A self-esteem process framework of the transition to work

An individual’s global self-esteem – their subjective evaluation of his or her worth as a person – may change over time and in response to critical life changes. The EU-funded Self-EsteemProcesses project will focus on a young adults’ transition into the workforce and how their self-esteem responds to success and failure. The project aims to provide fresh insight into the mechanisms underlying self-esteem. It will study both macro-level contextual changes and micro-level processes of thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. It will also examine how the resulting changes in state self-esteem (short-term changes) get manifested in trait self-esteem (long-term changes).

We are interested in finding out why some young adults increase and others decrease in their self-esteem during the transition from education to work. We aim to explain these individual differences in change by examining the role of experiences in daily life including motives and emotions.