A metacognitive model of self esteem.
BACKGROUND In the current study, we aimed to test a metacognitive model of self esteem grounded in the Self Regulatory Executive Function model of psychopathology. METHOD A convenience sample of 346 community participants were recruited and completed a battery of online questionnaires that measured self esteem, self criticism, self critical rumination, metacognitions about self critical rumination, generic metacognitions and negative affect. Initially, we tested a series of hypotheses to establish the relationships between the study variables. We then conducted a path analysis to test a metacognitive model of self esteem, where the process of self critical rumination and its associated metacognitive beliefs was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between affect and self esteem. RESULTS Self critical rumination and its associated negative metacognitions, levels of depression and self criticism independently predicted self esteem. However, the multicollinearity between rumination and metacognitions suggests that one might not exist without the other. Additionally, a path analysis revealed that the study data was a very good fit to the proposed metacognitive model of self esteem. CONCLUSION The metacognitive model of self esteem presented in this paper may be used to generate novel interventions to improve self esteem and decrease self critical rumination.
Journal of affective disorders