Low And Decreasing Self Esteem During Adolescence

Low and Decreasing Self-Esteem During Adolescence Critique Steiger, Allemand, Robins, and Fend (2014) hypothesized that not only the level but also the change in self-esteem affect depression. Using data from over a 23 year span, they investigated adolescent level and change in self-esteem and examined their predictive effects on adult depressive symptoms two decades later. Self-esteem was assessed annually from age 12 to 16, and depression was assessed at age 16 and 35. Subsequently, they found that results demonstrated that both the level and change in self-esteem served as predictors for adult depression (Steiger et al., 2014). Individuals who entered adolescence with low self-esteem, and or whose self esteem declined further during†¦show more content†¦The participants rated each item on a scale consisting of 0 for disagree, and 1 for agree. The items were added to create a total score ranging from 0 to 8. Furthermore, domain-specific self-esteem was also measured. This was a measurement of physical appearance and academ ic competence. Subsequently, each self-esteem domain was measured with six items. Participants rated each item on a scale consisting of 0 for not true and 1 for true for me. The items were then added to create scores ranging from 0 to 6. Further still, depression at age 16 was measured using 13 items from the original Beck Depression Inventory, while depression from age 12-15 was not measured (Steiger et al., 2014). Subsequently, participants were asked how often they had experienced depressive symptoms during the preceding week. The participants were informed to indicate which sentence out of four possible answers reflected their feeling most accurately. In adulthood, seven items from the Beck Depression Inventory were used to measure depressive symptoms. The Participants were asked how often they typically experience depressive symptoms. Participants rated each item on a 6-point scale. Consequently, Steiger et al. (2014) controlled for three variables when examining the effec ts of self-esteem on depression. First, they controlled for peer popularity when examining the effect of global self-esteem. Peer popularity was rated through peers of the same school and