AUTHOR=Hoff Eva V. , Daukantaitė Daiva , Birgerstam Pirjo 

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00802

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00802

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>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 (<italic>N</italic> = 3052 10–16-year-old students) and one from 2013 (<italic>N</italic> = 1303 10–18-year-old students). Three age groups were analyzed. The <italic>generational comparison</italic> for primary school (<italic>ages 10–12</italic>) 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. <italic>The generational comparison</italic> for <italic>lower secondary school</italic> (<italic>ages 13–15</italic>) 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. <italic>The gender comparison</italic> for secondary <italic>school</italic> (<italic>ages 16–18, 2013</italic>), 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.</p>