Self-esteem, depressive symptoms and risky health behaviors among adolescents and their parents: Inter-relationships and temporal effects

Background. Few empirical investigations have explored a possible temporal link between psychological problems and the development of risky behaviors in adolescents and their parents. This study aims to test a model that examined the relationship of self-reports of self-esteem and depressive symptoms between adolescents and their parents, and further assesses their impacts on future risky health behaviors of adolescents (e.g., adolescent sex, smoking, and drinking).

Methods. We included 3,412 parents and their adolescent children who participated in six waves of a longitudinal survey of Taiwan Youth Project (TYP). Of particular attention has been paid to adolescents who had no risky health behaviors before age 15. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyzed data on the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale, a Depressive Symptom Checklist, and several measures of subsequent risky health behaviors.

Results. The data fit the model adequately (CFI=0.957, RMSEA=0.034, TLI=0.952). Results from SEM showed that parental self-esteem affected self-esteem of their adolescent children (β=0.12, p<0.001) as parental depressive symptoms contributed to the advancement of more severe depressive symptoms (β=0.19, p<0.001) and deteriorated self-esteem (β=-0.07, p<0.001) of their adolescent children. In addition, a decreased level of self-esteem, rather than depressive symptoms, of adolescents was significantly predictive of involvements in risky health behaviors measured 3 years later (β=-0.05, p<0.05).

Conclusions. These findings suggest that parental depressive symptoms and self-esteem have significant effects on depressive symptoms and self-esteem of adolescent children, both of which demonstrated temporal relationships with future risky health behaviors of adolescents. Future research to incorporate a broader, family context into adolescent health promotion interventions is recommended.