Longitudinal Triangular Relations Among Self-Esteem, Depression, and Delinquency in Early Adolescence

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Analyzing Adolescence From Multidisciplinary Lenses (Table 10)

Abstract

We examined the within-person triangular relations among self-esteem, delinquency, and depression based on a 3-wave study of 2,249 adolescents in Taiwan. We compared results from the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), which accounts for time-invariant differences, with the standard cross-lagged panel model (CLPM). Both models showed bidirectional transactional effects between self-esteem and depression. The within-person transactional process only occurred between self-esteem and depression. The within-person autoregressive effects occurred to self-esteem and delinquency. RI-CLPM specifically showed that adolescents’ between-person trait-like self-esteem, depression, and delinquency were significantly correlated, answering the hypothesis of triangular relations among stable trait-like self-esteem, depression, and delinquency. Triangular relations among self-esteem, depression, and delinquency may be interpreted differently when within- and between-person variations were not partitioned accordingly.

Authors

• Yu-Chung Lawrence Wang, National Changhua University of Education

• Hsun-Yu Chan, National Taiwan Normal University