A TRANSACTIONAL MODEL OF ADOLESCENT SELF-ESTEEM

Adolescents (51 boys, 53 girls), 11 To 15 years old, and their mothers participated in a study to test a transactional model of self-esteem (TMS). The TMS proposes that self-esteem results from complex transact ions among individual characteristics, cognitions, and behaviors of ad olescents and parents. Structural equation models were used to examine direct and indirect effects of mothers' depressive symptoms and adole scent behavior problems on perceptions of each other, behaviors toward each other, and adolescent self-esteem. Measures included self-report s and ratings by teachers and observers. As hypothesized, there were d irect paths to global self-esteem from adolescents' specific self-perc eptions and mothers' positive communications, whereas paths from mater nal depressive symptoms and adolescent behavior problems to self-estee m were indirect, mediated by mothers' perceptions and behaviors.