In plain language
Low self-esteem in the teenage years is usually treated as a warning sign: it predicts depression, suicide attempts, and weaker social support later on. The standard response has been to try to boost young people’s self-esteem directly, but that approach can backfire, sometimes encouraging narcissism or making teens avoid challenges that might threaten their positive self-image. This study asked a different question: does low self-esteem always damage mental health, or does the damage depend on how a young person relates to their own self-critical thoughts?
The researchers followed 2,448 Australian adolescents from Grade 9 to Grade 10, measuring their self-esteem, their self-compassion (treating oneself kindly, seeing struggles as part of being human, and holding painful feelings in mindful awareness), and their mental health a year apart. As predicted by a contextual behavioural model, self-compassion changed what low self-esteem did. Among teens low in self-compassion, low self-esteem predicted significant declines in mental health over the following year. Among teens high in self-compassion, low self-esteem had little effect on their future mental health.
This was the first longitudinal study to test self-esteem, self-compassion, and their interaction as predictors of changing mental health in young people. The findings suggest that a thought like “I am worthless” need not be toxic in itself — its impact depends on the context in which it occurs. Teaching adolescents self-compassion may reduce their need for high self-esteem in situations that trigger self-doubt, offering schools and clinicians a promising alternative to self-esteem boosting programs.
Key findings
- In 2,448 Australian adolescents tracked from Grade 9 to Grade 10, self-esteem and self-compassion each had independent longitudinal effects on changes in mental health.
- Self-compassion significantly moderated the effect of self-esteem: the link between low self-esteem and declining mental health was much stronger among teens low in self-compassion.
- Among adolescents high in self-compassion, low self-esteem had little effect on future mental health, indicating a potent buffering effect.
- The buffering interaction remained significant after controlling for socioeconomic status, parents’ marital status, and gender.
- The protective effect of self-compassion worked the same way for boys and girls (the three-way interaction with gender was not significant), although boys reported higher average mental health than girls.
- Results support fostering self-compassion in general adolescent populations as an alternative to interventions that try to directly boost self-esteem.
How to cite
APA
Marshall, S. L., Parker, P. D., Ciarrochi, J., Sahdra, B., Jackson, C. J., & Heaven, P. C. L. (2015). Self-compassion protects against the negative effects of low self-esteem: A longitudinal study in a large adolescent sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 74, 116–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.013
BibTeX
@article{marshall2015selfcompassion,
author = {Marshall, Sarah L. and Parker, Phillip D. and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Sahdra, Baljinder and Jackson, Chris J. and Heaven, Patrick C. L.},
title = {Self-compassion protects against the negative effects of low self-esteem: A longitudinal study in a large adolescent sample},
journal = {Personality and Individual Differences},
year = {2015},
volume = {74},
pages = {116--121},
doi = {10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.013}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.