RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DEPRESSION, SELF-ESTEEM, AND SELF-SILENCING BEHAVIOR

The Silencing the Self Scale (STSS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BD I), and the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI) were adminis tered to 90 male and 91 female participants in order to determine gend er differences on the STSS and to establish the relationship between s elf-silencing, depression, and self-esteem. Contrary to our hypotheses , men's scores on the STSS were significantly higher than women's scor es, and scores on the BDI and the MSEI showed no significant gender di fferences. Self-silencing was significantly related to depression at l ow levels of self-esteem but not at average or high levels, suggesting that a high score on the STSS is not necessarily reflective of the se lf-silencing schema proposed by Dana lack.