al.’s, 2016 comparison of 48 countries).

Larger gender differences have been found in dimensional rather than in global self-measures in secondary school (ages 11–17) (Twenge and Campbell, 2001; Gentile et al., 2009). The dimension-specific gender differences that have been highlighted show that boys score higher on physical self-evaluation (Feingold and Mazella, 1998; von Soest et al., 2016; Gentile et al., 2009) and math self-evaluation (Marsh, 1989), whereas girls score higher on verbal and spiritual self-evaluation (Marsh, 1989), close friendships (von Soest et al., 2016), and for behavioral conduct self-evaluation (Gentile et al., 2009).

Some inferred explanations for the gender gap in most self-dimensions are: Stereotypical gender roles that are enforced in segregated play groups during the early school years. High global self-esteem in adolescence is described as a gender role violation for girls (Kling et al., 1999). The cultural focus on women’s physical appearance is another suggested cause and is manifested in all types of Western media (Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2004; Rodgers et al., 2015). Although appearance is related to self-evaluation in both women and men, women are more dissatisfied with their appearance and body (Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2004; Frisén and Anneheden, 2014). Thinness, as a body ideal in the Western world, affects girls more than boys (Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2004; McArthur et al., 2005; Golan et al., 2014). An additional cause is that athletic participation in adolescence is more common among boys and helps retain a positive body-image. In contrast, normal physical changes in adolescent girls, including increased body fat, go against Western cultural body ideals, whereas normal physical changes in boys, for example, muscle growth, are in line with such ideals (Rodgers et al., 2015).

Some studies on self-esteem change do not present gender differences (e.g., Trzesniewski and Donnellan, 2010; Twenge and Campbell, 2010). When gender data have been analyzed, other factors have sometimes overshadowed the results, such as the ethnicity of participants, which makes gender differences in self-esteem less discernible. Erol and Orth (2011) have found no significant gender moderation in their study of participants of mixed ethnicity from 14 to 30 years of age, but those authors admitted that ethnicity can be a confound.

The present study examines gender differences in five self-evaluation dimensions in two Swedish samples from 2013 and 1983 in the age-span 10–16 years and gender differences in secondary school (ages 16–18) from a 2013 sample. Gender differences are of special interest in Sweden – as it is recognized for striving toward gender equality.

The Present Study and Societal Movements in Sweden During 1983–2013

Many equality reforms have been launched in Sweden since the 1980s, for example, goals for gender-equal representation in political and management positions and in recruitment to certain jobs, parental leave for men and women, and affordable, high-quality day care service that enables both parents to work full-time. The European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE) gave Sweden the highest equality index, 83 out of 100, of all EU countries (EIGE, 2017). The question is whether the self-evaluation differences between girls and boys have evened out in Sweden. We examined two cross-sectional samples (from 1983 and 2013) in Sweden, to discover how gender differences in self-evaluation have changed from primary school to lower secondary school. We also had an additional group from secondary school from 2013 for which we examined gender differences.

A few other family and societal trends have taken place during the past 30 years in Sweden in addition to the equality trend. These trends may have had an influence on young people’s self-evaluations. One trend concerns altered child-rearing styles and parental habits. More children in the millennium generation than in the 1980s have been reared in a permissive way (Eberhard, 2014; Trifan et al., 2014). Millennium parents experience greater time pressure owing to the changed situation on the labor market in Sweden, with both parents working in nearly all families (Statistics Sweden, 2014). In order to compensate for their absence, parents may try to solve problems for their children instead of giving their children opportunities to learn to handle challenges. A positive effect of this permissiveness is more likely in the primary school group. However, early parental permissiveness may lead to poorer abilities to handle setbacks when challenges increase during adolescence (Spencer, 2008), something that in the older groups may influence self-evaluations negatively.

Other scholars have discussed the benefits of a less authoritarian upbringing (Trifan et al., 2014) because this method of child rearing means that fewer children lose their sense of agency, something that could lead to higher self-evaluation (Buri, 1989; Tafarodi et al., 2010; Trifan et al., 2014). Parents have 13 months of paid parental leave in Sweden, something that may have influenced parent-child relationships positively. We explored whether there were differences in the total self-evaluation scores for both comparison groups in the 30-year comparison (H1explorative). The total self-evaluation is the sum of the five self-evaluation dimensions.

