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. 2008 Oct;13(7):884-94.
doi: 10.1177/1359105308095062.

How do you feel? Self-esteem predicts affect, stress, social interaction, and symptom severity during daily life in patients with chronic illness

Vanessa Juth  1 , Joshua M Smyth, Alecia M Santuzzi
Affiliations

How do you feel? Self-esteem predicts affect, stress, social interaction, and symptom severity during daily life in patients with chronic illness

Vanessa Juth et al. J Health Psychol. 2008 Oct.

Abstract

Self-esteem has been demonstrated to predict health and well-being in a number of samples and domains using retrospective reports, but little is known about the effect of self-esteem in daily life. A community sample with asthma (n = 97) or rheumatoid arthritis (n = 31) completed a self-esteem measure and collected Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data 5x/day for one week using a palmtop computer. Low self-esteem predicted more negative affect, less positive affect, greater stress severity, and greater symptom severity in daily life. Naturalistic exploration of mechanisms relating self-esteem to physiological and/or psychological components in illness may clarify causal relationships and inform theoretical models of self-care, well-being, and disease management.

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Conflict of interest statement

COMPETING INTERESTS: None declared.

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