Kuster F Orth U 2013 How stable are individual differences in self-esteem? We examined the time-dependent decay of rank-order stability of self-esteem and tested whether stability asymptotically approaches zero or a nonzero value across long test-retest intervals. Analyses were based on 6 assessments across a 29-year period of a sample of 3,180 individuals aged 14 to 102 years. The results indicated that, as test-retest intervals increased, stability exponentially decayed and asymptotically approached a nonzero value (estimated as .43). The exponential decay function explained a large proportion of variance in observed stability coefficients, provided a better fit than alternative functions, and held across gender and for all age groups from adolescence to old age. Moreover, structural equation modeling of the individual-level data suggested that a perfectly stable trait component underlies stability of self-esteem. The findings suggest that the stability of self-esteem is relatively large, even across very long periods, and that self-esteem is a trait-like characteristic. application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/201548 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1177/0146167213480189 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/23478674 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Personality & social psychology bulletin. - 2013 Adolescent Adult Age Factors Aged Aged, 80 and over Female Humans Individuality Longitudinal Studies Male Middle Aged Self Concept Socioeconomic Factors Time Factors Young Adult The long-term stability of self-esteem: its time-dependent decay and nonzero asymptote. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501