Self-concept clarity and psychological adjustment in adolescence: The mediating role of emotion regulation

The relationship between school bullying victimization and social mindfulness in middle school students: a chain mediating model of self-concept clarity and cognition reappraisal

Objective

To determine the relationship between school bullying victimization and social mindfulness and its mechanism in light of the interdependence and schema theories.

Method

The Chinese version of the Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale-student, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Self-Concept Clarity Scale and The Social Mindfulness Self-report Scale (SMSRS) were distributed to 553 middle school students.

Results

(1) The correlations of school bullying victimization with social mindfulness, self-concept clarity, and cognition reappraisal were statistically significant. (2) School bullying victimization had a significant effect on social mindfulness. (3) The simple mediating role of self-concept clarity and cognition reappraisal between school bullying victimization and social mindfulness were significant. (4) Self-concept clarity and cognition reappraisal played a chain mediating role between school bullying victimization and social mindfulness.

Online Self-Disclosure and Self-Concept Clarity Among Chinese Middle School Students: A Longitudinal Study

The relationship between online self-disclosure and self-concept clarity has been previously examined through cross-sectional studies. This study examined causal connections between online self-disclosure and self-concept clarity among Chinese middle school students using longitudinal data collected over 18 months. Participants were 535 seventh-grade students aged 12-14 years (Mage = 12.93, SD = 0.54, 43.18% girls), assessed four times, six months apart. In a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, self-concept clarity significantly predicted online self-disclosure. Latent growth mixture modeling identified two distinct growth trajectories for both online self-disclosure (Rapid change, 7%; Slow change, 93%) and self-concept clarity (Rapid change, 8%; No change, 92%). Multiple logistic regression analysis suggested that changes in self-concept clarity influenced the developmental trajectory profile of online self-disclosure. Although male and female students differed in online self-disclosure and self-concept clarity, gender differences in the developmental trajectory profiles of online self-disclosure and self-concept clarity were not significant. Supporting adolescents in developing a clear self-concept to mitigate risks associated with excessive online self-disclosure is important.

Understanding the Effect of External and Internal Assets on Hazardous/Harmful Drinking Among Chinese College Students: A Serial Mediation Model

Hazardous/harmful drinking among college students is increasingly becoming a global health concern. Previous studies have mostly paid more attention to the prevalence and risk factors of alcohol use disorder based on the public health approach, and less is understood about psychological mechanisms and protective factors of problem drinking behavior. Grounded in the framework of developmental assets, this study explored the predictive effect of external assets (i.e., social connectedness) and internal assets (i.e., self-concept clarity and drinking refusal self-efficacy) on hazardous/harmful drinking among Chinese college students. Participants were 598 college students with a mean age of 19.41 (SD = 1.21) years. The results of structural equation modeling showed that social connectedness negatively predicted college students' hazardous/harmful drinking. Moreover, our path analyses revealed a serial mediation among these variables: students with high social connectedness tended to report high self-concept clarity, which in turn increased drinking refusal self-efficacy, and consequently decreased the level of hazardous/harmful drinking. This study revealed the mechanisms underlying how external and internal assets predict risky drinking among college students. These findings made significant contributions to prevention and precision interventions for college-aged youth with drinking problems.

Longitudinal relationship between harsh parenting and adolescent non-suicidal self-injury: The roles of basic psychological needs frustration and self-concept clarity

BACKGROUND

Harsh parenting has been shown to be associated with adolescents' non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior. However, less is known about the mechanism underlying the association.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to use a one-year longitudinal design to investigate the mediating role of basic psychological needs frustration and the moderating role of self-concept clarity in the association between harsh parenting and NSSI.

METHODS

Three waves of data (called T1, T2 and T3) were collected 6 months apart, between April 2021 and 2022, in a sample of 786 Chinese adolescents (52.0 % girls; Mage at Wave 1 = 13.27 years). Structural equation model was used to test a longitudinal moderated mediation model, with gender, age and baseline NSSI as covariates.

