Self-esteem and sharing in fourth-grade children

Sixty-four fourth-grade children were given 20 tokens for drawing a picture. They then had the option of donating any or all of the tokens to either "needy children" or for "a class prize". Any remaining tokens could be exchanged for various prizes. The teacher of each child completed the Cooper-smith Behaviour Rating Form measure of self-esteem. Sharing with needy children was positively correlated with self-esteem while the children's retaining tokens for themselves was negatively correlated with self-esteem. Thus, generosity may be related to self-esteem in situations where an individual does not directly profit from the situation.