Having a Lot of a Good Thing: Multiple Important Group Memberships as a Source of Self-Esteem

TLDR

Membership in important social groups can promote a positive identity and serve as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem. The authors propose and test an identity resource model that links additional important group memberships to increased personal self-esteem. Across five studies, multiple important group memberships predict higher personal self-esteem in children, older adults, and former homeless shelter residents, with effects independent of interpersonal ties, sustained over time, and mediated by collective self-esteem.

Abstract

Membership in important social groups can promote a positive identity. We propose and test an identity resource model in which personal self-esteem is boosted by membership in additional important social groups. Belonging to multiple important group memberships predicts personal self-esteem in children (Study 1a), older adults (Study 1b), and former residents of a homeless shelter (Study 1c). Study 2 shows that the effects of multiple important group memberships on personal self-esteem are not reducible to number of interpersonal ties. Studies 3a and 3b provide longitudinal evidence that multiple important group memberships predict personal self-esteem over time. Studies 4 and 5 show that collective self-esteem mediates this effect, suggesting that membership in multiple important groups boosts personal self-esteem because people take pride in, and derive meaning from, important group memberships. Discussion focuses on when and why important group memberships act as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem.