Appearance Esteem Trajectory According to Three Different Sources of Support Among Adolescents Over a School Year

Although social support has been linked to body satisfaction, there has been little research on the effect of differential sources of support on the trajectory of appearance esteem over time. To address this gap, this study explored changes in adolescents' appearance esteem to perceived social support over one year. Data were collected from 339 Canadian adolescents (54.57% females) in Grade 7 (M_age = 12.05) and Grade 10 (M_age = 15.14). Multilevel growth modeling revealed that perceived social support from fathers was not associated with appearance esteem, whereas mothers' support had the strongest effect on appearance esteem, consistently over time. Friends' support was also related to an increase in the appearance esteem trajectory, but only for older students. Overall, this prospective study provides a better understanding of the unique contribution of three different sources of social support during adolescence for preventing negative appearance esteem, beyond the effects of other related variables.

Impact of early adolescent anxiety disorders on self-esteem development from adolescence to young adulthood

PURPOSE

To examine the association between early adolescent anxiety disorders and self-esteem development from early adolescence through young adulthood.

METHODS

Self-esteem was measured at mean ages 13, 16, and 22 for 821 participants from the Children in the Community Study, a population-based longitudinal cohort. Anxiety disorders were measured at mean age 13 years. Multilevel growth models were employed to analyze the change in self-esteem from early adolescence to young adulthood and to evaluate whether adolescent anxiety disorders predict both average and slope of self-esteem development.

RESULTS

Self-esteem increased during adolescence and continued to increase in young adulthood. Girls had lower average self-esteem than boys, but this difference disappeared when examining the effect of anxiety. Adolescents with anxiety disorder had lower self-esteem, on average, compared with healthy adolescents (effect size [ES] = -.35, p < .01). Social phobia was found to have the greatest relative impact on average self-esteem (ES = -.30, p < .01), followed by overanxious disorder (ES = -.17, p < .05), and simple phobia (ES = -.17, p < .05). Obsessive compulsive-disorder (OCD) predicted a significant decline in self-esteem from adolescence to young adulthood (β = -.1, p < .05). Separation anxiety disorder was not found to have any significant impact on self-esteem development.

CONCLUSIONS

All but one of the assessed adolescent anxiety disorders were related to lower self-esteem, with social phobia having the greatest impact. OCD predicted a decline in self-esteem trajectory with age. The importance of raising self-esteem in adolescents with anxiety and other mental disorders is discussed.