Depression and low self-esteem often seem intertwined, with many assuming that one fuels the other.
But a new study challenges this common view, suggesting that the day-to-day and even year-to-year relationship between these two factors may be weaker and more complex than previously believed.
The research found only small and inconsistent evidence that changes in self-esteem predict future changes in depressive symptoms, or vice versa.
This challenges long-held assumptions that low self-esteem is a strong vulnerability factor leading to depression or that depression leaves a lasting “scar” on self-esteem.
Depressive symptoms — such as persistent sadness, sticky thinking, loss of interest in activities, and low energy — affect millions worldwide and are a major contributor to poor mental health, physical illness, and economic costs.
Self-esteem, meanwhile, refers to how much a person values themselves and their worth.
Previous research has shown these constructs are strongly related, but exactly how they affect one another over time has remained unclear.
Haehner’s team analyzed data from over 6,000 participants across three separate studies, each measuring self-esteem and depressive symptoms at different intervals: daily, monthly, and yearly.
This unique design allowed the researchers to examine the subtle timing and direction of their relationship, something few prior studies had done.
Participants rated their symptoms and self-esteem multiple times, sometimes as often as 14 times within two weeks, or yearly for over a decade.
Using sophisticated continuous time dynamic models, the researchers tested whether changes in one construct predicted changes in the other over different time scales.
Their findings revealed that while depressive symptoms and self-esteem were strongly correlated at any single time point, the cross-predictive effects – where one would influence future changes in the other – were generally small and often not statistically significant.
In the daily and monthly data, neither self-esteem nor depressive symptoms consistently predicted changes in the other.
Only in the yearly data was there some evidence that higher depressive symptoms could lead to a modest decrease in self-esteem over time, an effect sometimes called the “scar” effect.
However, even this effect was small and less robust than previous studies suggested.
The researchers also looked at the role of negative life events — such as job loss, divorce, or daily hassles — to see if these experiences might trigger changes in self-esteem and depression and influence their interplay.
They found that both self-esteem and depressive symptoms reacted similarly to negative events, dipping or rising soon after, but then returning toward their previous levels.
Importantly, these event-related changes did not appear to drive strong reciprocal effects between self-esteem and depressive symptoms.
These findings matter because they question a key assumption in psychological theory: that self-esteem and depression are deeply causal to each other over time.
Instead, Haehner and colleagues suggest the two may be better understood as closely related but distinct “sibling” constructs that often move together but don’t strongly predict one another’s future changes.
This means interventions aiming solely to boost self-esteem in hopes of preventing depression may need to reconsider their approach.
The study’s results also highlight the importance of considering the timing of psychological processes.
Effects that might appear strong over several years may not manifest over days or months, and vice versa.
By using continuous time models and data collected at multiple time scales, this research advances the methodology in mental health studies and encourages future work to specify the temporal nature of psychological dynamics more precisely.
However, the authors caution that their findings mainly apply to the general population, as most participants had relatively low levels of depressive symptoms.
The dynamics might differ in clinical populations with diagnosed depression.
Additionally, the measures relied on self-report scales, which may blur distinctions between self-esteem and depressive symptoms.
Further research, especially in clinical samples and with more nuanced measures, is needed to unpack how these important aspects of mental health influence each other over time.
Citation
Haehner, P., Driver, C. C., Hopwood, C. J., Luhmann, M., Fliedner, K., & Bleidorn, W. (2025). The dynamics of self-esteem and depressive symptoms across days, months, and years. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 128(4), 930–948. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000542
