SELF-ESTEEM AND VULNERABILITY TO DEPRESSION - THE CONCURRENT VALIDITYOF INTERVIEW AND QUESTIONNAIRE MEASURES

In a cross-sectional study of 146 women. we examined the association o f M. Rosenberg's (1965) self-esteem questionnaire and the Self-Evaluat ion and Social Support Instrument (SESS), an interview measure of self -esteem with two major risk factors for depression-early adversity and negativity in current close relationships. Although both measures wer e related to the risk factors, only the SESS accounted for unique vari ance when the two measures were considered together and current depres sion was controlled. The results suggest that the reason the SESS has previously been more effective in predicting depression (G. W. Brown, B. Andrews, T. O. Harris, Z. Adler. & L. Bridge, 1986) is because it t aps specific areas of self-dissatisfaction in real-life situations and is therefore less vulnerable to mood-state effects than the more glob al questionnaire measure.