Poster #23 - Selfhood and Youth Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Mental health problems increase during adolescence, with depression and anxiety becoming considerably more common than they were during childhood (Wellcome Trust, 2021). Adolescence is also a period in which profound biological, social, and emotional changes occur in the formation of adult self (Erikson, 1950; 1968). Self and identity development become crucial as adolescents establish and maintain more complex social relationships—including peer and romantic relationships (Brown & Larson, 2009). Navigating these key developments of the self increases adolescents’ susceptibility to mental health conditions (WHO, 2021). That is, adolescents who suffer from maladaptive or insufficient development of selfhood are more likely than others to exhibit depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems.

The present meta-analyses undertook to test these possible relationships in two main ways. First, we sought to establish what features of the self are most clearly and strongly linked to mental health problems. Second, we sought to establish the direction of causality: Are problems and deficiencies in selfhood the cause, the result, or merely a correlate of depression and anxiety? The approach was organized based on the tripartite model of selfhood proposed by Baumeister (1998, 2022). The self can be conceptualized (and the research literature sorted) in terms of three functioning parts: reflexive awareness (self-knowledge), interpersonal being, and agentic executive function (Baumeister, 2022).

Using mixed-effects modelling, which included 558 effect sizes from 298 studies, and 274370 adolescents from 39 countries, our findings revealed that adolescents’ self-esteem/self-concept and self-compassion conferred benefits for depression, with these linkages demonstrating largest effect sizes (r = -0.518, p < 0.0001; [95% CI: -0.49 to -0.547] and r = -0.455, p < 0.0001; [95% CI: -0.568 to -0.343], respectively). Self-esteem/self-concept, self-compassion, self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-regulation had similar moderate negative associations with anxiety. Findings on causal influences indicated bidirectional causations, particularly low self-esteem/self-concept, self-awareness and self-efficacy drive higher depression and vice-versa. In contrast, the different facets of the self did not demonstrate a specific directionality of influence with anxiety.

These results pinpoint facets of the self that are pivotal in relating to adolescent mental health functioning. To provide a more robust understanding of the self in youth mental health, there is a need to unpack the tripartite mode of selfhood in understanding how different facets of the self account for specific form of psychopathology among adolescents. Setting this approach as a standard way of assessing youth selfhood would facilitate a comprehensive and converged understanding of the distinct pattern of associations of selfhood with different mental health conditions.The finding that depression and self traits reciprocally influence each other is consistent with the centrality of the self in adolescent development (Harter, 2012). Depression emerges interactively in step with low self-esteem, lack of self-compassion, low self-awareness, and low self-efficacy.

We discussed the theoretical and practical implications of our findings in terms of how they advance theory and understanding of selfhood for adolescent mental health, and the building of selfhood as psychological skills for cultivating mental health.

Authors

• Geckhong Yeo, National University of Singapore
  Presenting Author

• Cameron Tan, National University of Singapore

• Roy F Baumeister, University of Queensland, Australia

• Dean Ho, National University of Singapore