There has been greater focus on sport activities in young children in recent decades, and this affects body evaluations. Today, many children practice several sports and during the primary school years, most children try a wide range of sport and hobby activities. Several studies describe a positive relation between sport participation and physical self-evaluation (Birkeland et al., 2012; Lindwall et al., 2014; Noordstar et al., 2016). We assumed that there would be higher physical self-evaluation scores in primary school in 2013 than in 1983 (H2a).

Students in lower secondary school drop out of their sport activities (girls more often than boys), which might be a reason to believe that we will find a decrease in physical self-evaluation scores at least in girls in the older age group. Another reason might be the punishing body standards for girls that are even more pronounced nowadays and are spread via social media (Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2004; Frisén et al., 2014; Golan et al., 2014). Less research suggests changes in boys’ physical self-evaluations. Therefore, we explored whether there were generational differences in physical self-evaluation scores in 2013 in lower secondary school (H2b explorative).

We also assumed that there would be higher scores for psychological well-being self-evaluations for the primary school group in 2013 (H3a) along with the overall increase as reported internationally. A one-sided body ideal in lower secondary school would likely be a strong negative influence on psychological evaluation scores, particularly for girls. Reports on decreased psychological health in adolescent girls (Collishaw et al., 2010; Hagquist, 2010; Petersen et al., 2010; National Board of Health and Welfare, 2013; Fleming et al., 2014) might indicate a negative psychological self-evaluation trend mostly among girls. There is less evidence of generational trends in earlier research on boys’ psychological self-evaluations. Therefore, we explored whether there were generational differences for psychological self-evaluation scores in lower secondary school in 2013 compared to 1983 (H3b explorative).

Another societal phenomenon that has changed in the past 30 years is that school practices have become less authoritative and more student centered (Enkvist, 2017), something that may boost student images of their school competence. Schools have also worked more actively with group dynamics in recent decades, for example, anti-bullying programs and self-esteem-raising activities. We therefore assumed there would be higher school competence self-evaluation scores among the 2013 cohort than among the 1983 cohort for both age groups (H4). Today’s generous 13-month parental leave and less authoritarian parenting (Trifan et al., 2014) might also have influenced family relations in a positive direction. We assumed that there would be higher family related self-evaluation scores in 2013 than in 1983 for both age groups (H5).

Another societal trend is that children already in their early years spend much more time with peers and in organized leisure-time activities with other adults than with their parents. Most children in Sweden also attend preschool between 1 and 5 years of age (84% in 2013 according to the National Agency for Education, 2018). Only about 25% of children did so in the 1970s (Bergqvist and Nyberg, 2001). This generation may, thus, be more familiar with spending time and functioning with other adults and peers and, therefore, we assumed higher self-evaluation scores for relations to others in 2013 than in 1983 for both age groups (H6).

We also explored gender differences in both age groups and the interaction between gender and generational differences. We found no Swedish research to support the formulation of a directed hypothesis for the primary school group. Therefore, for the total score, and the five self-evaluation dimensions in primary school (ages 10–12), we explored whether girls and boys demonstrated differences (H7a explorative). For the total score and the five self-evaluation dimensions in lower secondary school (ages 13–15), we hypothesized that boys’ scores would be higher than girls’ scores in line with international studies (H7b). We assumed that Swedish girls in lower secondary school (ages 13–15) would be exposed to and influenced by punishing Western body ideals to the same extent as other Western teenagers (Harter, 2012). For the same reason, we also assumed that there would be higher total scores and higher scores in the five dimensions for male students than for female students in the secondary school sample from 2013 (ages 16–18) (H7c).

There is a lack of studies undertaken in the Nordic countries on generational change in self-evaluations. Gender and dimension-specific interactions have not been investigated in Sweden. The aim of the present study is, therefore, to investigate differences in five self-evaluation dimensions between two cross-sectional samples (1983 and 2013).

Materials and Methods

Participants

The participants in 2013 were 1303 children (759 girls, 544 boys) in the ages between 10 and 18 years from ethnically and socioeconomically mixed areas in southern Sweden. Most participants came from a small town (30,000 inhabitants) and a middle-sized town (300,000 inhabitants). The participants in 1983 were 2,662 students (1,331 girls, 1,331 boys) of the ages 10–15 years from the same areas as in 2013. Table 1 presents the number of participants for each school grade.

