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A new study conducted on preschoolers by the University of Washington revealed some interesting findings. According to their study, it seems that by the age of 5 itself, a child's sense of self-esteem is established and is actually even comparable to the strength of an adult's self-esteem.

Self-esteem, an important personality trait that a person holds, is said to be almost constant across one's lifespan. What is astounding is that this new study suggests that this significant life trait is established by age 5 itself. The new findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, used a different and newly conceptualized test to assess the self-esteem quotient in 5 year old children. Almost 200 children were part of this research study.

To try a different approach, researchers Dario Cvencek, Andrew N Meltzoff and Anthony G Greenwald particularly created a self-esteem task for preschoolers namely the Preschool Implicit Association Test (PSIAT), reports the Daily Mail. This PSIAT measures how positively children measure themselves up. This is a take on the adult versions of the IAT, which were first developed by Greenwald. The IAT has the potential to divulge one's outlook towards various life aspects related to race, gender, age, religion etc. Thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that the people themselves did not know existed within them, were revealed, according to Science Daily.

Further on Science Daily, Andrew Meltzoff was quoted as saying: "Some scientists consider preschoolers too young to have developed a positive or negative sense about themselves. Our findings suggest that self-esteem, feeling good or bad about yourself, is fundamental. It is a social mindset children bring to school with them, not something they develop in school. What aspects of parent-child interaction promote and nurture preschool self-esteem? That's the essential question. We hope we can find out by studying even younger children."