Abstract
Although previous research has found a strong association between psychological needs frustration and adolescent depressive symptoms, the extent to which the three specific basic psychological needs frustration—autonomy, relatedness, and competence need frustration—are associated with adolescent depressive symptoms has not been clearly defined. Additionally, the protective factors that alleviate the associations between these needs frustrations and adolescent depressive symptoms remain poorly understood. Based on the basic psychological needs theory and the need-satisfaction framework of self-esteem, we investigated the associations between these needs frustrations and adolescent depressive symptoms, and then compared the relative magnitude of these associations. Furthermore, we explored the role of self-esteem in buffering these associations. A survey comprising measures for basic psychological needs frustration, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms was conducted with a cross-sectional sample of 3161 adolescents (mean age = 13.81, SD = 1.52; 49.60% were male). The results revealed that these needs frustrations are significantly and positively associated with adolescent depressive symptoms; specifically, autonomy need frustration was found to have the strongest association with adolescent depressive symptoms, followed by relatedness need frustration. Moreover, they also showed that the associations between these needs frustrations and adolescent depressive symptoms weaken as self-esteem levels increase. These results offer insights useful for developing strategies for the prevention of and interventions related to depressive symptoms in adolescents.
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Data availability
The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the figshare repository, [10.6084/m9.figshare.23787318].
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This research was funded by the fundamental research funds for the central university, grant number SWU1909106; the Chongqing municipal education commission, grant number 22skgh595; and Chongqing education science, grant number k22yg329361. We are grateful to all people who have contribution to this research.
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Xin Liu and Jinyi Zeng conceived and designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, and wrote the paper. Yaoyao Zhang and Shuai Chen performed the statistical analysis and wrote the paper. Xin Liu, and Fang Ran performed the statistical analysis and reviewed the manuscript. Yanling Liu reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors have approved the final manuscript for submission.
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Liu, X., Zeng, J., Zhang, Y. et al. Which psychological needs frustration has the strongest association with adolescent depressive symptoms? The protective role of self-esteem. Curr Psychol 43, 11579–11592 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05263-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05263-z