TABLE 1

Table 1. Participants from each cross-sectional generation (data from 2013 and 1983).

The percentage of children with a foreign background was very similar in the two cross-sectional samples. 23 percent of the 1983 sample had two parents with a foreign background, and 22 percent stated that they spoke a language other than Swedish at home in 2013 (indicating ethnicity). Mainly two non-Swedish ethnic groups were represented in 1983: Finns and people from the former Yugoslavia, and no differences between the Swedish and non-Swedish groups were found (see Ouvinen-Birgerstam, 1984). Thirty-six languages were registered in 2013, of which the largest groups came from the Middle East and the Balkan States. No analyses are presented due to the small number of each ethnic group.

The participation rate was 91% in 1983, and it was 81.5% in 2013. The most common reasons for not participating were (1) absence on the day of testing and (2) not having brought the informed consent form to school. A passive parental consent procedure was employed for adolescents above 15 years of age, and active parental consent was used for children. Written information was sent to the students’ parents. Students could refrain from participation by talking to their respective teachers or by contacting the researchers directly. All participants gave informed consent.

All procedures performed were in accordance with the recommendations of the Swedish Central Review Board, which also approved the research study (the ethical reference number is 2010/475).

Measures

Five-dimensional self-esteem was measured using ‘I think I am’ (ITIA; Ouvinen-Birgerstam, 1999). This test is frequently used in research in Sweden (Ouvinen-Birgerstam, 1999). The ITIA contains five dimensions: physical self (‘I’m good at sports’, ‘I don’t like my body’ Reversed item), psychological well-being (‘I am calm and controlled,’ ‘I often feel tense and nervous’ Reversed item), school competence (‘I am good at school,’ ‘I easily forget what I have learnt’ Reversed item) and two social self-dimensions: family relations (‘My parents are often pleased with me,’ ‘We fight a lot in my family’ Reversed item) and relations to others (‘I have a lot of friends,’ ‘I often feel lonely,’ Reversed item). The range of the total score is between −144 and 144 and for the dimensions the range is between −28 and 28 except for psychological well-being, which ranged between −32 and 32.

ITIA is designed for lower secondary school and secondary school students (ages 10–18). It consists of 72 items with four response alternatives: ‘agree completely,’ ‘agree partly,’ ‘disagree partly,’ and ‘disagree completely.’ Half of the items are formulated positively and half negatively.

The Cronbach’s alpha values for the 2013 sample were 0.79 for Physical self, 0.81 for Psychological well-being self, 0.75 for School Competence self, 0.84 for Family related self, 0.68 for Relations to others, and 0.92 for the total scale. Studies by the present research group have tested the convergent validity for the total ITIA self-evaluation score in relation to the Beck Youth Inventory and its 20-item general self-esteem subscale (Beck et al., 2004). Beck self-esteem showed a strong relation (r = 0.74) to the total ITIA scores (Leo and Persson, 2011). Forsman and Johnson’s (1996) basic self-esteem also had a strong relation (r = 0.81) to the total ITIA scores (Pybus, 2014). Basic self-esteem is a 13-item scale that measures emotionally based global self-esteem (Forsman and Johnson reported r = 0.79–0.85 in relation to Rosenberg’s self-esteem). These correlations indicate that the total ITIA score can be used to estimate global self-esteem. We present both the total score and the five dimensions in the results, despite the fact that some scholars advise against summing up different dimensions into a total score with their measures (Harter, 2012). ITIA’s five dimensions have since its construction (Ouvinen-Birgerstam, 1999) been used clinically to indicate different self-concept aspects, and the total score has been used as an estimate of global self-esteem. Cronbach alphas were not available for the data from 1983. The split-half method was used to evaluate the subscales’ reliability, indicating good reliability (Ouvinen-Birgerstam).

Inspection of histograms showed no clear deviations from normality for any dimensions except one, family related self-evaluation, for the 2013 sample. The skewness for most of the scales was clearly below a commonly used cut-point-range (i.e., between −1 and 1; Hair et al., 1998) ranging from −0.68 for the total score to −0.87 for self-evaluations for relations to others. For family-related self-evaluation the skewness was −1.4.

