Predicting self-esteem in psychiatric outpatients

Abstract

Even if low self-esteem is one of the formal diagnostic criteria for depression, negative self-evaluation has repeatedly been suggested as a feature of most psychiatric disorders, in addition to a range of psychosocial problems. The present study investigated predictors of self-esteem in a one-year clinic cohort of psychiatric outpatients (n = 338). At intake, patients completed questionnaires measuring self-esteem, psychological distress, and interpersonal problems, and were also diagnosed according to ICD-10. Level of psychological distress and interpersonal problems predicted more of the variance in self-esteem than did psychiatric diagnosis. In multivariate analyses, the effect of psychological distress and interpersonal problems on self-esteem was more robust for adjustment for diagnoses than vice versa. When psychological distress and interpersonal problems were controlled for, only affective disorders (pure and comorbid) predicted lower levels of self-esteem on a statistically significant level. Implications of the findings for clinical work and future research are pointed out.