Self-Esteem in Time and Place: How American Families Imagine, Enact, and Personalize a Cultural Ideal

The concept of self-esteem is a fixture in the psychological and moral landscape of American society. This is especially true in the arena of childrearing: images and references to self-esteem are ubiquitous in academic, educational, and popular media. Yet, until now, little has been known about what self-esteem means to parents or how self-esteem infiltrates everyday practices. Self-Esteem in Time and Place reveals how self-esteem became a touchstone of American childrearing in the early y...