Abstract:

The present study conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 83 papers that using Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to investigate Chinese college students’ self-esteem. There are 48384 college students involved in 83 papers and the data collection time ranged from 1993 to 2013. Results showed that: (1) The self-esteem of Chinese college students decreased steadily in the 20 years between 1993 through 2013. Compared to the year of 1993, it dropped 0.86 standard deviations in 2013; (2) Self-esteem of both male and female Chinese college students declined significantly, whereas, self-esteem scores had no significant gender difference; (3) Furthermore, there’s no difference of self-esteem between rural and urban students. Both of them declined significantly.

Key words: self-esteem, college students, cross-temporal meta-analysis, meta-analysis