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A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Evaluating the link between self-esteem and temperament in Mexican origin early adolescents
Richard W Robins1, M Brent Donnellan, Keith F Widaman
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA. rwrobins@ucdavis.edu
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The present study examined the relation between self-esteem and temperament in a sample of 646 Mexican-American early adolescents (mean age=10.4). Findings show that (a) early adolescents with high self-esteem exhibit higher levels of Effortful Control but, contrary to findings in adult samples, do not differ from low self-esteem adolescents in Negative Affectivity; (b) low self-esteem is associated with Depression; and (c) low self-esteem is associated with Aggression. These findings replicated for boys and girls, two measures of self-esteem, and child and mother reports of temperament. The present study contributes to an emerging understanding of the link between self-esteem and temperament, and provides much needed data on the nature of self-esteem in ethnic minority populations.
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