--- title: This Is the Age When Your Self-Esteem Is Highest, Study Says description: A new study looks at how self-esteem changes with age, beginning from childhood to old age. Here's when self-esteem is highest. canonical: https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-22T14:21:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:13.251Z article:section: Health og:title: This Is the Age When Your Self-Esteem Is Highest og:description: According to a new study og:url: https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt292056e63a93e2d8/6988c13bcf40a8464ac4714d/time-health-stock-candles-blue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5760 og:image:height: 3240 og:image:alt: time-health-stock og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is the Age When Your Self-Esteem Is Highest twitter:description: According to a new study twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt292056e63a93e2d8/6988c13bcf40a8464ac4714d/time-health-stock-candles-blue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the Age When Your Self-Esteem Is Highest > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Being Fit in Middle Age May Protect Against Depression [Watch (HLS stream): Being Fit in Middle Age May Protect Against Depression](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UlDYCnUQ.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2018-06-27. About 16 million adults in the U.S., and 350 million people around the world, have depression, a major source of physical and mental disability_  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Aug 22, 2018 2:21 PM UTC  A row of burning birthday candles, on a blue background.. Canon 5D MK III A row of burning birthday candles, on a blue background.. Canon 5D MK IIIGetty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Aug 22, 2018 2:21 PM UTC In today’s youth-obsessed culture, getting older is often seen as something to fear. But a new study says at least one thing gets better with age: [self-esteem.](http://time.com/4799409/how-americans-became-obsessed-with-self-esteem/) Age 60 seems to be best for self-esteem, [according to a paper](http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2018-33338-001.html) published recently in the journal _Psychological Bulletin —_ and those positive feelings may stay at their peak for an entire decade. “Midlife is, for many adults, a time of highly stable life circumstances in domains such as relationships and work. Moreover, during middle adulthood, most individuals further invest in the social roles they hold, which might promote their self-esteem,” study co-author Ulrich Orth, a professor of psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said in an email to TIME. “For example, people take on managerial roles at work, maintain a satisfying relationship with their spouse or partner, and help their children to become responsible and independent adults.” The researchers based their analysis on 191 research articles about self-esteem, which included data from almost 165,000 people. They set out to present the most comprehensive look yet at how self-esteem changes with age, examining a number of different demographics and age groups. [Self-esteem first begins to rise](http://time.com/3853602/improve-self-esteem/) between ages 4 and 11, as children develop socially and cognitively and gain some sense of independence. Levels then seem to plateau — but not decline — as the teenage years begin from ages 11 to 15, the data show. That’s somewhat surprising, given that many people — scientists and otherwise — assume that self-esteem takes a hit during the traditionally awkward early teenage years, “possibly because of pubertal changes and increased emphasis on [social comparison](http://time.com/5206994/kids-reputation-management-study/) at school,” Orth says. “However, our findings show that this is not the case.” Instead, self-esteem appears to hold steady until mid-adolescence. After that lull, Orth says, self-esteem seems to increase substantially until age 30, then more gradually throughout middle adulthood, before peaking around age 60 and remaining stable until age 70. After this period, however, Orth’s data show that many adults experience a decline in self-esteem, beginning modestly around 70 and becoming more significant around age 90. “Old age frequently involves loss of social roles as a result of retirement, the empty nest, and, possibly, widowhood, all of which are factors that may threaten self-esteem,” Orth explains. “In addition, aging often leads to negative changes in other possible sources of self-esteem, such as socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities and health.” The suggestion that these factors don’t seem to meaningfully converge until around age 90, however, should be encouraging. “Many people,” Orth says, “are able to maintain a relatively high level of self-esteem [even during old age](http://time.com/4830025/how-the-meaning-of-old-age-is-changing/).” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/"},"headline":"This Is the Age When Your Self-Esteem Is Highest","datePublished":"2018-08-22T14:21:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:13.251Z","description":"According to a new study","url":"https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/","keywords":["Mental Health/Psychology","onetime","healthytime","Evergreen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt292056e63a93e2d8/6988c13bcf40a8464ac4714d/time-health-stock-candles-blue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt292056e63a93e2d8/6988c13bcf40a8464ac4714d/time-health-stock-candles-blue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"time-health-stock","caption":"Flaming Birthday Candles on blue background TIME health stock","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-healthpsychology/","name":"Mental Health/Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/","name":"This Is the Age When Your Self-Esteem Is Highest"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Being Fit in Middle Age May Protect Against Depression","description":"About 16 million adults in the U.S., and 350 million people around the world, have depression, a major source of physical and mental disability","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/UlDYCnUQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-06-27T19:15:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UlDYCnUQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5373095/self-esteem-highest-study/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```