title: Bad Roots to Grow: Deficient Implicit Self-Evaluations in Chronic Depression With an Early Onset.
abstract: Implicit self-esteem, which is based on associative learning processes, is considered to be constituted earlier in life than explicit, verbalized self-esteem. While depressed individuals report negative explicit self-esteem, research has predominantly demonstrated equivalent levels of implicit self-esteem of depressed and healthy individuals. We further illuminate this finding by theorizing and empirically demonstrating that chronically depressed individuals show particularly low levels of implicit self-esteem when depression had an early onset.
  
  
  
  We applied measures of implicit (name-letter test) and explicit (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) self-esteem in chronically depressed patients with an early onset (N = 17), a late onset (N = 13), and an episodic depression (N = 29).
  
  
  
  As expected, patients with an early onset showed lower implicit self-esteem than the 2 other groups.
  
  
  
  Implicit self-esteem may function as a marker of how deeply negative self-views are internalized. Furthermore, the distinction between early and late onset of chronic depression seems to be valuable for classification and potentially treatment of unipolar depression.
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences, Münster.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Randenborgh
authors.affiliation: EOS-Clinic for Psychotherapy.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pawelzik
authors.affiliation: University of Osnabrück.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quirin
authors.affiliation: University of Osnabrück.
authors.forename: Julius
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kuhl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012647:Self-Assessment
keywords: chronic depression; depression; early onset; implicit self-esteem