self-esteem and mental health in early adolescence: development and gender differences

Journal of Adolescence 1996, 19, 233–245

Self-esteem and mental health in early adolescence:development and gender differences

MONIQUE BOLOGNINI, BERNARD PLANCHEREL, WALTER BETTSCHART AND

OLIVIER HALFON

A longitudinal study of a general population (n=219; M age: 12, 13 and 14), wascarried out between 1990 and 1993 over 3 years in Lausanne (Switzerland).Several questionnaires, validated in French, were used: Perceived CompetenceScale, Social Support Appraisal and a questionnaire on mental health developedin our research Unit. We attempted to answer the following questions: Is there aglobal change in self-esteem during early adolescence? If so, does the way in whichthe young person perceives himself vary according to the social and relationalenvironment? What are the differences between boys and girls in the developmentof self-esteem? What is the relation between self-esteem and mental health?

As to the specific differences according to gender, results show that girls tend tohave a poorer self-esteem than boys, whatever the domains taken into consider-ation. Differences are more significant with reference to appearance and athleticperformance. As far as the development of self-esteem is concerned, there is nomajor change, notably when considering global perception. Results of a factoranalysis underscore the fact that girls’ self-esteem is more global and less differen-tiated by domain while boys separate the scholastic and behavioral part of theirexperience from the social. Global self-esteem has more influence on the level ofdepressive mood in girls than in boys.

1996 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

Introduction

The concept of self-esteem, according to the definition given by Rosenberg (1979, 1986),refers to a person’s feeling of self-worth. Historically, the two most important contributionstowards the development of a definition of self-esteem have been those of James (1890) andCooley (1902). The notion of self-esteem is different for each of these two theorists. ForJames, self-esteem, which he calls “self-love”, is related to the ratio between one’saspirations and one’s successes. If the level of a person’s success is as high as or higher thanhis aspirations, then that person’s self-esteem will be high; if his aspirations are above thelevel of his success, self-esteem will be low. Cooley, on the other hand, considers that self-esteem is socially determined and as such is a “looking glass self” found by looking in themirror of opinion held out to one by “significant others”. A subject held in high esteem byothers will have high self-esteem; a subject hearing expressions of little esteem from otherswill integrate these negative opinions into his perception of self and so develop low self-esteem.

Reprint requests and correspondence should be addressed to M. Bolognini, Service Universitaire de Psychiatriede l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent, 25A rue du Bugnon, CH-1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.

M. Bolognini is a sociologist, B. Plancherel is a psychologist and statistician, and W. Bettschart and O. Halfonare both psychiatrists.

0140-1971/96/030233+13 $18.00/0 1996 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

234 M. Bolognini et al.

Over the past few decades, many studies have been done on self-esteem, on how it isdeveloped, on its relationship to mental health, as well as studies that look at self-esteemwithin the broader subject of the concept of self (L’Ecuyer, 1994). Harter, in numeroustheoretical works and research studies (1982, 1985, 1986, 1993), has attempted to explainself-esteem with reference to the two historical theories of James and Cooley, mentionedabove. She has shown that James’ hypotheses are readily confirmed since other researcherscome up with similar results (Tesser and Campbell, 1983; Glick and Zigler, 1985; Markusand Nurius, 1986; Higgins, 1987, 1991). Harter’s studies elsewhere bring out a definiteconnection between self-esteem and social support: as anticipated from Cooley’s model, andwith reference to four sources of potential support (parents, teachers, classmates and closefriends), adolescents with the lowest level of support report the lowest self-esteem, whereasthose receiving the most support hold the self in the highest regard (Harter, 1990, 1993).

