Developing Self Instead of Depression: Mediating Paths to Emerging Adults’ Mental Health

Abstract

Previous studies on emerging adults have shown that prolonged distress related to the perceived discrepancy between ideal and current self reflects less adaptive emotional regulation and might lead to elevated depressiveness. Moreover, confidence in their ability to mitigate this discrepancy is considered an important mediator. We wondered if differentiation of self (a measure of self’s maturity, i.e., capability to distinguish between intellectual and emotional processes behind personal experiences) underlies this experience of discrepancy. Our research aimed to explore how self-differentiation could predict depressiveness if mediated through discrepancy distress, anxiety, and confidence to change. Participants were 364 emerging adults (18.7% male) aged 18 30 (M = 21.44, SD = 2.36). The level of self-differentiation (SD) was obtained via Differentiation of the Self Inventory (46 items, Likert 1-6), while depression (DEP) and anxiety (ANX) scores came from Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (42 items, Likert 0-3). Participants also completed the Self Discrepancies Scale, estimating (Likert 1-7) how big they find the discrepancies between their ideal and current self, how much distress this causes (DIS) them, and how confident they feel to achieve the aforementioned ideal (CONF). We conducted the Hayes PROCESS analysis. The results showed that variables fit best model 81. Two simple and sequential mediations were confirmed: 1. SD – ANX – DEP (ab = -.07, SE =.01, CI [-.09, -.05]); 2. SD – CONF – DEP (ef = -.01, SE = .00, CI [-.02, -.00]); 3. SD – DIS – ANX – DEP (cgb = -.01, SE = .00, CI [-.02, -.00]); 4. SD – DIS – CONF – DEP (chf = -.01, SE = .00, CI [-.02, -.01]). The only insignificant effect was the one between distress and depression; the whole model explained more than half of depression variance (R2 = 0.57, p < .00). These results show that better self-differentiation predicts lower levels of depressiveness (and vice versa) directly and through different mediation paths. Moreover, distress caused by the distance from the ideal self, also predicted by lower self-differentiation, seems to be a critical point that might lead to depressiveness through anxiety or crisis resolution through confidence in the ability to change. We might also consider therapeutic implications for addressing depressiveness in emerging adulthood, such as increasing the aforementioned confidence and acknowledging potential depressiveness underlying the observed anxiety.