Relationship between Self-Esteem and Self-Consciousness in Adolescents: An Eye-Tracking Study

Relationship between self-esteem and suicidal ideation before and during COVID-19 in a non-clinical sample: mediating effects of psychological distress and hopelessness

Introduction

Several studies have highlighted the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on suicide. Accordingly, investigating the risk factors of suicide during this crisis is important. Based on the escape theory of suicide, the current study examined the serial mediating roles of psychological distress and hopelessness in the relationship between self-esteem and suicidal ideation. It also aimed to explore whether or not the COVID-19 pandemic changed the mediation effect in any way.

Methods

Data were collected from 645 university students before and during the pandemic. The study employed mediation and multi-group analyses to test the hypotheses.

Results

The results demonstrated that individuals with low self-esteem reported high psychological distress, which further lead to hopelessness and eventually heightened suicidal ideation. Multi-group analysis revealed that psychological distress exerted a greater impact on suicidal ideation during COVID-19.

Discussion

The finding suggested that self-esteem, hopelessness, and psychological distress could help elucidate the development of suicidal ideation. Clinicians may target these factors in suicide prevention programs, particularly in the settings of the COVID-19 pandemic or future crisis.

Effect of Peer Attachment on Legal Emotion Among Junior Middle School Students: The Mediation Role of Self-Esteem

Legal consciousness is the individual consciousness which reflects legal phenomena. Well-developed legal consciousness plays a crucial role in informing citizens of his legal right and ability to exercise these rights, therefore forms certain connections of individuals and society, and its development is a key part of individual’s socialization process. Here, we investigated the emotion aspect of legal consciousness (henceforth legal emotion) and tried to identify several factors affecting the development of legal emotion and several factors affected by legal emotion. A large sample of Chinese junior middle school students (N = 967) completed a battery of self-reported questionnaires regarding legal emotion, peer attachment, self-esteem, prosocial tendencies, and interpersonal trust. The results indicated that for early adolescents, peer attachment predicts both positive and negative legal emotion. Importantly, peer attachment affects legal emotion partially through self-esteem. We also showed that negative legal emotion acted as a mediator on the relationship between interpersonal trust and prosocial tendencies. The results provided important insights into the role of legal emotion, the emotion aspect of legal consciousness, in the social interactions and its potential psychological mechanism.

How Can People Express Their Trait Self-Esteem Through Their Faces in 3D Space?

Background

Trait self-esteem reflects stable self-evaluation, and it affects social interaction patterns. However, whether and how trait self-esteem can be expressed through behaviors are controversial. Considering that facial expressions can effectively convey information related to personal traits, the present study investigated the three-dimensional (3D) facial movements related to self-esteem level and the sex differences therein.

Methods

The sample comprised 238 participants (46.2% males, 53.8% females). Their levels of trait self-esteem were evaluated by employing the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) (47.9% low self-esteem, 52.1% high self-esteem). During self-introductions, their facial movements in 3D space were recorded by Microsoft Kinect. Two-way ANOVA was performed to analyze the effect of self-esteem and gender on 3D facial movements. Additionally, Logistic regression models were established to describe the relationship between 3D facial movements and self-esteem levels in both genders.

Results

The results of two-way ANOVA revealed a main effect of trait self-esteem level for cheeks and lips’ movements. Meanwhile, there was a significant interaction between trait self-esteem and gender on the variability of lips’ movements. In addition, the combination of facial movements can effectively identify trait self-esteem in men and women, with 75.5 and 68% accuracy, respectively.

Conclusion

The present results suggest that the 3D facial expressions of individuals with different trait self-esteem levels were different, and such difference is affected by gender. Our study explores a possible way in which trait self-esteem plays a role in social interaction and also provides the basis for automatic self-esteem recognition.