Why do people become depressed? Hundreds of psychologists have tried to answer this question. Decades of research have shown that negative events like a job loss or a separation and self-esteem problems are important risk factors of depression. Because self-esteem often drops after negative events, people who experience them may be at particular risk for becoming depressed. Conversely, depression can also damage people’s self-esteem. Suffering from depression can thus further decrease self-esteem, creating a vicious cycle!
To disrupt this cycle, it is essential to know whether these processes happen over days, months, or years. For example, if you experienced a negative event, should you seek help several days later to prevent mental health problems, or wait a few months? Negative events could have an immediate effect on your self-esteem or a delayed effect if time to reflect and process them is needed before they are incorporated into self-esteem, and the vicious cycle between self-esteem and depression unfolds.
### Days, Months, or Years Later? Maybe Never?!
We examined data from three samples involving over 6,200 participants that assessed self-esteem and depression either every day, every month, or every year following a negative event. Surprisingly, self-esteem problems did not predict depressive symptoms several days, months, or years later. Nor did depressive symptoms predict self-esteem problems several days, months, or years later. These results contradict previous research findings.
### Statistics and Other Problems
How can these diverging findings be explained? The answer lies in the statistical methods that researchers use to analyze their data, differences between people in reactions to negative events, and differences in how researchers assess self-esteem and depression.
First, previous research showing that drops in self-esteem can cause depression has frequently used a statistical approach that can lead to spurious findings. This approach—called Cross-Lagged Panel Model—can result in an unwanted mix of effects that occur between people (if you are more depressed than someone else, you likely have a lower self-esteem than the other person) and within people (if you become more depressed over time than your self-esteem decreases). Newer methods that have solved this issue find no effects from self-esteem drops on depression. Thus, good news: self-esteem decreases may in fact not be among the most important risk factors for depression.
Second, people differ in how they react to negative life events. For example, people who usually have high self-esteem show stronger links between self-esteem and depression. The way you perceive negative events could be another thing explaining differences in these links.
Third, researchers use different approaches to assess people’s self-esteem and depression. We asked participants to rate statements such as “I have a high self-esteem,” or “I frequently experience negative emotions” to measure their self-esteem and depressive symptoms. Although self-esteem decreases did not predict depression **several days, months, or years later**, self-esteem and depression were very highly related to each other on the **same day, month, or year**. This suggests that asking people about their self-esteem and depression might be like asking people about their favorite meal and their favorite food. Many people will give the same answer to the questions. Depression and self-esteem might be two sides of the same coin, at least in our participants’ minds.
### The Uncompleted Quest
Despite decades of research, psychologists’ quest to understand the causes of depression is far from complete. Together with other recent research, our study suggests that the vicious cycle between self-esteem and depression may be less vicious than previously thought. Self-esteem and depression are strongly related to each other but decreases in self-esteem may not necessarily lead to depression—whether over several days, months, or years. But other things like negative events do. Thus, as a next step, research might usefully examine **when** these events lead to depression—days, months, or years later?
**For Further Reading**
Haehner, P., Driver, C. C., Hopwood, C. J., Luhmann, M., Fliedner, K., & Bleidorn, W. (2025). The dynamics of self-esteem and depressive symptoms across days, months, and years. _Journal of Personality and Social Psychology_. [https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000542](https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000542)
Masselink, M., Van Roekel, E., Hankin, B. L., Keijsers, L., Lodder, G. M. A., Vanhalst, J., Verhagen, M., Young, J. F., & Oldehinkel, A. J. (2018). The longitudinal association between self–esteem and depressive symptoms in adolescents: Separating between–person effects from within-person effects. _European Journal of Personality, 32_(6), 653–671. [https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2179](https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2179)
Braun, L., Göllner, R., Rieger, S., Trautwein, U., & Spengler, M. (2021). How state and trait versions of self-esteem and depressive symptoms affect their interplay: A longitudinal experimental investigation. _Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120_(1), 206–225. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000295
**Peter Haehner** is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Zurich. In his research, he examines how people change across the lifespan and in response to important life experiences.