RESULTS

The results showed process of mediation in which T1 harsh parenting was longitudinally and positively associated with T3 NSSI through T2 basic psychological needs frustration. Furthermore, moderated mediation analyses revealed that T2 self-concept clarity buffered the adverse impact of T2 needs frustration on T3 NSSI, thereby mitigating the mediation process.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings support the self-determination theory, and suggest that fostering adolescents' self-concept clarity and satisfying their psychological needs may be useful in programs designed to lower the risk of NSSI.

Maintaining the working state of firefighters by utilizing self-concept clarity as a resource

The working state of firefighters is important for their own safety as well as that of the general public. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlations between self-concept clarity, resilience, work engagement, and job burnout among firefighters, as well as the impacts of self-concept clarity and resilience as resources that can maintain their working state. Based on data from 2,156 firefighters, analysis showed that self-concept clarity was negatively associated with job burnout and positively associated with work engagement. The results also showed that self-concept clarity had a direct effect on job burnout and work engagement, and an indirect effect by improving the firefighters' resilience. Maintaining and improving their self-concept clarity and resilience promises to be an effective strategy for guaranteeing the working state of firefighters.

"Feeling shattered and ephemeral": How do positive and negative symptoms affect self-concept clarity among individuals experiencing psychosis?

PURPOSE

Incoherence in sense of self in schizophrenia may mask individuals' ability to perceive reality accurately, and cause them to feel alienated from themselves and others. This descriptive correlational study investigates the relationship between positive and negative symptoms in relation to self-concept clarity (SCC) in schizophrenia.

METHOD

A sample of 200 inpatients with schizophrenia were recruited to complete the Self-Concept Clarity Scale and were rated on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-version 4.0).

RESULTS

A strong inverse correlation between positive and negative symptoms in relation to SCC (r = 0.242, P < 0.001, and r = 0.225, P = 0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSION

The overall BPRS scores were identified as independent precursors of low SCC.

The contribution of self-concept to sleep quality in adolescents: A cross-sectional study

Self-concept has been associated with health-related behaviors and emotional self-regulation, which can improve sleep. However, its involvement in sleep quality in a healthy adolescent population has been little studied. This study evaluated the association between self-concept and sleep quality in adolescents adjusting for sleep/wake habits. The cross-sectional study included 1,751 adolescents, 54% females, with an age of M = 16.76 ± 1.04 years. The information was collected through an electronic survey that contained the Patient Health Questionnaire, Sleep Habits Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Self-Concept Scale. A significant association between self-concept, adjustment for adolescents´ characteristics and sleep/wake habits was observed (R² = .17, F = 26.61, p < .001). That is, in addition to the adolescent habits, self-concept also contributed to the explanation of sleep/wake habits. These results reinforce the idea that the self-concept can be an essential factor that contributes to better sleep quality, despite the habits of adolescents.

Self-concept Clarity and Subjective Well-Being: Disentangling Within- and Between-Person Associations

Previous research has suggested that, among adolescents, clarity about one's self-concept is closely related to subjective well-being. However, longitudinal studies are scarce, and whether a clear self-concept is the cause or effect of subjective well-being remains unclear. This study examined the dynamic longitudinal associations between self-concept clarity and subjective well-being at the between- and within-person levels over a one-year time span among adolescents (baseline Mage = 16.01 years; 57.0% girls) from China. The data were collected in three waves (each at a six-month interval), in which adolescents reported their self-concept clarity and well-being (i.e., positive and negative affect and personal satisfaction with life). Both Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPMs) and Cross-Lagged Panel Models (CLPMs) were applied to examine the stability, cross-sectional relationships, and cross-lagged effects between adolescents' self-concept clarity and subjective well-being over time. The CLPMs provided unique support for a reciprocal relations model of self-concept clarity and subjective well-being (including both cognitive and emotional well-being) across three time points, although the results of traditional CLPM might represent an unknown blend of between- and within-person effects. However, the RI-CLPM analyses provided tentative support only for cross-sectional correlations between self-concept clarity and well-being outcomes. Our findings advance the literature by elucidating longitudinal relationships between self-concept clarity and subjective well-being in collectivist cultural contexts using CLPM and RI-CLPM.

