Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Nov-Dec;32(6):653-671.
doi: 10.1002/per.2179. Epub 2018 Nov 5.

The Longitudinal Association between Self-esteem and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents: Separating between-person effects from within-person effects

M Masselink  1 , E Van Roekel  1   2 , B L Hankin  3 , L Keijsers  2 , G M A Lodder  2   4 , J Vanhalst  5 , M Verhagen  6 , J F Young  7 , A J Oldehinkel  1
Affiliations

The Longitudinal Association between Self-esteem and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents: Separating between-person effects from within-person effects

M Masselink et al. Eur J Pers. 2018 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Many longitudinal studies have investigated whether self-esteem predicts depressive symptoms (vulnerability model) or the other way around (scar model) in adolescents. The most common method of analysis has been the Cross-lagged Panel Model (CLPM). The CLPM does not separate between-person effects from within-person effects, making it unclear whether the results from previous studies actually reflect the within-person effects, or whether they reflect differences between people. We investigated the associations between self-esteem and depressive symptoms at the within-person level, using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPM). To get an impression of the magnitude of possible differences between the RI-CLPM and CLPM, we compared the results of both models. We used data from three longitudinal adolescent samples (age range 7-18; Study 1: N=1,948; Study 2: N=1,455; Study 3: N=316). Intervals between the measurements were 1-1.5 years. Single-paper meta-analyses showed support for small within-person associations from self-esteem to depressive symptoms, but not the other way around, thus only providing some support for the vulnerability model. The cross-lagged associations in the aggregated RI-CLPM and CLPM showed similar effect sizes. Overall, our results show that over 1-1.5 year time intervals, low self-esteem may negatively influence depressive symptoms over time within adolescents, but only weakly so.

Keywords: Self-esteem; depression; longitudinal data; random intercept cross-lagged panel model; within-person effects.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The random intercept cross‐lagged panel model. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 2
Figure 2
Simplified random intercept cross‐lagged panel model with standardized coefficients from study 1. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cross‐lagged panel model with standardized coefficients from study 1. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 4
Figure 4
Simplified random intercept cross‐lagged panel model with standardized coefficients from study 2. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cross‐lagged panel model with standardized coefficients from study 2. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 6
Figure 6
Simplified random intercept cross‐lagged panel model with standardized coefficients from study 3. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 7
Figure 7
Cross‐lagged panel model with standardized coefficients from study 3. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 8
Figure 8
Standardized random intercept cross‐lagged panel model coefficients of the meta‐analysis over studies 1–3. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 9
Figure 9
Standardized cross‐lagged panel model coefficients of the meta‐analysis over studies 1–3. Numbers between brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Abela, J. R. Z. , & Hankin, B. L. (2008). Cognitive vulnerability to depression in adolescents: A developmental psychopathology perspective In Abela J. R., & Hankin B. L. (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent depression (pp. 35–78). New York: The Guilford Press.
    1. Abramson, L. Y. , & Metalsky, G. I. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory‐based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358–372. 10.1037/0033-295X.96.2.358. - DOI
    1. Akaike, H. (1974). A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 19, 716–723. 10.1109/TAC.1974.1100705. - DOI
    1. Bainter, S. A. , & Howard, A. L. (2016). Comparing within‐person effects from multivariate longitudinal models. Developmental Psychology, 52, 1955–1968. 10.1037/dev0000215. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beck, A. (1967). Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

LinkOut - more resources