Krueger et al. (2022) argue that our review (Orth & Robins, 2022) finds benefits of self-esteem primarily for subjective outcomes and largely fails to demonstrate any “objective” benefits. We disagree with this portrayal of the findings and highlight research that provides evidence for the benefits of self-esteem using objective measures. We also address Krueger et al.’s claim that positivity bias in self-reports can account for the effects of self-esteem on subjectively assessed life outcomes, and explain how the statistical analyses used to document these effects substantially control for this bias. We maintain that there is now a large body of evidence from meta-analyses and large-scale longitudinal studies demonstrating that high self-esteem has adaptive consequences for social relationships, school, work, mental health, physical health, and antisocial behavior. Brummelman (2022) presents a compelling theoretical framework that can guide the design of interventions to improve children’s self-esteem. We agree with his concerns about the need for randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy of self-esteem interventions and the importance of ensuring that children’s self-esteem can be raised without causing them to become narcissistic. The research reviewed in our article indicates that high self-esteem is adaptive for children, adolescents, and adults, suggesting that well-designed and effective self-esteem interventions might be beneficial for individuals of all ages.

中文翻译：

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自尊的好处：回复克鲁格等人。（2022）和布鲁梅尔曼（2022）。

克鲁格等人。(2022) 认为我们的评论 (Orth & Robins, 2022) 发现自尊的好处主要针对主观结果，并且在很大程度上未能证明任何“客观”好处。我们不同意这种对研究结果的描述，并强调通过客观测量为自尊的好处提供证据的研究。我们还讨论了克鲁格等人的观点，即自我报告中的积极偏见可以解释自尊对主观评估的生活结果的影响，并解释用于记录这些影响的统计分析如何在很大程度上控制这种偏见。我们认为，现在有大量来自荟萃分析和大规模纵向研究的证据表明，高自尊对社会关系、学校、工作、心理健康、身体健康和反社会行为具有适应性影响。Brummelman（2022）提出了一个令人信服的理论框架，可以指导旨在提高儿童自尊的干预措施的设计。我们同意他的担忧，即需要进行随机对照试验来评估自尊干预措施的有效性，以及确保提高儿童自尊而不导致他们变得自恋的重要性。我们文章中回顾的研究表明，高自尊适合儿童、青少年和成人，这表明精心设计和有效的自尊干预措施可能对所有年龄段的个人都有好处。