Causal relationship of self-esteem with depression and anger among adolescents of religious minorities in Pakistan

Pages: 961-964
Shahid Iqbal (Department of Psychology, Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan)
Zaeema Riaz and Riaz Ahmad (Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Karachi, Gulistan-e-Jahuar, Karachi, Pakistan)
Nadia Ayub (Department of Business Psychology, Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan)

The current study evaluated the causal relationship of self-esteem with depression and anger among religious minority adolescents (Christians and Hindus) of Pakistan. Based on preceding literature, it was hypothesized that self-esteem would predict depression and anger in religious minority adolescents. In the current study, 160 religious minority adolescents (i.e. 76 Christians and 84 Hindus) participated. The age of the participants ranged from 11 years to 19 years with the mean age of 15.49 years. All participants of the study belonged to middle socioeconomic class and their educational level ranged from 6th to 13th grade. Research measures employed were: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), Reynolds Adolescents Depression Scale, 2nd Ed (Reynolds, 2002) and Adolescents Anger Rating Scale (Burney, 2001). Through Linear Regression Analysis, self-esteem was found to be a statistically significant predictor of depression and anger in religious minority adolescents.