Self-esteem ranks among the most important aspects of children’s social-cognitive development. Children’s evaluations of their own competencies affect their emotional experiences and future behaviour in similar situations as well as their long-term psychological adjustment.

Research reveals that as soon as a categorical self with features that can be judged positively or negatively is in place, children start to become self-evaluate beings. Around age 2, they call a parent’s attention to an achievement, such as completing a puzzle, by pointing and saying something like, “Look, Mom!” In addition, 2-years old are likely to smile when they succeed at a task set for them by an adult and look away or frown when they fail.

Researchers have studied the multifaceted nature of self-esteem in the same way that they have explored the question of whether there is one intelligence or many: by applying factor analysis to children’s ratings of themselves on many characteristics.