title: The Longitudinal Interplay of Adolescents' Self-Esteem and Body Image: A Conditional Autoregressive Latent Trajectory Analysis.
abstract: Self-esteem and body image are central to coping successfully with the developmental challenges of adolescence. However, the current knowledge surrounding self-esteem and body image is fraught with controversy. This study attempts to clarify some of them by addressing three questions: (1) Are the intraindividual developmental trajectories of self-esteem and body image stable across adolescence? (2) What is the direction of the relations between body image and self-esteem over time? (3) What is the role of gender, ethnicity, and pubertal development on those trajectories? This study relies on Autoregressive Latent Trajectory analyses based on data from a 4-year, 6-wave, prospective longitudinal study of 1,001 adolescents. Self-esteem and body image levels remained high and stable over time, although body image levels also tended to increase slightly. The results show that levels of self-esteem were positively influenced by levels of body image. However, these effects remained small and most of the observed associations were cross-sectional. Finally, the effects of pubertal development on body image and self-esteem levels were mostly limited to non-Caucasian females who appeared to benefit from more advanced pubertal development. Conversely, Caucasian females presented the lowest self-esteem and body image levels of all, although for them more advanced pubertal development levels were associated with a slight rise in body image over time.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Sherbrooke and Center for Educational Research (University of Western Sydney).
authors.forename: Alexandre J S
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Morin
authors.affiliation: b Institute of Movement Sciences Etienne-Jules Marey (UMR 6233), University of Aix-Marseille II.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maïano
authors.affiliation: c Department of Education , University of Oxford and Center for Educational Research (University of Western Sydney).
authors.forename: Herbert W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Marsh
authors.affiliation: d School Environment Research Group, School of Psychoeducation, University of Montreal.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janosz
authors.affiliation: e Department of Education , University of Oxford.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nagengast