Self-Esteem,Depression,and Alcohol Dependency among High School Students

Abstract

123 high school students completed the short form of the Cooper-smith Self-esteem Inventory—School Form and its Lie scale, Beck's Depression Inventory, and an Alcohol Dependency Scale. Analyses of variance (2 × 4) showed boys had higher mean Lie scores than girls, and freshmen had lower mean alcohol dependency scores than sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Correlations between self-esteem scores and depression scores were significant and negative, but values were significant and positive between self-esteem and lie scores and between depression and alcohol dependency scores. Much work is required to understand better the relations among depression, self-esteem, and drug and alcohol dependency in high school students if interventions are to focus upon prevention.