Self-Esteem, Perceived Stress, and Gender During Adolescence: Interactive Links to Different Types of Interpersonal Relationships

Abstract

The goal of this study was to analyze the relationships between self-esteem, perceived stress, the quality of different types of interpersonal relationships, and gender in adolescents. This study used a sample of 1614 adolescent high school students and robust data analytic techniques to test the proposed relationships. The results partially supported the initial hypothesis in that perceived stress mediated the relationships between self-esteem and four of the types of interpersonal relationships (i.e., same-sex peer relationships, opposite-sex peer relationships, parent-child relationships, and teacher-student relationships) and moderated the relationship between self-esteem and same-sex peer relationships. In addition, a moderated role of gender was also partially supported in that perceived stress mediated the relationships between self-esteem and same-sex peer relationships, opposite-sex peer relationships, and the parent-child relationship for girls, but not boys. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that perceived stress plays an intervening role in the relationship between self-esteem and different types of interpersonal relationships and that gender seems to be a moderator for some of the patterns of the relationships between these variables. These findings are discussed in light of the possible mechanisms by which the variables could influence each other. Implications for theory and practice as well as some directions for future research were also suggested.

International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience

“…We also found that self-esteem was positively associated with resilience and negatively associated with stress. These study findings are consistent with prior research on the relationship of self-esteem with resilience (Arslan, 2015;Karatas & Cakar, 2011), and self-esteem with stress (Bi et al, 2016;Mann et al, 2004).…”

“…Thus enhanced self-esteem increases levels of resilience (Karatas & Cakar, 2011). Also, Self-esteem has a close relationship with stress, and self-esteem is more likely to reduce stress levels (Bi et al, 2016). Individuals having low levels of self-esteem tend to believe that they are not competent, significant, or worthy and may try to cope with the negative feelings associated with low self-worth, potentially leading to a heightened level of perceived stress (Eisenbarth, 2012).…”

“…Thus, considering the robust relation between self-esteem and resilience (Arslan, 2015;Fontaine et al, 2017;Karatas & Cakar, 2011;Martínez-Martí, & Ruch, 2017) and between self-esteem and stress (Bi et al, 2016;Mann et al, 2004) and the important role of mindfulness in self-esteem (Brown & Ryan, 2003;Pepping et al, 2013), it is hypothesized that self-esteem mediates the relation of mindfulness to resilience and stress. Thus, mindfulness would predict increased levels of self-esteem, which would, in turn, predict enhanced resilience and reduced stress levels.…”

Quality of life among adolescents living in residential youth care: do domain-specific self-esteem and psychopathology contribute?

“…Further, we will explore which domains of self-esteem (i.e., scholastic competence, social acceptance, athletic competence, physical appearance, and romantic appeal) contribute with significant unique variance to QoL. In these analyses, we adjust for gender and age because QoL has shown to be gender and age dependent in earlier studies [29], and pronounced gender and age differences have been detected in psychopathology [30,31] and self-esteem [20,32]. Figure 1 depicts the associations to be investigated in our structural equation model.…”

La Autoestima en Alumnos de 3º a 8º Básico. Una Mirada por Nivel de Escolaridad y Género

“…Durante la adolescencia, altos niveles de autoestima se asocian con relaciones interpersonales de calidad como factor protector (Bi, Ma, Yuan, y Zhang, 2016) y la baja autoestima a factores de riesgo (Florenzano y Valdés, 2013). A medida que los niños crecen, la autoestima se vuelve más compleja al ser influenciada por más factores como la evaluación de los pares, el rendimiento académico, la apariencia física, las normas sociales, las expectativas de los padres, entre otros, y como consecuencia, la autoestima tendería a disminuir (Cantero et al, 2016;Palacios 2000, citado en De Tejada, 2010.…”