“It’s Allowed Me to Be a Lot Kinder to Myself”: Exploration of the Self-Transformative Properties of Solitude During COVID-19 Lockdowns

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) national lockdowns profoundly affected the lives of many, as significant portions of the U.K. population were involuntarily sequestered away from their usual social landscapes into newfound states of solitude. Many millennials (those between the ages of 25 and 40 at the point of study), having lived in an age of constant connection, found themselves in an extended period of solitude for the first time. The current qualitative study explores through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) how some UK millennials were able to harness the unique self-transformative properties of positive solitude during the COVID-19 national lockdowns. Analysis revealed a narrative of self-discovery, as domains of positive solitude granted the participants freedom from the demands of performative social burdens and encouraged opportunities to engage with mindfulness and meaningful introspection. These activities, within the experience of solitude, encouraged an alignment of inward beliefs and outward behaviors for the participants, thus helping them to cultivate a more congruent self-concept and subsequently a heightened sense of authenticity and enhanced psychological well-being. Clinical implications leading on from the current study highlight the importance of mindfulness and other solitude-promoting interventions as a method to ameliorate depressive symptoms and improve psychological well-being.

Peer pressure and adolescent mobile social media addiction: Moderation analysis of self-esteem and self-concept clarity

Background

Social media addiction has increasingly been a critical social problem. We explored the association between peer pressure on mobile phone use and adolescent mobile social media addiction and tested whether self-esteem and self-concept clarity could buffer the effect of peer pressure.

Methods

830 adolescents (M _age = 14.480, SD_age = 1.789) participated in our anonymous cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Results

The results showed that peer pressure significantly predicted adolescent mobile social media addiction. Self-esteem moderated the effect of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction in that peer pressure had a weaker effect for adolescents with higher self-esteem. Self-concept clarity moderated the effect of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction in that peer pressure had a weaker effect for adolescents with higher self-esteem. The two moderators also interact in that the moderation of self-esteem was stronger for adolescents with higher self-concept clarity and the moderation of self-concept clarity for adolescents with higher self-esteem.

Conclusion

The results highlight the critical role of self-esteem and self-concept clarity in buffering the impact of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction. The findings promote a better understanding of how to buffer the undesirable effect of peer pressure and reduce the risk of mobile social media addiction among adolescents.

Relationships among nursing students’ self-concept clarity, meaning in life, emotion regulation ability and depression: Testing a moderated mediation model

Objective

Self-concept clarity as an inducing factor of depressive symptoms has been confirmed in previous studies. However, little is known about how and when it induces depressive symptoms in nursing students. The study is to examine the potential mediating role of meaning in life and the moderation of emotion regulation ability in the association between self-concept clarity and depressive symptoms among college nursing students.

Materials and Methods

A sample of 488 college nursing students participated in this study Southeast China. The Chinese adaptations of Self-concept clarity Scale, Sense of life Scale, Depression scale, Emotion regulation scale were used. Mediation and moderation analyses were carried out in the SPSS macro PROCESS.

Results

Self-concept clarity was significantly and negatively associated with depression in nursing students, meaning in life had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between self-concept clarity and depression. Furthermore, emotion regulation ability moderated the direct effect of self-concept clarity on depression.

Conclusion

The findings enrich the knowledge of the mediating and moderating mechanisms to explain the association between self-concept clarity and depression in nursing students. There have been proposed interventions concerning increasing self-concept clarity, meaning in life and emotion regulation ability training which could help help reduce the depression among nursing students.

Relation between parent and child or peer alienation and life satisfaction: The mediation roles of mental resilience and self-concept clarity

The research on life satisfaction originated in the 1960s and has not been completely studied yet. Life satisfaction is an index related to the state and quality of individual life. With the development of society, the relevant variables affecting life satisfaction have also changed with the times. The purpose of this study is to research the relationship between parent and child or peer alienation, mental resilience, self-concept clarity and life satisfaction, finding the mechanism of action among parent-child or peer alienation, mental resilience, self-concept clarity, and life satisfaction. This cross-sectional study recruites randomly 1,347 adolescents from six middle schools in Chongqing, China, participating in a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, the Inventor of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), the Self-concept Clarity Scale (SCCS), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The sample consists of 62.4% female participants (n = 841) and 37.6% male participants (n = 506) aged from 11 to 17 years old (Mean = 14.54, SD = 1.21). We use SPSS 26 to perform the statistical analysis. The study finds that mental resilience-self-concept clarity have mediating effect on the parent or peer alienation to life satisfaction, to the effect that, parent-child or peer alienation explain life satisfaction through the chain mediating effect of mental resilience-self-concept clarity. This study explores the negative multi-use of parent-child or peer alienation on life satisfaction and provides a new perspective for the improvement of life satisfaction of adolescents.

