The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effects of self-esteem on the relationships between stress and somatization. It will be helped not only to understand the physical and emotional difficulties of adolescents but also to reduce their...
The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effects of self-esteem on the relationships between stress and somatization. It will be helped not only to understand the physical and emotional difficulties of adolescents but also to reduce their stress, increase self-esteem that is the inner tendency to cope actively with stress and find a way to undergo somatization less. 420 students(188 males, 232 females) in the 1st and 2nd grade of high schools in Incheon were participated. They were assessed by Life Stress Scale, Adolescent Symptom Checklist(ASC) and Self-Esteem Scale. It was analyzed by the program SPSS WIN 15.0.
The main results of this study are as follow.
First, the analysis indicated significantly low positive correlation between stress and somatization, which means the higher stress is, the more somatization is; in other words, the lower stress is, the less somatization is. In stress level, female students have experienced more than male strudents, and also in somatization, females' stress has influenced to somatization more than males'.
Second, it showed significantly low negative correlation between stress and self-esteem, which means the higher stress is, the lower self-esteem is: that is, the lower stress is, the higher self-esteem is. In this study, males' self-esteem is higher than females'.
Third, it showed significantly low negative correlation between self-esteem and somatization, which means the higher self-esteem is, the lower somatization is; namely, the lower self-esteem is, the higher somatization is.
Fourth, self-esteem was proved to mediate partially the relationships between adolescents' stress and somatization. That is, stress influences on somatization directly and also, stress lowers self-esteem that leads to somatization subsequently.
Lastly, I discussed the indication of this study and presented the suggestions for the significance and the limit of this study and follow-up study.
Key words : adolescents, stress, somatization, self-esteem, mediating effects.