Selfhood development tied to adolescent mental health

A meta-analysis found evidence associating selfhood development with adolescent mental health.

“Our analysis … found that various facets of selfhood and their associated traits had moderate negative associations with depression and anxiety – two most prevalent mental health conditions affecting adolescents worldwide,” said the researchers.

Dr Geck Hong Yeo from the National University of Singapore and colleagues conducted this meta-analysis that included 298 studies (76 percent cross-sectional) from 39 countries. Five self-traits were evaluated: self-esteem/self-concept, self-compassion, self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-efficacy. The included studies had 389 effect sizes on selfhood-depression links and 169 effect sizes on selfhood-anxiety links.

Of the effect sizes, 383 involved 192,248 adolescents for the association between self-esteem/self-concept and depression and anxiety, 63 involved 19,686 participants for the link between self-compassion and depression and anxiety, and 51 involved 35,204 participants on self-awareness and the link to the two mental health outcomes. The remaining 26 and 35 effect sizes were for self-regulation and self-efficacy (n=6,668 and 20,564, respectively). [Psychol Med 2023;53:4833-4855]

The average age of the participants ranged from 10 to 22 years and the proportion of female participants ranged between 31 and 94 percent.

Self-esteem/self-concept had a high negative association with depression (r=−0.52). Moderate negative associations were found between depression and self-compassion, self-awareness, and self-efficacy (r=−0.45, −0.41, and −0.36, respectively). Self-regulation was also negatively tied to depression, but this association was weaker (r=−0.30). All associations yielded a p value of <0.001.

The effect sizes of self-esteem/self-concept and self-compassion were not significantly different, but these were stronger than the other three self traits. Q statistics analyses comparing the associations between the five self-traits and depression indicated that the effect sizes differed significantly (Q_between=24.02; p=0.0002).

With anxiety, all five self-traits had roughly similar relationships, demonstrating moderate associations (r=−0.36 for self-esteem/self-concept, r=−0.43 for self-compassion, r=−0.35 for self-awareness, r=−0.36 for self-efficacy, and r=−0.31 for self-regulation; p<0.0001 for all). None differed significantly from each other (Q_between=2.582; p=0.630).

“Taken together, these findings demonstrated that greater self-esteem/self-concept, self-compassion, self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-regulation are related to better mental health among young people, as indexed by their experience of lower depression and anxiety. The effect sizes were far from trivial,” said the researchers.

“[The findings] provide insights into a nuanced understanding of self-traits that are pivotal in contributing to mental health functioning, especially depression,” they added.

Adolescents are more sensitive to social cues in evaluating the self and frequently engage in social comparisons that can influence judgment about the self. [Child Development 2002;73:1151-1165; J Child Adolesc Ment Health 2018;30:203-211] “These developments underscore the role of self-esteem/self-concept and self-compassion in depression among adolescents,” they said.

Takeaways

“[The results suggest] that individuals who build a well-organized knowledge structure about their competencies, values, and memories, and establish greater consciousness of what the self is like (both privately and publicly) experience less depressive and anxiety symptoms,” the researchers explained.

“Belief in one’s competency to effect change, overcome difficulties, and persist in the face of setbacks, and the ability to regulate emotions, behaviours, and cognitions relate to positive mental health functioning,” they continued.

There are practical payoffs in evaluating other self-traits and going beyond self-esteem, they added. “To build and expand the selfhood model, there is a need to shift towards more studies that investigate other facets of selfhood and the associated traits to understand the psychological mechanism involving the self and youth mental health.”

Schools and specialists, as well as parents would be favourable springboards for selfhood development programmes and supporting youth mental health. Helping parents understand their own and their children’s views on selfhood development will help them to distinguish differences between viewpoints which, according to the researchers, is more pivotal in driving their own mental health.