Little Girls Lose Their Self-Esteem Way to Adolescence, Study Finds

Girls emerge from adolescence with a poor self-image, relatively low expectations from life and much less confidence in themselves and their abilities than boys, a study to be made public today has concluded.

Confirming earlier studies that were smaller and more anecdotal, this survey of 3,000 children found that at the age of 9 a majority of girls were confident, assertive and felt positive about themselves. But by the time they reached high school fewer than a third felt that way.

The survey, commissioned by the American Association of University Women, found that boys, too, lost some sense of self-worth, but they ended up far ahead of the girls.

For example, when elementary school boys were asked how often they felt "happy the way I am," 67 percent answered "always." By high school, 46 percent still felt that way. But with girls, the figures dropped from 60 percent to 29 percent. Race as a Factor

"It's really quite staggering to see that this is still going on," said Myra Sadker, a professor at American University in Washington, who has spent most of the last decade studying the way teachers treat girls in the classroom. "No one has taken such a large-scale look at self-esteem before, but we have known of this issue for years. And here you see that it is not going away."

Among the girls, race is apparently a factor in the retention of self-esteem, the survey found. Far more black girls surveyed were still self-confident in high school compared to white and Hispanic girls, and white girls lost their self-assurance earlier than Hispanic girls.