Family cohesion, shame-proneness, expressive suppression, and adolescent mental health-A path model approach

Objective

The family remains one of the most important relationship systems into early adulthood and provides an important foundation for lifelong mental health. Dysfunctional family cohesion can promote adjustment problems in adolescents and might also affect adolescents' self-concept and strategies for coping with emotional distress. To test these relationships and the underlying mechanisms, we proposed a dual mediation model describing the associations between family cohesion and internalizing and externalizing problems, mediated by shame-proneness and expressive suppression.

Methods

A sample of 526 German-speaking adolescents aged 14 to 18 years from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland participated in an online self-report survey encompassing questionnaires on family cohesion, shame-proneness, expressive suppression, and psychological problems. We tested a path model to examine the indirect pathways of the associations between family cohesion and internalizing and externalizing problems via shame-proneness and expressive suppression, while controlling for age, gender, and guilt-proneness.

Results

We found a significant dual mediation of the associations between family cohesion and internalizing and externalizing problems by shame-proneness and expressive suppression. The indirect pathways were all significant, except for the indirect pathway from family cohesion to externalizing problems via shame-proneness.

Discussion

Our results provide a model for the mechanisms by which disrupted family cohesion can be related to psychological problems in adolescents. Expressive suppression emerged as crucial when considering the consequences of shame-proneness in adolescents, as it was only indirectly related to externalizing problems via expressive suppression.

Parental psychological control and adolescents depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating and moderating effect of self-concept clarity and mindfulness

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health state of adolescents had caused widespread concern, especially the various problems caused by the relationship between adolescents and their parents in the long isolation at home. Based on the mindfulness reperceiving model and Rogers's Self-theory, this study aimed to explore the roles of adolescents' self-concept clarity and mindfulness level in the relationship between parental psychological control and adolescent depression. A total of 1,100 junior high school students from China completed the questionnaires regarding parental psychological control, depression, self-concept clarity, and mindfulness. Moderated mediation analyses suggest that parental psychological control affects adolescent depression via self-concept clarity. The association between parental psychological control and depression is moderated by self-concept clarity. The effect was stronger among adolescents with high mindfulness levels than those with low. This study suggests that it is necessary to consider both parental factors and adolescents' factors in the future. The interventions on self-concept or mindfulness may ameliorate adolescent mental problems more effectively.

Identity, self-blame, and body regard in NSSI: A test of moderated-mediation

BACKGROUND

Prior work suggests that an unstable identity is an important developmental factor impacting risk for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), partly because it can foster lowered self-esteem and self-blame coping styles. Theoretical models suggest that how one regards the self, including experiences of and reactions to one's body (e.g., body regard), impact how factors such as identity instability and coping styles influence NSSI behavior. This study tested whether body regard moderated the mediational effect of self-blame coping on the relationship between poor self-concept clarity and past-year NSSI.

METHODS

A sample of 1906 university students had complete data from an anonymous online questionnaires measuring self-concept clarity, self-blame coping, and past-year NSSI behaviors.

RESULTS

Past-year NSSI was reported by 23.5% of the sample. Moderated mediational regression analyses using the PROCESS macro for SPSS were run. Body regard significantly moderated the effects of self-blame coping and poor self-concept clarity on NSSI such that neither risk factor was associated with NSSI when body regard was high. Poor self-concept clarity also retained a significant, although weakened, direct relationship with NSSI in the full model.

CONCLUSIONS

Positive body regard is protective and appears to mitigate the strength of the relationships between poor self-concept clarity and self-blame coping on past year NSSI. When body regard is low or average, poor self-concept clarity is associated with increased NSSI, partly through the effect of self-blame coping. Treatments that address body- and self-perceptions related to self-concept may enhance the effectiveness of interventions used to reduce NSSI behavior.