In a discussion of the development of self-esteem during early adolescence, a few wordsshould be said about this period in life, which is one of transition and a period when theyoung person must re-define himself in many areas. Firstly, he experiences changes in hisbody (puberty), in his mental abilities, and in his social relationships (family and friends).Secondly, early adolescence is a period where the young person begins to pay moreattention to himself, and introspection now plays an important role. It is, therefore,reasonable to expect changes in the evaluation of self at this time, especially if oneconsiders the various areas of social experience: family, peers and society in the broad senseof the word. Thirdly, this is a period of gender-role intensification, when boys and girls willbe pressured to adopt more differences in their interests, domain values and activities (Hillsand Lynch, 1983; Eccles, 1987). Fourthly, early adolescence coincides with a time ofimportant choices concerning school courses, career, extra-curricular or leisure-timeactivities, life-style and particularly attitudes towards tobacco, drugs and alcohol, as well aschoices in social relationships, friendships and sexual behaviour. For all these reasons, earlyadolescence is a time when, on the one hand, well founded self-esteem is especiallynecessary in order to enable the person to make adequate choices, but when, on the otherhand, self-esteem may be especially liable to fluctuation.

Empirical studies of the development of self-esteem during early adolescence do not giveclear and consistent results. Several recent works (Wylie, 1979; Hirsch and DuBois, 1991;Alsaker and Olweus, 1993) conclude that there is no mean change in self-esteem in earlyadolescence, while others report positive (Offer et al., 1981; O’Malley and Bachman, 1983;Nottelman, 1987) and negative (Simmons et al., 1973; Simmons and Blyth, 1987)development. Several studies have brought out the relationship between health and self-esteem, noting its importance particularly with respect to depressive states (Pfeffer, 1986;Rutter, 1986, 1988; Baumeister, 1990; Harter and Jackson, 1994).

Concerning gender differences, most research agrees that girls have lower self-esteemthan males in early adolescence (Rosenberg and Simmons, 1975; Kawash, 1982; Brack etal., 1988; Block and Robins, 1993). Boys’ better self-esteem seems obvious in domains suchas athletic competence (Rodriguez-Tome et al., 1993) but this is not the case for social andcognitive competences. Moreover, some researchers have found an interaction between ageand gender during early adolescence, on the basis of differences in the age of onset ofpuberty (Petersen and Taylor, 1980; Simmons et al., 1983; Stattin and Magnusson, 1990).

Assuming that James’ and Cooley’s theories are complementary rather thancontradictory, we evaluated self-esteem in adolescence both with respect to the subject’sperception and appraisal of the social support in his environment. An attempt was made to

235Self-esteem and mental health in early adolescence

evaluate the model developed by Harter (1993) whereby social support is conditional, i.e.one is admired by others only to the extent that one meets their expectations. On the basisof the theories of James and Cooley and on data obtained from a community sample of earlyadolescents, we will try to answer the following questions: (a) Is any overall change in self-esteem to be noted during early adolescence? (b) What differences, if any, are observedbetween boys and girls in their development of self-esteem? (c) What is the relationshipbetween self-esteem and mental health and how does this relationship evolve? (d) What isthe role played by social support in the relationship between self-esteem and mental health?

Population

Our research on the above questions was carried out with financial support from the Fondsnational suisse de la recherche scientifique (Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research)1.The study was done on a community population of French-speaking Swiss adolescentsevaluated longitudinally at ages 12, 13 and 14 years2. A total of 219 subjects were included(111 girls and 108 boys, average age at first evaluation: 12.5 years).

Method

The evaluation was carried out by means of self-report questionnaires filled out by studentsduring a 2-h period in class, supervised by researchers from the team. All questionnaireswere pre-tested on a population of the same age.

The research also covered a broader theme of stress and protective factors in earlyadolescence (Bolognini et al., 1992; Plancherel et al., 1992; Nunez et al., 1993). However,the present article looks only at data concerning self-esteem, social support and mentalhealth.

Self-esteem was evaluated by Harter’s questionnaire entitled “What I am like” (Harter,1985) which had been validated and translated into French (Pierrehumbert et al., 1987).This questionnaire was used in Time 1 (1989) and Time 3 (1991) of the evaluation. It iscomprised of the following subscales: scholastic competence, athletic competence, socialacceptance, behavioral conduct, appearance and global self-worth.

