Activities and Self-Esteem

Data derived from in-depth telephone interviews with full-time working men and women aged 58 to 64 years old who reside in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area are used to explore the influence of activities on self-esteem. Findings include that: (a) among the traditional measures, only leisure activities exert a positive effect on self-esteem; (b) among the new measures, activities with relatives and activities with work friends have a positive effect on self-esteem for women but not for men; (c) activities performed alone exert a positive effect on the self-esteem for men, but not for women; and (d) for women, but not for men, three of the four sets of activities have a more positive effect on self-esteem when role commitment is high.