Abstract: Self-esteem is an important research field of psychology. This article introduces the progress of the research about the life-span development of self-esteem in the last three decades, and mainly focuses on the stability of self-esteem and the factors influencing the life-span development, including age, gender, race, culture, social-economic status, and parenting style in family. This paper proposes that future research of the life-span development of self-esteem should focuse on longitudinal studies and domestic studies, and identify the distinction between different forms of self-esteem and explore their various development.

Key words: self-esteem, life-span development, factors