Examining Negative Emotional Reactivity and State Self-esteem as Mediators of the Relationship Between Core...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognised depression as one of the leading causes of illness and disability across the world. Young adults are highly susceptible to depression, as this age group stands at a critical junction of developmental transitions and increased psychosocial demands. Existing research indicates the importance of dispositional factors like self-evaluation mechanisms in relation to depression, but little attention has been paid to contextual factors like self-esteem and emotional reactivity and how the dispositional and contextual factors interact with each other to produce the risk of depression in young adults.

The study aims to investigate core self-evaluation (CSE), state self-esteem (SSE) and negative emotional reactivity (ER-N) as predictors of depressive symptoms. Additionally, it aims to assess the role of SSE and ER-N as mediators in the relationship between CSE and depressive symptoms.

438 participants between 18 and 25 years of age were assessed. The strength and direction of the relationships among CSE, SSE, ER-N and depressive symptoms were examined by the Pearson correlation coefficient. Furthermore, a mediation analysis was run to assess the role of negative emotion regulation (ER-N) and self-esteem in the relationship between CSE (independent variable) and depressive symptoms (dependent variable).

A positive association was found between CSE and SSE, while on the other hand CSE and SSE both were negatively correlated with ER-N and depressive symptoms. This is despite the fact that ER-N significantly associates positively with depressive symptoms. Further, higher CSE exhibits fewer depressive symptoms, both directly and indirectly. Among SSE and ER-N as mediators, SSC emerged as a stronger mediator in the relationship.

Overall, the study highlights that positive CSE is likely to promote self-esteem in contextual situations and is also likely to manage emotional reactivity of a negative nature. The findings indicate that higher CSE reduces depression primarily by strengthening self-esteem and minimising negative emotional reactivity.