The Impact of Anger Expression on Women’s Self-esteem, Interpersonal Intimacy, and Depression in a College Sample in Northern Taiwan Author:Su-Fen Tu, An-Hua Yeh, Chien-Ya Wang
Research Article
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of women’s anger expression on self-esteem, interpersonal intimacy, and depression. The participants were 354 female college students. Four scales were used in this study: Anger Expression Competency Scale, K’s Depression Scale, Interpersonal Intimacy Scale, and Self-esteem Scale. Two factors that emerged from factor analysis in Anger Expression scale were assertive expression and suppressed expression. Path analyses were conducted with AMOS to identify the most appropriate model of the relationships between women’s anger expression, self-esteem, interpersonal intimacy, and depression. Results of this study were as follows: (a) both “assertive expression” and “suppressed expression” had direct effects on self-esteem; (b)“assertive expression” had strong and significant direct effect on interpersonal intimacy, and“suppressed expression” had indirect effect on interpersonal effect which was mediated via“self-esteem” ; (c)“suppressed expression” had strong and significant direct effect on women’s depression, and“assertive expression” had significant but weak effect on depression; (d) “self-esteem” was a partial mediator between anger expression on women’s depression. Suggestions and limitations for further research are discussed.