Title:
Peer-related stress and depression in college students: the moderating effects of implicit and explicit self-esteem
Author:
Heather Elizabeth Dark
Committee Member:
Alison Papadakis
Committee Member:
Matthew Kirkhart
Committee Member:
Carolyn Barry
Committee Member:
Martin Sherman
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2012
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Depression and depressive symptoms are a significant problem among college students, occurring at rates of up to 40%. They are associated with increased risk for substance use, suicide, lower levels of self-esteem, and interpersonal problems. Additionally, college is a time when self-esteem is particularly salient as it is a time of self-exploration and changing views about oneself. Given that college students are susceptible to depression and depressive symptoms, it is important to investigate the association with factors like self-esteem in order to identify potential intervention targets to decrease college students' risk of depression. Self-esteem may be measured implicitly, by capturing an automatic evaluation of the self or explicitly by self-report. By assessing the combination of implicit and explicit self-esteem, the type of self-esteem an individual has, secure (high explicit- high implicit), defensive (high explicit-low implicit), damaged (low explicit-high implicit), or congruent-low (low explicit-low implicit) self-esteem can be determined. The study hypothesized that the relation between peer-related stress and depressive symptoms would be moderated by type of self-esteem. Seventy-six undergraduates completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II, The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, The Adolescent Perceived Events Scale, and the computerized Self-Esteem Implicit Association Task. As expected, a negative relation between explicit self-esteem and depressive symptoms was found. Participants who reported lower explicit self-esteem also reported more depressive symptoms. Additionally, participants who reported more occurrences of negative peer events also reported more depressive symptoms. However, the study hypothesis was not supported, in that, implicit and explicit self-esteem did not moderate the relation between peer-related stress and depressive symptoms.
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Degree:
Master of Science
Level:
Master
Discipline:
Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online.
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Identifier:
DarkHE-12
