Daily Hassles, Self-Esteem, and Depressive Symptoms in African American Women Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

The present cross-sectional study was aimed at investigating the mediating role of self-esteem on the relation between daily hassles and depressive symptoms among traumatized women. The sample, which was drawn from a large public, inner city healthcare system, consisted of 154 low-income African American women with a mean age of 36.66 (SD = 11.43) with a recent history of both one or more suicide attempt(s) and exposure to interpersonal violence in the form of intimate partner violence (IPV). A series of scales were administered to the women including the Survey of Recent Life Events (SRLE), Beck Self-Esteem Scales (BSES), and Beck Depression Inventory - II (BDI-II). Mplus v8.8 was used to estimate the total, direct, and indirect effects simultaneously for other type of self-esteem (views of self [self-esteem: self], perceptions of others' views of them [self-esteem: other]). As predicted, daily hassles were associated positively and significantly with depressive symptoms and negatively and significantly with both forms of self-esteem. In addition, lower levels of self-esteem: self, but not self-esteem: other, was associated positively and significantly with depressive symptoms. Partial support was obtained for the mediational hypothesis; self-esteem according to one's self-evaluation (self-esteem: self), but not projected evaluations of others (self-esteem: other), mediated the daily hassles-depressive symptoms link. Thus, depressive symptoms in African American female suicide attempters exposed to IPV appear to vary based on how these women appraise their own self-worth in the context of managing daily stressors and hassles.