Social support,resilience, and self-esteem protect against common mental health problems in early adolescence: A nonrecursive analysis from a two-year longitudinal study |
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Authors: | Qiaolan Liu Min Jiang Shiying Li Yang Yang |
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Affiliation: | aDepartment of Health-related Social and Behavioral Sciences;bDepartment of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University;cDepartment of Sociology and Psychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. |
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Abstract: | The aim of this study is to examine the mutual effects of self-esteem and common mental health problems (CMHPs) as well as the mutual effects of self-esteem and resilience in early adolescence. The recruited participants were 1015 adolescents aged 12.7 years (SD = 0.5 years) from two junior high schools. Data were repeatedly collected at five time points at 6-month intervals over 2-year years. The Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Block and Kremen''s Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89), Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES), and Mental Health Inventory of Middle School Students (MMHI-60) were used to measure social support, resilience, self-esteem, and CMHPs, respectively. Nonrecursive structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to analyze the data.There were bivariate partial correlations among the five-time measurements for the SSRS, ER89, RSES, and MMHI-60 scores. Self-esteem negatively predicted CMHPs with a standardized direct effect of −0.276 (95% CI: −0.425 to −0.097), and the opposite effect was −0.227 (95% CI: −0.383 to −0.072). Self-esteem positively predicted resilience with the standardized direct effect of 0.279 (95% CI: 0.093–0.425), and the opposite effect was 0.221 (95% CI: 0.063–0.376). Social support was a protective factor for mental health status.The findings of mutual effects of self-esteem and CMHPs as well as self-esteem and resilience can provide researchers and practitioners with a conceptual framework that can help them build effective intervention methods to promote adolescent mental health status. |
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Keywords: | common mental health problems nonrecursive Structural equation modeling resilience self-esteem social support |
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