The Relationship Between Self-esteem and Psychological StresS Process

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation among self-esteem, appraisal (amount of stressful experience, degree of stressfulness and controllability), coping and psychological stress responses in a sample of 190 university students. Product-moment correlation cofficients were calculated between self-esteem and appraisal, between self-esteem and coping strategies, between self-esteem and psycholological stress responses. Self-esteem was negatively correlated with amount of stressful experiences, Escape-Avoidance coping, Accepting Responsibility coping and psychological stress responses. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis revealed that self-esteem, Escape-Avoidance coping and Positive reappraisal coping influenced the psychological stress responses.
These results suggest that students with low self-esteem were tend to appraise daily events as more stressful, to use Escape-Avoidance coping towards stressor more frequently and to show more psychological stess responses.