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The temporal sequence of depressive symptoms, peer victimization, and self-esteem across adolescence: Evidence for an integrated self-perception driven model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2019

Zacharie Saint-Georges  and
Tracy Vaillancourt
Zacharie Saint-Georges
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Tracy Vaillancourt*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
*
Author for Correspondance: Tracy Vaillancourt, 145 Jean-Jacques-Lussier, Ottawa, OntarioK1N 6N5, Canada; E-mail: tracy.vaillancourt@uottawa.ca.
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Abstract

Depression is associated with a multiplicity of adverse outcomes in adolescence, including peer victimization and low self-esteem. Depressive symptoms, peer victimization, and self-esteem are linked in cross-sectional studies, but no longitudinal study has been conducted assessing their developmental pathways in one integrated model across adolescence. We explored their temporal sequencing in a normative sample of 612 Canadian adolescents (54% girls) assessed annually over 5 years (Grade 7 to Grade 11). Potential confounders such as biological sex, ethnicity/race, and parent income and education were statistically controlled. We found evidence for the vulnerability model (self-esteem predicting depression) and the symptoms-driven model (depression predicting peer victimization). Our findings also supported the integration of these pathways into a self-perception driven model characterized by the indirect effect of self-esteem on later peer victimization via depressive symptoms. Specifically, poor self-esteem initiated a developmental cascade that led to poor mood and poor peer relations. These results highlight the importance of helping youth form a healthy identity that promotes positive mental health and peer relations, and the need to intervene with depressed, victimized, and at-risk adolescents to instill positive self-regard. Our results also emphasize the central role that self-perceptions play in the onset and maintenance of poor outcomes.

Keywords

depressionmental healthpeer victimizationself-esteemself-perception
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , August 2020 , pp. 975 - 984
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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