Social support was measured by means of the SS-A questionnaire (Social SupportAppraisals) developed by Vaux et al. (1986), Vaux (1988), and which is more specificallyconcerned with “the subjective evaluation of a person with respect to his relationships andthe help he can expect from them”. The questionnaire has been widely used by Vaux whohas reported the results of his studies on ten different groups of adults and adolescents. Itwas translated into French and validated by our research team (Bettschart et al., 1992).

Mental health was measured by means of an instrument created by our center (SUPEA).The questionnaire included several items concerning mental health. Factor analysis allowedus to identify three aspects of mental health: anxiety, sleep disturbances and depressivemood (cf., Appendix). A cross validation of this questionnaire with the GHQ-28(Goldberg, 1986) and the STAI-T (Spielberger and Krasner, 1988) enabled us to assess the

1FNRS project, ref. 3.891-0.88.2As referred to in the Journal of Early Adolescence, this period covers the ages 10 to 14. Our longitudinal study

includes subjects from 12 to 14, representative period of both puberty changes and school orientation options.


adequate psychometric properties of the subscales. The questionnaire was used in Times 1, 2and 3 of the evaluation.

Results

Change over timeIn the first stage of our research, in order to measure the development of self-esteem inrelation to gender, we applied variance analysis to the effects of time (age 12 compared toage 14), gender, and the interaction between the two for every subscale of thequestionnaire. The analysis underscores no difference according to time for self-worth,athletic competence and behaviour (see Table 1).

Self-esteem is seen to develop differently for different subscales of the study. Ratings forappearance and social competence go down while scholastic competence ratings go up. Inathletic domains an interaction effect can be seen; here self-esteem is definitely lower forgirls than for boys and tends to diminish over time for both sexes. Global self-worth has atendency to be higher for boys than for girls. Note that the mean scores for “behaviour” donot change over time and are not significantly different for boys or girls.

Relationships between subscalesFactor analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between subscales. The results aregiven in Table 2.

The analysis reveals a single factor for girls, with stability in the order of factors betweenTimes 1 and 2. Behaviour-related competence receives the highest saturation, athleticcompetence the lowest. For boys the factors fall into two main groups; one includingbehaviour and scholastic competence, the other covering social, athletic competence and

Table 1 Variance analysis: mean scores of self-esteem according to gender

Age (years) Girls Boys Scale “Gender” effect “Time” effect “Interaction” effect

12 3.11 3.17 self-worth * +14 2.95 3.21

12 3.06 3.15 social **14 2.93 3.03

12 2.75 3.00 appearance *** *14 2.60 2.94

12 2.68 2.70 school **14 2.76 2.85

12 2.57 3.02 athletic *** **14 2.67 2.89

12 2.97 2.85 behaviour14 2.88 2.88

+=p#0.10; *=p#0.05; **p#0.01; ***p#0.001.


appearance. There is high stability in the composition of the factors between Times 1 and3. The order of the factors, however, is reversed.

Self-esteem and healthSeeking to evaluate the relationship between self-esteem and mental health, we calculatedthe correlation between the different subscales and depressive mood (see Table 3a) andanxiety (see Table 3b). Table 3a shows, in particular, that significant correlation is higherfor girls than for boys and is especially high for global self-worth.

Correlations were calculated in the same way with respect to anxiety symptoms (cf.,Table 3b). The results, although with lower correlations, were similar to those fordepressive mood.

Next, in order to measure the effect of self-esteem on mental health, we regrouped thesubjects into three groups according to changes between Time 1 and Time 3: group 1showed a decrease in self-esteem, group 2 exhibited unchanged self-esteem and in group 3were those with an increase in self-esteem. Table 4 shows that subjects with decreased self-esteem have significantly higher mean scores for depressive mood in Time 3 for all thescales.

Self-esteem and social supportIn our attempt to answer our fourth question, we developed a model whose purpose was totest the relationship between self-esteem and mental health with the underlying hypothesisof a mediating role played by social support. We based our work on Harter’s model (1993)according to which self-esteem in the areas of scholastic competence and behaviour islinked to the amount of support received from parents, while self-esteem related toappearance, social competence and athletics influences support received from peers.Support from parents and peers together affect global self-worth, and this in turn influencesmood in general and suicidal thinking in particular. As suicide attempts were notinvestigated for our study, this variable was replaced with one concerning depressive mood.

