title: The Development of Self-Criticism and Dependency in Early Adolescence and Their Role in the Development of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms.
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.
authors.affiliation: McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada daniel.kopala-sibley@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Daniel C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Kopala-Sibley
authors.affiliation: McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Zuroff
authors.affiliation: University of Denver, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Hankin
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: John R Z
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Abela
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment
keywords: anxiety; dependency; depression; personality development; self-criticism