Self-esteem Stability and Change at Home versus at Work: An Application of the Latent State-Trait Model for the Combination of Random and Fixed Situations (LST-RF)

Recent research has shown that even stable psychological constructs, like self-esteem, are not static entities. Accordingly, research on state-trait decomposition is growing, but few studies have been conducted on investigating potential differences across situations. In this contribution, we used a Latent State-Trait model for the combination of Random and Fixed situations (LST-RF) to investigate self-esteem state-trait decomposition at home versus at work, in order to examine the impact of the organizational environment on some characteristics of self-esteem stability and change. Workers from various sectors (N = 161) completed a battery at T0 (age, gender, and organizational membership) and then responded to a questionnaire investigating their degree of global self-esteem and self-concept clarity across two days in 8 random situations that were nested within 2 fixed situations (home-work). Results showed that, contrary to our hypothesis, there were no substantial differences in self-esteem state-trait decomposition at home versus at work, while there was a significant mean-level decline of self-esteem when at work (consistent with the Conservation of Resources Theory) which was positively counteracted by organizational membership (according to the Sociometer Theory). In conclusion, we demonstrated that considering fixed situations may advance our knowledge on self-esteem state-trait decomposition.