Parents often hope for their children to be happy and to have high self-esteem, but little research has compared how these two constructs are related to long-term self-esteem and life satisfaction. Although self-esteem and positive affect are related, positive affect can be experienced independent of self-worth so it may not have the same limitations associated with self-esteem. We expected that over longer periods the benefits of self-esteem may be due to the positive affect that is a constitutive part of self-esteem. Using longitudinal data (n = 112) across 13 years, we compared age 16 self-esteem and positive affect as predictors of age 29 self-esteem and life satisfaction. Results indicated that only adolescent positive affect predicted adult self-esteem and life satisfaction; adolescent self-esteem did not predict either adult outcome. These findings suggest that positive affect may build key resources that adolescents carry into adulthood. Findings also indicate additional need for longitudinal comparisons of positive affect and self-esteem.

中文翻译：

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比较青少年的正面情感和自尊是成人自尊和生活满意度的先决条件

父母经常希望自己的孩子快乐并拥有很高的自尊心，但很少有研究比较这两种结构与长期自尊和生活满意度之间的关系。尽管自尊和正面情感是相关的，但是可以独立于自我价值来体验正面情感，因此它可能没有与自尊相关的相同局限性。我们预计，在更长的时间里，自尊的好处可能是由于自尊的组成部分所产生的积极影响。使用 13年间的纵向数据（n = 112），我们比较了16岁的自尊和积极的情感作为29岁的自尊和生活满意度的预测指标。结果表明只有青少年积极影响预测的成年人自尊和生活满意度；青少年的自尊心并不能预测任何一个成年人的结局。这些发现表明，积极的影响可能会建立青少年带入成年的关键资源。研究结果还表明，还需要对正面情感和自尊进行纵向比较。