Traits and relationship status: stranger versus peer group inhibition and test intelligence versus peer group competence as early predictors of later self-esteem.

A 9-year longitudinal study of 99 children observed from ages 4 through 12 showed that inhibition toward strangers was strongly related to inhibition with peers, and test intelligence to social competence with peers, only in the first months of preschool socialization. These correlations decreased later on. Stranger inhibition and test intelligence were not predictive of social self-esteem in middle childhood. However, high inhibition and low competence in the peer group after 1 and 2 years of group socialization did predict low social self-esteem up to age 10. Discussion focuses on the processes that might mediate these correlative relations and on the role of relationship-unspecific traits and relationship-specific individual attributes for later social-emotional developmental outcomes.