The Development of Self-Criticism and Dependency in Early Adolescence and Their Role in the Development of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms. (August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kopala-Sibley, Daniel C.; Zuroff, David C.; Hankin, Benjamin L.; Abela, John R. Z.
• Is Part Of: Personality & social psychology bulletin. Volume 41:Number 8(2015:Aug.)
• Page Start: 1094
• Page End: 1109
• Publication Date: 2015-08
• Subjects: self-criticism -- dependency -- personality development -- depression -- anxiety; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167215590985
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-1672

Abstract

According to Blatt and others (e.g., A. T. Beck), self-definition, or one's sense of self, and one's sense of relatedness to others represent core lifespan developmental tasks. This study examined the role of events pertaining to self-definition or relatedness in the development of personality traits from each domain (self-criticism and dependency), and their relationship to the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Two hundred seventy-six early adolescents completed a measure of self-criticism and dependency at baseline and again 24 months later, along with measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Every 3 months, participants completed a measure of life events, which were coded as self-definitional or relatedness oriented (80% rater agreement, kappa = .70). Structural equation models showed that self-definitional events predicted increases in self-criticism, which in turn predicted increases in depressive symptoms, whereas relatedness events predicted increases in dependency, although dependency was unrelated to change in symptoms.