Social background is noted to be strongly related to an
individual’s destination in the social structure (e.g. Breen
2004 ; Jonsson et al. 2009 ). However, although social
background accounts for a vital part of the social
stratification in the labour market, a substantial part remains
unexplained (Bowles, Gintis, and Osborne 2001). In fact,
there are other aspects during childhood that have an impact
on labour market achievements later in life. Much of the
previous literature focuses on the link between cognitive
skills during adolescence and adult outcomes (e.g. Murnane,
Willett, and Levy 1995 ; Duckworth et al. 2012), but some
studies also focus on the link between non-cognitive skills
(such as self-esteem, sociability and communication skills)
and labour market outcomes (e.g. Bowels and Gintis 2002;
Harris 1940 ). Most prior research find strong positive
associations between high self-esteem and success later in
life in aspects such as work, social relations and health (Orth
and Robins 2014 ). For instance, previous research indicates
that e.g. self-esteem (Waddell 2006 ) and self-efficacy
(Chowdry, Crawford, and Goodman 2011 ) during adolescence
are important for labour market outcomes in adult life.
Furthermore, non-cognitive skills have also been suggested
as important for understanding gender inequality in the
labour market (e.g. Braakmann 2009 ; Fortin 2008 ; Mueller
and Plug 2006 ). Compared to men, women tend to have
lower self-esteem (Feingold 1994 ; Kling et al. 1999 ), which
may have an impact on gender differences in labour market
outcomes. To increase our understanding of the unexplained
part of this stratification according to both gender and social
background, it is therefore important to investigate how
non-cognitive skills (here measured by self-esteem, both
global and domain specific) during childhood are related to
labour market outcomes for young men and women.
Given that society is stratified by gender where cultured
beliefs about gender affect men’s and women’s behaviours
(e.g. Correll 2001 ; Ridgeway 1997 ; Wood and Eagly 2012 ),
the importance of non-cognitive aspects may vary by
gender. For instance, stereotyped assumptions about male
and female characteristics are often put forward as being
important for gendered occupational choices, ultimately
resulting in a gender-segregated labour market both in the
horizontal and vertical levels (Wood and Eagly 2012 cf.
Charles and Grusky 2004 ). For instance, that skills in
mathematic tend to be considered as ‘male’ skills have been
put forward as one explanation to women’s
underrepresentation in STEM-field (including science,
technology, engineering and mathematics) (Correll 2001 ).
Accordingly, there could be both gender differences in the
distribution of non-cognitive skills, and/or the importance of
non-cognitive skills for labour market outcomes may vary by
gender. However, to our knowledge, few studies have
assessed gender differences in the associations between non-
cognitive skills in childhood and labour market success in
adulthood.
Furthermore, longitudinal studies including rich information
about both children and parents are rare in this field. In
particular, there is a lack of knowledge on how aspects such
as childhood self-esteem and self-perceptions are related to
labour market outcomes in adulthood (cf. Gutman and
Schoon 2013; Sjögren and Svaleryd 2011 ). The present paper
attempts to partially fill this void by investigating whether
associations between self-esteem in childhood and
occupational prestige outcomes in adulthood exist and if so,
what the magnitudes of these associations are for each
respective gender.
A prerequisite for fulfilling this purpose is access to extensive
longitudinal information on respondents’ living conditions
both in childhood and young adulthood as well as access to
information on their parents. By combining parental
information from the Swedish Level of Living Survey 2000
(LNU 2000), childhood information from the Child-LNU 2000
(aged 10–18 years), and the LNU 2010 extension of young
adults aged 20–28 years, we have rich longitudinal data that
are well-suited for this purpose. Thus, unlike most previous
studies, we are able to account for the children’s social
background and their educational performance (school
grades) – two factors of major importance for their social
destination – and to link self-esteem in childhood to later
labour market outcomes for a representative sample of
Swedish boys and girls. The relationship between self-esteem
and important life outcomes is debated in previous literature.
Thus, it is not clear-cut whether self-esteem is a cause or a
consequence of, for example, career success (e.g. Heckman,
Stixrud, and Urzua 2006; Orth, Robins, and Widamen 2012).
One of the strengths of the present study is that the
information on self-esteem is measured before the labour
market outcome.