Procedure

Data were collected from 31 schools in 2013 and from 27 schools in 1983. The test took about 30 min to complete. The dataset had some missing values, however, no item exceeded 1% missing values. The maximum of two items was replaced with the individual’s calculated mean for the remaining items for the corresponding subscales when the former was missing in some cases.

Statistical Procedures

An online t-test calculator for two independent samples was used to investigate the self-evaluation differences between 1983 and 2013. We could not employ the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) in our comparison analyses because no individual raw scores were available for the students from 1983. The means, standard deviations, and numbers of participants from 1983, used in the present analyses are from the Ouvinen-Birgerstam report (1999). The formula for calculating an unbalanced factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) suggested by Cohen (2002) was used to investigate the main effects and interactions of year (1983 and 2013) and gender on different dimensions of self-esteem. Independent t-tests were used to examine gender differences. Cohen’s d and $η_{p}^{2}$ were used to determine effect sizes. The following formula was used to calculate $η_{p}^{2}$ : $η_{p}^{2} = \frac{F \times d f_{effect}}{F \times d f_{effect} + d f_{error}}$ (Lakens, 2013). According to Cohen’s (1988) conventions, a small effect size is around d = 0.20, $η_{p}^{2}$ = 0.01; a medium effect size is around d = 0.50, $η_{p}^{2}$ = 0.06; and a large effect size is around or above d = 0.80, $η_{p}^{2}$ = 0.14.

A two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted using SPSS version 20 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, United States) to evaluate changes in self-evaluations across different grades and possible grade and gender interaction effects in 2013.

Results

The results from the two-way ANOVAs that examine the main effects of generation (1983 and 2013) and gender and a possible interaction of the two variables are presented separately for the overall sample, for primary school (ages 10–12) and for lower secondary school (ages 13–15). Only data from 2013 were collected for secondary school (ages 16–18), and gender and school grade differences are shown. Figure 1 presents the self-evaluation means for the total score and the five dimensions for grades 4–12 (ages 10–18) in 2013 and for grades 4–9 (ages 10–15 years) in 1983.³

FIGURE 1

Figure 1. Means for total score and five self-evaluation dimensions in 2013 (ages 10–18) and in 1983 (ages 10–15).

Generational and Gender Differences for the Overall Sample (Ages 10–15)

In response to H1explorative (i.e., an exploration of differences in total self-evaluation in 2013 compared to 1983) in the overall comparison (ages 10–15), a significant main effect of generation was found for the total self-evaluation. This effect occurred owing to higher self-evaluation scores for youth in 2013 than for youth in 1983, F(1,3517) = 25.72, p < 0.001, $η_{p}^{2}$ = 0.006. This indicates a very small effect size. There was also a significant main effect of gender in the total self-scores, to the advantage of boys, F(1,3517) = 11.35, p < 0.001, $η_{p}^{2}$ = 0.002. This also indicates a very small effect. The interaction effect was not significant. Table 2 summarizes the results.

TABLE 2

Table 2. Mean (SD) self-evaluation scores and F ratios from ANOVAs to test main and interaction effects of generation and gender for total sample (ages 10–15).

Generational and Gender Differences for Primary School (Ages 10–12)

Descriptive statistics and the results from the two-way ANOVAs for the primary school group are presented in Table 3.

TABLE 3

Table 3. Mean (SD) self-evaluation scores and F ratios from ANOVAs to test main and interaction effects of generation and gender for primary school (ages 10–12).

Total

In response to H1explorative, we found that primary school children in 2013 reported a significantly higher total self-evaluation score than their counterparts in 1983. There was no significant main effect of gender in the total self-evaluation, however, a significant interaction effect between generation and gender was found for the total score. Girls had higher self-evaluation scores than boys did in 2013, but not in 1983. Independent t-tests for generational gender differences showed that girls in 2013 reported significantly higher total self-evaluation scores than girls in 1983, t(731) = 5.98, p < 0.0001, d = 0.54. Boys in 2013 also reported a significantly higher total self-evaluation score than boys in 1983, t(773) = 2.64, p < 0.01, d = 0.22. Although boys reported higher scores for the total self-evaluation in 2013 than in 1983, a greater difference was found between girls in 2013 and girls in 1983.

Physical

In response to H2a, the results illustrate that primary school children’s physical self-evaluations were significantly higher in 2013 than in 1983 (see Table 3). There was also a significant main effect of gender to the advantage of boys in the physical dimension. No interaction effect was found. A higher difference was found for girls when generational gender differences were evaluated with independent t-tests, t(731) = 5.48, p < 0.0001, d = 0.45, than for boys, t(773) = 3.20, d = 0.27. This finding suggests that girls’ physical self-evaluation scores increased more between 1983 and 2013 than the scores for boys.

Psychological Well-Being

In response to H3a, the results showed that primary school children’s psychological self-evaluation scores in 2013 were significantly higher compared to 1983 (see Table 3). The main effect of gender was not significant, however, a significant interaction between generation and gender was found for this group, which indicates that girls’ scores had surpassed boys’ scores. Independent t-tests also showed that girls in 2013 reported significantly higher psychological self-esteem scores than girls in 1983, t(568) = 6.57, p < 0.0001, d = 0.58. No difference was found between 1983 and 2013 for boys, t(773) = 1.28, p = 0.20, d = 0.11.

School Competence

In response to H4, the results showed that primary school children’s competence self-evaluation scores in 2013 were significantly higher than in 1983. The main effect of gender was not significant, but a significant interaction effect was found between generation and gender, showing that boys reported slightly higher school competence scores in 1983, and girls reported higher scores in 2013 (see Table 3). Independent t-tests showed that girls in 2013 reported significantly higher school competence evaluation scores than girls in 1983, t(568) = 7.41, p < 0.0001, d = 0.66. Boys also reported significantly higher school competence evaluation scores in 2013 than in 1983, t(773) = 3,91, p < 0.0001, d = 0.33. Thus, again, a greater difference was found for girls although boys reported significantly higher school competence scores in 2013 than in 1983.

Family Relations

In response to H5, the results showed that primary school children’s family related self-evaluation scores in 2013 were significantly higher than in 1983, even though the effect size was very small (see Table 3). A main effect of gender was also significant in that girls scored higher than boys for both years. There was no interaction effect.

Relations to Others

In response to H6, the results showed that primary school children’s self-evaluations of relations to others in 2013 were significantly higher than in 1983, even though the effect size was very small (see Table 3). There was no significant main effect of gender, however, a significant interaction between generation and gender was found. Boys’ self-evaluations for relations to others were higher in 1983, whereas girls’ self-evaluations were higher in 2013.

Gender in Elementary School

In response to H7a explorative (i.e., an exploration of gender differences in self-evaluation in primary school students), two of five subscales showed the main effects for gender in the primary school group. One effect was to the advantage of girls but with a very small effect size; family related self-evaluation scores. One effect favored boys with a small effect; physical self-evaluations. Interestingly, there were interaction effects between generation and gender for the total score, psychological well-being, school competence, and relations to others evaluation scores, demonstrating that girls had higher scores in 2013 but boys had higher scores in 1983. These effect sizes were, however, very small (see Table 3).

Generational and Gender Differences for Lower Secondary School (Ages 13–15)

Table 4 shows the descriptive statistics and results from the two-way ANOVASs for the adolescent group.

TABLE 4

Table 4. Mean (SD) self-evaluation scores and F ratios from ANOVAs to test main and interaction effects of generation and gender for lower secondary school (ages 13–15).

Total

In response to H1explorative, the results showed that lower secondary school students’ total self-evaluation scores in 2013 were significantly higher, however, with a very small effect size. No significant main effect of gender or significant interaction effect between generation and gender was found for the total score (see Table 4). Results from the independent t-tests analyses showed that boys’ total self-evaluation scores increased significantly from 1983 to 2013, t(960) = 3.30, p < 0.001, d = 0.24, while girls’ scores remained almost at the same level, t(1047) = 0.45, p = 0.66, d = 0.03. Gender differences for years 2013 and 1983 showed larger differences in 2013 for the total score, t(540) = 3.72, p = 0.0002, d = 0.32 than for gender differences in 1983, t(1468) = 2.38, p = 0.02, d = 0.12.