Social-emotional need satisfaction, prosocial motivation, and students' positive behavioral and well-being outcomes

This study investigated the extent to which students' social-emotional basic psychological need satisfaction (of social-emotional autonomy, social competence, relatedness with students, and relatedness with teachers) is associated with their prosocial motivation and, in turn, behavioral and emotional well-being outcomes. For motivation, autonomous prosocial motivation and controlled prosocial motivation (by way of introjected and external regulation) were examined. Behavioral outcomes comprised prosocial behavior and conduct problems reported by parents/carers, and emotional well-being were positive and negative affect reported by students. With data from 408 secondary school students (and their parents/carers), structural equation modeling showed that perceived autonomy was associated with lower negative affect. Perceived social competence was associated with greater autonomous prosocial motivation, lower external prosocial regulation, greater positive affect, and lower negative affect. Relatedness with teachers was associated with greater autonomous prosocial motivation. In turn, autonomous prosocial motivation was associated with greater prosocial behavior, whereas external prosocial regulation was associated with lower prosocial behavior. Introjected prosocial regulation was only associated with greater negative affect. The results hold implications for promoting social and emotional competence among students.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11218-022-09691-w.

Positive Guidance Effect of Ideological and Political Education Integrated With Mental Health Education on the Negative Emotions of College Students

This exploration aims to solve the problems of imperfect psychological health education system and poor educational effects on college students. Here, ideological and political education is integrated with mental health education to investigate the role of collaborative intervention in guiding college students to resist negative emotions. First, an overview is offered of research on ideological and political education, mental health education, and negative emotions by the literature survey method. Moreover, a comprehensive investigation is also conducted on research objects, through the questionnaire, to understand the current situation of negative emotions of college students. And finally, an intervention experiment is taken on the negative emotions of college students by combining ideological and political education with mental health education. The results show that after 10 weeks of intervention experiment by combining ideological and political education with mental health education, there are significant differences in depression, negative emotions, somatization symptoms, and interpersonal problems between the treatment group and the control group (P < 0.01). Besides, there are significant differences in depression, negative emotions, somatization symptoms, and interpersonal problems between sophomores in the treatment group and the control group (P < 0.01). Moreover, there are significant differences in depression, negative emotions, somatization symptoms, and interpersonal problems between male participants in the treatment group and the control group (P < 0.01). In summary, ideological and political education integrated with mental health education has a positive guidance effect on the negative emotions of college students, greatly improving the negative emotions of the students, helping the students to regulate their emotions, and benefiting their study and life a lot. The purpose of integrating ideological and political education with mental health education is to provide reference for refining the mental health education system of college students and strengthening the positive guidance of negative emotions of college students.

Up-Close and Personal: Conceptualizing the Self as Dementia Caregiver: a Study in Soweto, South Africa

The aim of this study was to understand how dementia caregivers in the township of Soweto, South Africa interpret their role in the context of caregiving through the personal constructs identified using the Self- Characterization technique. Thirty family caregivers were recruited via purposive sampling methods and completed a Self-Characterization Sketch during semi-structured interviews. Content analysis of construct pairs was thematically coded using the Classification System for Personal Constructs (CSPC) - a reliable method to analyse personal constructs that are generated by constructivist assessments. Findings revealed that caregivers' interpretations of themselves was characterized by moral, emotional and cognitive attributes. Specifically, a sense of mastery, self-efficacy, strength, selflessness and unconditional positive regard characterized the most meaningful constructs of care within caregiver narratives in response to their loved ones with dementia. These adaptive outcomes, despite the challenging, pervasive, complex nature of dementia and its manifestations, suggest psychological and emotional resilience, higher levels of adjustment and caregiver well-being. However, it is important to consider possible consequences such as physical fatigue and burnout despite adaptive outcomes. Therefore, it is recommended that approaches to psychoeducational initiatives, emotional and psychological interventions and awareness campaigns include teaching caregivers how to self-care encourage the importance of consistent exercise, rest, sleep, nutrition as well as reaching out for social support. Lastly, empowering caregivers to use their personal resources would prove valuable in support groups, and individual to facilitate self-awareness, sustained coping and mental health.

