Abstract
Self-esteem as measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory [Coopersmith, S. (1967),The Antecedents of Self-Esteem, Freeman, San Francisco] and ego development as measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test [Loevinger, J., and Wessler, R. (1970),Measuring Ego Development, Vol. I, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco] were evaluated in three groups of early adolescents: diabetic patients, nonpsychotic psychiatric patients, and a nonpatient group of high-school students. We found that low levels of ego development were associated with low levels of global and domain-specific self-esteem in all three subject groups. Levels of self-esteem among diabetic patients were not significantly different from those of nonpatients. While psychiatric patients had significantly lower self-esteem levels than the other groups, this difference was accounted for by preconformists, i.e., those at the lowest stages of ego development. Psychiatric patients reaching higher ego levels showed self-esteem levels indistinguishable from those of the diabetics and nonpatients.
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This study was supported by the youth development project of the Joslin DRTC (NIH AM20530-01), a grant from the Joslin Diabetes Center (NIH-BRSG), and NIH Grant AM27845. The authors thank John Houlihan, M.A., for statistical and computer consultations and Jennifer Johnson for data analyses.
Received M.D. from The University of Chicago. Currently studying psychosocial consequences of diabetes mellitus.
Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (Psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.
Received Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.
Received Dipl. Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (Clinical Psychology). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.
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Jacobson, A.M., Hauser, S.T., Powers, S. et al. The influences of chronic illness and ego development on self-esteem in diabetic and psychiatric adolescent patients. J Youth Adolescence 13, 489–507 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02088595
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02088595