Questioning the vulnerability model: Prospective associations between low self-esteem and subsequent degree of depression may be spurious

Resumen

According to the vulnerability model, low self-esteem makes people more prone to become depressed. Support for the vulnerability model comes almost exclusive from analyses with cross-lagged panel models, shoving a negative effect of initial self-esteem on subsequent degree of depression when adjusting for initial degree of depression. However, it is well known that such adjusted effects are susceptible to the influence of regression toward the mean. In the present study, we analyzed data from four waves of measurements in five different samples (total N = 2703), employing two different cross-lagged panel models and two different latent change score models. Results suggested that high initial self-esteem was predictive both of a decrease and an increase in degree of depression between measurements and that an increase in self-esteem between measurements was predictive of a concurrent decrease in degree of depression. Due to the incongruent results, any causal effect of self-esteem on degree of depression, as well as the vulnerability model, seems far from established. Instead, we propose, tentatively, that prospective associations between self-esteem and degree of depression may be due to a combination of spurious reasons, such as less than perfect reliability in measurements, regression toward the mean, and influence of some confounding common state factor, e.g. positive/negative affect.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Sorjonen, K., Nilsonne, G., Ingre, M., & Melin, B. (2022). Questioning the vulnerability model: Prospective associations between low self-esteem and subsequent degree of depression may be spurious. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.003