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Our sense of self-esteem is relatively stable throughout our lives. Some researchers say that young kids don't have a negative or positive sense of themselves. However, Professor Andrew Meltzoff, one of the authors who conducted a study on self-esteem in children, say that self-esteem is a mindset that develops very early with children even before they go to school.
It's difficult to conduct tests on children because kids may answer unreliably. However, recent tests don't focus on the direct answers, but the associations they imply. Led by Dr Dario Cvencek, the researchers found that around the age of five children develop a sense of self-esteem strongly enough that it can be reliably measured in tests.
Cvencek and his team also say that self-esteem plays a crucial role for kids at that time because it helps establish different social identities in the future.
Source material from PsyBlog