Self-esteem rises steadily as people age but starts declining around the time of retirement, according to a longitudinal study of men and women ranging in age from 25 to 104.

"Self-esteem is related to better health, less criminal behavior, lower levels of depression, and, overall, greater success in life," says the study's lead author, Ulrich Orth, a psychology department research professor at the University of Basel, in Switzerland. "Therefore, it's important to learn more about how the average person's self-esteem changes over time."

Self-esteem was lowest among young adults, but increased throughout adulthood, peaking at age 60, before it started to decline. These results are reported in a recent issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

Four times between 1986 and 2002, researchers surveyed a total of more than 3,600 adults living in the U.S. The researchers measured self-esteem by asking participants to rate their level of agreement with statements such as, "I take a positive attitude toward myself," which suggests high self-esteem; and "At times I think I am no good at all" and "All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure," both of which suggest low self-esteem.

Subjects also were asked about their ethnicity, education, income, work status, relationship satisfaction, marital status, health, social support, and if they had experienced stressful life events. Some examples of stressful life events are losing a job suddenly, being the victim of a violent crime, or experiencing the death of a parent or of a child.

On average, women had lower self-esteem than men did throughout most of adulthood, but self-esteem levels converged as men and women reached their 80s and 90s. Blacks and whites had similar self-esteem levels throughout young adulthood and middle age. In old age, average self-esteem among blacks dropped much more sharply than self-esteem among whites. This was the result even after controlling for differences in income and health. Future research should further explore these ethnic differences, which might lead to better interventions aimed at improving self-esteem, wrote the study's authors.

Education, income, health, and employment status all had some effect on the self-esteem trajectories, especially as people aged.

"Specifically, we found that people who have higher incomes and better health in later life tend to maintain their self-esteem as they age," says Orth. "We cannot know for certain that more wealth and better health directly lead to higher self-esteem, but it does appear to be linked in some way. For example, it is possible that wealth and health are related to feeling more independent and better able to contribute to one's family and society, which in turn bolsters self-esteem."

People of all ages in satisfying and supportive relationships tend to have higher self-esteem, according to the findings. However, despite maintaining higher self-esteem throughout their lives, people in happy relationships experienced the same drop in self-esteem during old age as people in unhappy relationships.

"Although they enter old age with higher self-esteem and continue to have higher self-esteem as they age, they decline in self-esteem to the same extent as people in unhappy relationships," says co-author Kali H. Trzesniewski, of the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada. "Thus, being in a happy relationship does not protect a person against the decline in self-esteem that typically occurs in old age."

There are numerous theories as to why self-esteem peaks in middle age and then drops after retirement, says the researchers.

"Midlife is a time of highly stable work, family, and romantic relationships. People increasingly occupy positions of power and status, which might promote feelings of self-esteem," say co-author Richard Robins, of the University of California, Davis. "In contrast, older adults may be experiencing a change in roles such as an empty nest, retirement, and obsolete work skills in addition to declining health."

Orth doesn't think baby boomers will skew self-esteem trajectories as the majority of that generation reach retirement age. But with medical advances, they will be healthier longer and, therefore, might be able to work and earn money longer. "It is possible that the decline in self-esteem might occur later in life for baby boomers," he says.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., claims to be the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the U.S. and is the world's largest association of psychologists. Its membership includes more than 152,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession, and as a means of promoting health, education, and human welfare.