The Relationship between Anxiety, Depression and General, Social and Academic Self-Concepts in Undergraduate Students

The relationship between general, social and academic self-concepts on undergraduates’ anxiety and depression scores was investigated. Self-concepts were measured using 5 out of 13 subscales of the SDQIII (Marsh, 1992) and anxiety and depression scores were measured using Zung Self-Rating Scales (Zung 1965; 1971a). A multiple regression demonstrated that four self-concepts (general, academic, same-sex peer relations and parental relations) significantly predicted depression scores and two self-concepts (general and parental relations) significantly predicted anxiety scores. Females experienced significantly higher anxiety and depression scores than males, but there were no significant gender differences for any of the self-concepts measured. There were also no significant differences between students’ year of study and anxiety, depression and self-concept scores. A limitation of the current study is that the SDQIII was not used in its entirety and consequently, some elements of students’ self-concept that are related to anxiety and depression may have been missed. It is encouraged that future research replicates the current study but uses the whole SDQIII, to achieve a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between undergraduates’ self-concepts, anxiety and depression