Previous studies found not only stress but also a decrease in self-esteem to precede the formation of delusions.
First sex was associated with a decrease in self-esteem, but only among girls who were younger than the average age and not in a romantic relationship.
She concedes this point but insists that the difference now is that the disconnect between the external self and the "real self" is so great that "you're seeing an increase in narcissism accompanied by a decrease in self-esteem".
As evidence for causal conclusions has not been provided yet, the present study assessed the direct impact of social stress on paranoid beliefs using an experimental design and considered a decrease in self-esteem as a mediator and the proneness to psychosis and paranoia as moderators of the effect.
As we hypothesized, symptoms of social phobia at age 15 led to a decrease in self-esteem among boys but not among girls, and symptoms of depression at 15 led to a decrease in self-esteem among girls but not among boys.
The third and fourth studies established the link between an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in self-control.
Decrease in self-esteem plays a decisive role in the association between social phobia and depression.
Decrease in self-esteem is a possible indicator of psychosocial deterioration due to social phobia leading to subsequent depression, or, due to depression leading to subsequent social phobia.
Decrease in self-esteem was a perfect mediator for the association between symptoms of social phobia and subsequent symptoms of depression among boys, and a partial mediator for the association between symptoms of depression and later symptoms of social phobia among girls.
Thus decrease in self-esteem might be a mediating factor between earlier social phobia and subsequent depression, or between earlier depression and subsequent social phobia.
Although decrease in self-esteem emerged only as a partial mediator between symptoms of depression and subsequent symptoms of social phobia among girls, this finding is noteworthy.
