Self-esteem and coping strategies in child molesters

This study assessed the social self-esteem and the coping styles of child m olesters, nonsex offenders, and nonoffenders. Child molesters were found to have lower self-esteem than the other participants, and they more typicall y made use of emotion-focused (i.e., ineffective) coping strategies. A comb ination of low self-esteem and poor coping was found to predict being a chi ld molester although the causal pathway was somewhat obscure and appeared t o involve a complex feedback loop. The results are discussed in terms of th eir theoretical and treatment implications.