The Assessment of Dual-Cycle Identity Models Among Secondary School Students: The Hungarian Adaptation of DIDS and U-MICS

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the factor structure and validity of the Hungarian versions of the Dimensions for Identity Development Scale (DIDS) and Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS). Both models assume that the iterative process of exploring and evolving commitments occurs in two distinct cycles. The sample for testing the factor structure of DIDS consisted of 808 adolescents (357 boys and 451 girls) aged between 14 and 21 years (M_age = 16.86; SD = 1.35). The sample for testing the factor structure of U-MICS consisted of 803 adolescents (353 boys and 450 girls) aged between 14 and 21 years (M_age = 16.88; SD = 1.34). Results indicated a five factor model of DIDS in the present sample. All the five dimensions correlated as hypothesized both internally and externally. In line with previous research, six clusters emerged based on the dimensions of DIDS, including ruminative moratorium. Regarding U-MICS, results indicated a three factor model in the present sample. All the three dimensions were internally and externally correlated as hypothesized regarding both ideological and interpersonal identity domains. With regard to the identity status cluster solution, five clusters emerged in both the educational and friendship domains. We found specific variation regarding identity clusters in the two identity domains. Our results support the use of these two measurements in Hungarian context. Further, our results confirm the divergent developmental dynamics of ideological and interpersonal identity domains.

Physical Activity and Quality of Life in High School Students: Proposals for Improving the Self-Concept in Physical Education

Adolescence is a critical period for the acquisition of health-related behaviors that will transcend later psychological well-being in adulthood. The present study presents a theoretical model whose objective is to analyze how physical activity predicts an adequate quality of life through self-concept and subjective happiness among adolescents. A total of 452 students aged 12 to 15 (M = 13.8; SD = 0.77) from four Compulsory Secondary Education institutes of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura participated, including boys (n = 258) and girls (n = 194). The students reported information on the following variables: physical activity, body mass index, self-concept, subjective happiness, and quality of life. The results show acceptable fit indices for the proposed theoretical model, which showed the importance of physical activity through self-concept and subjective happiness in quality of life: MRLχ2 = 67.533, p < 0.05, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.90, SRMR = 0.05, and RMSA = 0.07. Likewise, the model presented a better fit index for males than females. This study draws conclusions on the importance of physical activity as a predictor of quality of life mediated by the perception of self-concept and mood in adolescents.

Analysis of Self-Concept in Adolescents before and during COVID-19 Lockdown: Differences by Gender and Sports Activity

An appeal has been issued to the scientific community to investigate physical, mental and emotional states, and pro-social behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, this study aims to investigate adolescents’ self-concept before and during a lockdown period in relation to gender and type/amount of physical activity or sports. The pre-lockdown sample of 366 adolescents were aged 13–17 years (M = 15.51 ± 0.65), of whom 192 (52.5%) were females and 174 (47.5%) were males. During the lockdown, the age range of the sample was 13–17 years (M = 14.57 ± 1.47), of whom 82 (60.3%) were females, and 54 (39.7%) were males. The Form-5 Self-concept Questionnaire (AF-5) was used to measure adolescents’ self-concept. There was a reduction in adolescents’ overall self-concept during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was positively associated with emotional well-being, with family and peers being essential factors in the development of an appropriate self-concept. Furthermore, girls’ self-concept, especially academic self-concept, was higher than that of boys during the lockdown. However, both physical and emotional self-concept were higher for boys than girls before the COVID-19 lockdown, although no differences were found during the lockdown. The findings reveal that physical activity was positively correlated to self-concept before and during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Body Esteem among Korean Adolescent Boys and Girls

Establishing a positive body image is a critical factor for adolescents’ physical and mental health as it leads to sustainable individual growth and development throughout their lives. Therefore, possible personality traits need to be examined for their capability as protective factors for a healthy body image. The current study examined how one internal personality trait (self-concept clarity) and three external factors (tripartite influence from media, parents, and peers) are associated with adolescents’ internalization of the thin-body ideal and body esteem in a sample of Korean adolescents (N = 1127). Self-concept clarity was identified as a powerful factor that is positively related with body esteem. The results showed that greater self-concept clarity, lower tripartite influences and thin body internalization were related to greater body esteem. Gender differences were found in the relationships between body esteem and the predictor variables. The implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.