Every model we applied using LISREL (simple path analysis and structural equations withlatent variables) proved inconclusive both for boys and girls. We then decided to test a newmodel, this time treating social support as an antecedent to self-esteem. In view of thepreceding results (see section Relationship between subscales), we expected to find a sizeabledifference between boys and girls and therefore prepared two separate models. Here we usedpath analysis with the original variables for social support (both family and peers), global

Table 2 Factor analysis of the five subscales

Girls Boys

Time 1 Time 3 Time 1 Time 3

F F F1 F2 F1 F2

Behaviour 0.756 Behaviour 0.792 Behaviour 0.862 Athletic 0.832Social 0.704 Social 0.782 School 0.840 Social 0.768School 0.645 Appearance 0.764 Social 0.776 Appearance 0.684Appearance 0.608 School 0.758 Athletic 0.677 Behaviour 0.904Athletic 0.570 Athletic 0.614 Appearance 0.607 School 0.868


self-worth and depressive mood. For self-esteem we calculated one mean for the subscalesconcerning appearance, athletic competence and social acceptance, and another forbehaviour and scholastic achievement. We proceeded recursively, modifying the initialmodel by adding as few arrows as possible but enough to obtain a χ2 probability higher than0.05.

Table 3a Correlations between self-esteem and depressive mood

Age (years) Appearance Social Athletic

Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys

12 −0.24 −0.37 −0.40 −0.25 −0.3714 −0.46 −0.32 −0.45 −0.36 −0.45 −0.32

Age (years) Behaviour School Self-worth


12 −0.21 −0.35 −0.26 −0.45 −0.53 −0.5714 −0.52 −0.30 −0.41 −0.28 −0.45 −0.39

We only mention significant correlations p<0.05.

Table 3b Correlations between self-esteem and anxious mood

Age (years) Appearance Social Athletic


12 −0.24 −0.1914 −0.23 −0.27 −0.27

Age (years) Behaviour School Self-worth


12 −0.28 −0.31 −0.24 −0.4314 −0.38 −0.32 −0.35 −0.54 −0.33

We only mention significant correlations p<0.05.

Table 4 Variance analysis. Depressive mood scores and self-esteem (Duncan Multiple rangetest)

Self-esteem scales Group 1 Group 2 Group 3self-esteem “−” stable self-esteem self-esteem “+”

Appearance 2.61ab 2.34a 2.20b

School 2.54a 2.38 2.21a

Social 2.52a 2.29a 2.30Behaviour 2.67ab 2.37ac 2.07bc

Athletic 2.51a 2.35 2.21a

Self-worth 2.63ab 2.32b 2.15a

Means with the same superscript are different at the significance level of p=0.05.


DEPRESSIVE MOODSELF-ESTEEM

Family self-esteemdomains

Peers self-esteemdomains

Familysocialsupport

Peerssocialsupport

0.323

0.327

0.302

0.585

–0.171

–0.309

–0.0940.214

Figure 1a. Social support, self-esteem and depressive mood; boys’ model. Goodness of fit=0.97;Adjusted goodness of fit=0.98; Root mean square residuals=0.06; χ2=10.04, p=0.123.

DEPRESSIVE MOODSELF-ESTEEM

Family self-esteemdomains

Peers self-esteemdomains

Familysocialsupport

Peerssocialsupport

0.424

0.276

0.393

0.492

–0.103

–0.207

–0.4340.147 0.421

Figure 1b. Social support, self-esteem and depressive mood: girls’ model. Goodness of fit=0.97;Adjusted goodness of fit=0.88; Root mean square residuals=0.05; χ2=9.62, p=0.087.

The model for boys (Figure 1a), which for its adjustment did not require an arrowconnecting “family self-esteem domains” (fam-self) and “peer self-esteem domains” (peer-self), is simpler than the model for girls (Figure 1b). This is explained by the factor analysis’results presented in the section entitled Relationship between subscales, which clearly shows agreater relationship among all subscales for girls, whereas for boys the two factors examinedcorrespond to the two variables of our model.

