Prerna Singh and Atreyee Bhattacharyya
Amity University, Kolkata, India
Perceived discrimination is the unfair biased treatment of individuals by social institutions based on their unique characteristics. This has contributed to an individual’s self-esteem and resulted in adverse psychological effects such as depression. The objective of the current study is to better understand the relationship between perceived discrimination, self-esteem, and depression, as well as to investigate whether self-esteem could moderate the relationship between perceived discrimination and depression. The Perceived Discrimination Scale, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale, and Beck’s Depression Inventory were used to collect data from 120 university students aged 18 to 30 (Mean =20.6, SD = 2.19) primarily residing in Kolkata. The correlation matrix and mediation analysis were performed and results were created using the Jamovi (version 2.3) tool. The level of significance was set at 0.05. In support of the study’s objective, we observed a positive correlation between perceived discrimination, depression, and self-esteem. The interaction between perceived discrimination, self-esteem, and depression revealed a significant indirect effect of self-esteem acting as a mediator between perceived discrimination and depression (β = 0.60, SE = 0.17, 95% CI [.26, .95], p < .001) which indicates that changes in self-esteem can explain some of the influence of perceived discrimination on depression. Hence, the study revealed that the effect of self-esteem fully mediates the relationship between perceived discrimination and depression.
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