Does insecurity lead to envy? The longitudinal interplay between dispositional envy and self-esteem

•Change in dispositional envy is negatively correlated with self-esteem change.•Correlated change can be found at the global level and within comparison domains.•Change in self-esteem preceded change in dispositional envy in the performance domain.•There is no evidence for prospective effects of dispositional envy on self-esteem. Despite evidence of a close, cross-sectional association between dispositional envy and low self-esteem, there is no research on the mutual development of these two constructs across time. The aim of the present research was to systematically investigate correlated change and prospective effects between dispositional envy and self-esteem at the global level and within comparison domains. In two preregistered longitudinal studies across 6 years (Ntotal > 7,000 adult participants), change in dispositional envy was negatively correlated with concurrent self-esteem change at the global level and within domains. Moreover, we found preliminary evidence that self-esteem predicted later change in dispositional envy but not vice versa. Our findings illustrate that the development of dispositional envy is closely intertwined with self-esteem development.