It is to be noted that an adjusted model is not obtainable without the arrow connectingfamily social support and peer self-esteem. The effect of friends’ support on fam-self alsocomes out, but to a much lesser degree and does not necessitate the inclusion of this path inorder for the model to be adjusted.

The model also shows that for both boys and girls “peer-self” has more effect on globalself-worth and on depressive mood than does “fam-self”. Lastly, one notes that the directeffect of global self-worth has much less influence on depressive mood in boys (−0.094)than it does in girls (−0.434).

Discussion

What answers do our results suggest for the questions posed at the beginning? As far as anychange in self-esteem is concerned, it does not seem to evolve in any significant way duringearly adolescence, particularly with reference to such questions as “feeling satisfied with the


life one is leading” and “feeling satisfied with oneself”. In showing that self-esteemundergoes only very small changes, our results therefore confirm those of previous research(Wylie, 1979; Hirsch and Rapkin, 1987; Marton et al., 1988; Alsaker and Olweus, 1992,1993).

Although the above statement is true of global feelings of self-worth, it cannot be strictlyapplied to self-esteem in specific areas. We note with interest that changes do take placebetween the ages of 12 and 14 years in the areas of social and scholastic competence andappearance.

Changes in self-esteem in the area of social competence may well be the result of theincreasing importance of peer relationships at this stage in life and consequently increasedself-criticism if these relationships do not meet with the young person’s aspirations. It hasalready been noted that decrease in self-esteem with respect to appearance can be related tonegatively experienced physical development (Nolen-Hoeksemy, 1987; Simmons andBlyth, 1987; Bolognini et al., 1993; Harter, 1993).

As for self-esteem in the area of scholastic competence, American studies focusing onchildren’s attitude toward school suggest a general development-related decline acrossgrades from elementary school to secondary school (Harter, 1981; Eccles and Midgley,1991). However, our results point to a different conclusion, showing more positiveperception of scholastic ability at age 14 than at age 123. An explanation of this might bethat academic performance is experienced more negatively in the beginning stages of newmajor subjects and just after choosing new direction (after the first dividing of pupils intolevels or streams at the end of the fifth year of school) than it is later on after the youngpeople have been grouped in homogeneous streams for 2 or 3 years. They probably are likelyto feel more comfortable with their scholastic performance when working at a pace adaptedto their individual potential.

As for the question of gender differences, it is to be noted that here, as in the results ofmost other research in this field as well as in classic stereotypes, girls have lower self-esteemthan boys. On the other hand, girls do not rate themselves more highly than boys in theareas of conduct and social relations, in spite of actual gender differences in behaviour inthese areas, especially concerning obedience to or transgression of rules. Our data do notenable us to choose among the various hypotheses put forth to explain lower self-esteem ingirls such as: too high aspirations or too low a success rate according to James; the influenceof environment (recent research reveals that attributions are less favorable to girls than toboys); importance attached to appearance by girls during puberty; cultural values attributedto masculinity being transmitted through socialization (Bariaud and Bourcet, 1994).

More pertinently, our findings reveal that for girls the various domains of self-esteem areclustered in a single factor whereas for boys they separate into what Harter refers to as twodimensions, one corresponding to the self on which adults, parents and teachers putexpectations (i.e. the areas of school and behaviour), and the other corresponding to theself that meets up with peer judgement (appearance, social and athletic competences). Itwas thought that teenage subjects would show a differentiation over time among the variousdomains of competence and that consequently the correlation between subscales woulddecrease. Our findings show, first for girls and then for boys, that this is not the case sincethe same pattern of factors is seen at age 14 as at age 12.

3In Switzerland, in opposition to the American school system, pupils are streamed into at least three differentlevels as of age 11 and these levels determine future possibilities of vocational training or higher education.


