Loyola University Maryland

Emerging Scholars

Heather Dark, Alison A. Papadakis, Ph.D., Carolyn M. Barry, Ph.D., Matthew W. Kirkhart, Ph.D.

The Impact of Religious Coping and Sexual Attitudes on Sense of Coherence and Self-Actualization

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Depression is a significant problem among college students (Lindsey et al., 2009; Schulenberg & Zarrett, 2006), occurring at rates of up to 40% (Leino & Kisch, 2005). It is associated with increased risk for substance use (Allgöwer et al., 2001), suicide (Mackenzie et al., 2011) and lower self-esteem (Gonzalez et al., 2011). Additionally, college is a time when self-esteem is particularly salient as it is a time of self-exploration and changing views about oneself (Arnett, 2001). Given that depression is common in college students, it is important to investigate its association with factors like self-esteem in order to identify potential intervention targets to decrease college students’ risk of depression.

There is a robust negative relation between explicit (self-reported) self-esteem and depression (Beck, 1967; Orth et al., 2008). However, there are problems with measuring self-esteem explicitly. Specifically, explicit methods can be influenced by external stressors and may capture only state fluctuations and not trait levels of self-esteem. Additionally, there are concerns about self-presentation effects and socially desirable responding (Baumeister, 1982; Baumeister et al., 1989). These concerns may be addressed by measuring self-esteem implicitly (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995), by capturing an automatic evaluation of the self (Bosson et al., 2000). Implicit self-esteem is the tendency to associate oneself with positive and negative stimuli. Individuals with high implicit self-esteem are more likely to associate themselves with positive versus negative stimuli, while the reverse is true of individuals with low implicit self-esteem. By assessing the combination of implicit and explicit self-esteem, one can determine which 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. Discrepancies between implicit and explicit self-esteem are associated with maladaptive behaviors including distrust, defensiveness, and narcissism (Jordan et al., 2003; Schröder-Abé et al., 2007; Spencer et al., 2005), whereas healthier functioning is associated with secure self-esteem.

Further, due to the college environment, interpersonal relationships are important (Swenson et al., 2008). Peer-related stress is also associated with increased depression (Bosacki et al., 2007; DuongTran, 1996). Failure to acquire strong peer relationships and peer conflict have been linked to poor adjustment (Swenson et al., 2008).

We hypothesize that the relation between peer-related stress and depressive symptoms will be moderated by type of self-esteem. Specifically, the relation between peer stress and depressive symptoms will be stronger for individuals with defensive, damaged, and congruent-low self-esteem than for those with secure self-esteem. Presently, the sample consists of 66 undergraduate students from the Loyola participant pool. Participants completed three paper-and-pencil questionnaires measuring depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II; BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996), explicit self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; RSES; Rosenberg, 1965), and peer stress (Adolescent Perceived Events Scale—APES; (Compas et al., 1987) and an implicit association task (IAT) measuring implicit self-esteem (Greenwald et al., 1998).

 

References

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