As Scott Weber points out in his journal article on the relationship between depression and, among other factors, self-esteem, “adolescents today are living in complex and challenging times” (Weber, 2010). With depression and other psychiatric disorders common among youth, it is adults who they rely on to build a health care and education system that understands this and provides antiquate support for adolescents. Self-esteem has a negative correlation with depression (Weber, 2010) and so environments and strategies to improve self-esteem in adolescents have the effect of also reducing the frequency and severity of depression in these populations. It has also been shown that low self-esteem in adolescence is an indicator for depression into adulthood.
Mental health outcomes are affected by life events in two ways. They can either initiate problems or aggravate them. Woodward and Frank (2008) did work which find that self-esteem, along with loneliness, were the two major events that adolescence had to cope with.
Weber’s study on depression amongst rural teens in Western Pennsylvania set the goal of investigating the relationship between variables. The variables looked at were perceived social support, self-esteem and optimism. Of the variables measured, self-esteem had the highest negative correlation to depression. Essentially, an adolescent with low self-esteem is likely to be a depressed individual just as a depressed adolescent is likely to suffer from low self-esteem.
Madge’s study on self-harm is useful in understanding the consequence of Weber’s findings. From the abstract of the study “There is evidence to suggest that both psychological characteristics and stressful life events are contributory factors in deliberate self-harm among young people. Both self-esteem and depression were variables measured in anonymous questionnaires distributed to over 30,000 15 and 16 year olds across seven European countries. From Weber’s work, it is easy to see how these two variables contribute to the other and also to point to an important causation of depression to be the low self-esteem itself. While the findings of Madge’s study “reinforce the importance of psychological characteristics and stressful life events” as leading to episodes of self-harm, their findings found that “some factors are more likely than others to be implicated” (Madge et al, 2011).
Self-harm is a significant problem among youth, and often hard to pinpoint specific reasons for it being carried out, “mental health problems, impulsivity, self-esteem and stress” are contributory factors.
Self-esteem, like impulsivity, is a trait dependent, as opposed to depression and anxiety, which is state dependent. Self-esteem, or a lack of it, comes from a variety of factors, which include family life, sexual orientations, sports, body image and global self worth. Low self-esteem is related to suicidal thoughts and attempts (Madge, 2011).
Madge measured self-esteem using an abbreviated, eight-item Robson self-concept scale, scoring between 8 and 32 with a higher score indicating higher self-esteem. Females tended to rank slightly higher than males for self-esteem, and the studies results showed that “There was evidence of a dose-response or graded relationship whereby the more sever the self-harm history, the higher the levels of depression, anxiety and impulsivity and the lower the level of self-esteem” (Madge et al, 2011). This is to be expected given Weber’s study, knowing from Madge’s work that both are indicators for self-harm, and low self-esteem can be considered a cause of depression.
Mathew, Lloyd and Ueno’s work on the matter is dedicated to the specific relationship between depression and poor self-esteem with attention to the timing of its onset while eliminating other misleading variables that could result in a false positive of results (Mathew et al, 2011). They point out that what is at stake is not just a stage of an individuals life, but a part of the life cycle which has ramifications with the duration of life. Depression often emerges early and its effects last to adult adjustment: “Results indicated a history of major depression during sensitive periods of social development is associated with negative changes in self-esteem over a two-year period during the transition to adulthood.” (Mathew, 2011)
For those with a history of depression, “earlier onset was more problematic than later onset for young adult self-esteem” which has been “consistently shown to be related to depression.” It is often viewed as an “antecedent to depression rather than a consequence” of it. The results of this study indicates that those who suffer from low-self esteem in their teenage years, are much more likely to be depressed individuals as young adults.
For some time in related psychological studies, depression has been seen as an indicator of lower self-esteem as “early cross-sectional studies that conceptualize depression as a predictor of self-esteem confirm that youths with a history of depression report lower levels of self-esteem” (Mathew, 2011).
Mathews work points towards the street going both ways, with low-self esteem, specifically in studies with adolescents, leading to depression. Christopher C. Henrich’s work in this area has led him to believe that while depression is an outcome that self-esteem plays a role in, self-esteem is rank-order instable. I.e., depression can be lessened or even avoided in early adulthood if steps are taken during adolescence to build higher self-esteem. He argues that low-self esteem and a highly self-critical attitude is a risk factor for unipolar depression (Henrich, 2011).
Henrich quotes Trensiewski (2003) who says “the transition to adolescence is perhaps the most volatile transition one experiences in a lifetime, entailing numerous social, cognitive, and biological changes.”
Self-esteem has been underscored by “decades of theory development and research supporting its link with psychological health and well-0being during adolescence. It is a well document part of personality development and is malleable during the biological changes experienced between childhood and into adolescence (Mosknes & Espnes, 2012).
Depression is a condition that those who suffer from it spend great portions of their life battling. From personal relationships, to occupational well being, goal seeking and achieving ones potential, depression is a great inhibitor of self-actualization. The current research on the issue seems of agreement of three very important factors when considering self-esteem and depression in adolescents. The first is that there is a clear relationship between low-self esteem and depression, with self-esteem seeming to be the horse and depression the cart. The second is that adolescence is biologically a very volatile time and the negative or positive affects of adolescence have the ability to span a life cycle. Low self-esteem in adolescence has been correlated with depression both during adolescence and beyond. While depression is more effect, self-esteem can be seen more as a cause, so steps in education and health care that foster health esteem in children early on are taking a step towards a positive outcome into adulthood.
References:
Madge, N., Hawton, K., McMahon, E.M., Corcoran, P., Leo, D., Wilde, E., Fekete, S., van Heeringen, K., Ystgaard, M., Arensman, E. (2011). Psychological characteristics, stressful life events and deliberate self-harm: Findings from the Child & Adolescent Self-harm in Europe (CASE) Study. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 20(10), 499-508.Gayman, M.D., Lloyd, D.A., & Ueno, K. (2011). The history and timing of depression onset as predictors of young adult self-esteem. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(3), 691-702.Moksnes, U.K., & Espnes, G.A. (2012). Self-esteem and emotional health in adolescents – gender and age as potential moderators. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 53(6), 483-489.Shahar, G., & Henrich, C.C. (2010). Do depressive symptoms erode self-esteem in early adolescence? Self & Identity, 9(4), 403-415.Weber, S., Puskar, K.R., & Ren, D. (2010). Relationships between depressive symptoms and perceived social support, self-esteem, & optimism in a sample of rural adolescents. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31(9), 584-588.