Considering that early adolescence is a time of transition from one type of schoolcentered on close relationships and sociability to another type in which purposefulachievements reached through competition and rivalry take priority over establishing closefriendships, some authors suggest that such goal-directed achievements would stimulateboys more than they do girls (Hill and Lynch, 1983; Petersen, 1987; Roberts et al., 1990).That boys do, in fact, develop their identity in different ways than girls has been shown inthe works of Miller (1976), Chodorow (1978) and Gilligan (1982). These studies suggestthat from childhood on a boy’s identity is developed through a process of separation andautonomy whereas a girl’s development is one of becoming a person of relationships, a “selfwith other” (Gilligan, 1982; Jordan, 1991). From this it is natural to expect differentevaluations of self-esteem for each sex, with boys attaching more importance toachievements they can compare to those of their peers and girls rating themselves moreagainst personal criteria and ideals. Our findings confirm that early adolescent girls’ self-esteem is more global and less differentiated by domain while boys separate the scholasticand behavioral part of their experience from the social. The question remains open as towhether it is girls’ lower self-esteem that leads them to have this single dimension orwhether the fact that their self-esteem is more global is the cause of its being lower. Thesame question can, of course, be asked inversely for boys.

Our third question at the outset of the study concerned the relationship between self-esteem and mental health. Our findings point to an important role played by self-esteem inmental health; the correlation between the two confirms the idea. For both depressivemood and anxiety, which were the two areas of mental health we investigated, moreproblems were mentioned by girls than by boys at age 12 or age 14. This gender difference ischaracteristic at this age and contrasts with the situation noted in years just preceding thosewhere boys tended to have more problems than girls (Bettschart and Henny, 1978).However, the difference is to be interpreted with circumspection for we are looking atproblems of an internalized type, which occur more frequently anyway in girls than in boys.In contrast, boys’ problems tend to be ones of behaviour and these could not be evaluatedwithin the framework of the present study, which gathered information by means of self-report questionnaires.

Our final question referred to Harter’s hypothesis of a mediating role of social supportbetween self-esteem and mental health. Several studies have confirmed the idea thatperception of parental support in the form of help given, love and respect shown, asperceived by the young person, is associated with a positive self-image whereas perceivedabsence or lack of support is associated with a negative image (Harter, 1989; Barber et al.,1992; Kellerhals et al., 1992; Fontaine, 1993). The model we tested, although notcorresponding exactly to Harter’s, tends to be more widely accepted as it considers self-esteem to be an effect of the feeling of being loved and appreciated by one’s family circleand also follows in the line of Cooley mentioned above. The difference between the twomodels is perhaps to be explained by the type of data used. It might be fruitful for the twohypotheses to be retested with more objective data and not with data obtained from self-report questionnaires as is the case in the present study. When social support is measured bya self-report questionnaire, the answers risk being influenced by the subject’s mood.

In conclusion, our study follows in the line of numerous works which have looked at self-esteem. It has the advantage of examining different hypotheses put forward by otherresearchers, these hypotheses being that there is very little change over time in self-esteemduring early adolescence, that there are recognizable differences between girls and boys, that


self-esteem is related to mental health, especially to depressive mood, and that perceivedsocial support has an important effect on self-esteem. Because of the type of variables weused, we were not able to confirm Harter’s model which deems social support to be afunction of performance. What our model does do, on the other hand, is underscore the factthat girls’ self-esteem is more global and less differentiated by domain while boys separatethe scholastic and behavioral part of their experience from the social, and that global self-esteem (what Harter calls “feeling of self-worth”) has more influence on the level ofdepressive mood in girls than in boys. Future research will be needed to support thosefindings.

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AppendixOperational definition of the mental health variables

Anxiety.I was disturbed because of being nervousI felt anxious, preoccupiedI had suicide thoughts


Sleep disturbances.I had difficulty in falling asleepI awaked during the nightI had nightmares

Depressed mood.I had the impression of being boredI was not sure of myselfI felt tiredI felt stressedI had no energyI felt depressed

Scale0— — —0— — —0— — —0— — —01 2 3 4 5

These three variables were created on the basis of a factorial analysis. Score valuescorrespond to the mean of the sum of the items’ scores.

self-esteem and mental health in early adolescence: development and gender differences

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