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Co-occurrence of social anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescence: differential links with implicit and explicit self-esteem?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2011

P. J. de Jong ,
B. E. Sportel ,
E. de Hullu  and
M. H. Nauta
P. J. de Jong*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
B. E. Sportel
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
E. de Hullu
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
M. H. Nauta
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr P. J. de Jong, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Social anxiety and depression often co-occur. As low self-esteem has been identified as a risk factor for both types of symptoms, it may help to explain their co-morbidity. Current dual process models of psychopathology differentiate between explicit and implicit self-esteem. Explicit self-esteem would reflect deliberate self-evaluative processes whereas implicit self-esteem would reflect simple associations in memory. Previous research suggests that low explicit self-esteem is involved in both social anxiety and depression whereas low implicit self-esteem is only involved in social anxiety. We tested whether the association between symptoms of social phobia and depression can indeed be explained by low explicit self-esteem, whereas low implicit self-esteem is only involved in social anxiety.

Method

Adolescents during the first stage of secondary education (n=1806) completed the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) to measure symptoms of social anxiety and depression, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) to index explicit self-esteem and the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit self-esteem.

Results

There was a strong association between symptoms of depression and social anxiety that could be largely explained by participants' explicit self-esteem. Only for girls did implicit self-esteem and the interaction between implicit and explicit self-esteem show small cumulative predictive validity for social anxiety, indicating that the association between low implicit self-esteem and social anxiety was most evident for girls with relatively low explicit self-esteem. Implicit self-esteem showed no significant predictive validity for depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

The findings support the view that both shared and differential self-evaluative processes are involved in depression and social anxiety.

Keywords

Adolescenceanxietyautomatic associationsdepressionimplicit association testimplicit self-esteem
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , March 2012 , pp. 475 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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