Active and passive maladaptive behaviour patterns mediate the relationship between contingent self-esteem and health

People with an impoverished basic self-acceptance are compelled to seek external reassurances of their own value and to cope with the threats and challenges of social life by different compensatory behaviours. The present study examines the links between competence based self-esteem (CBSE) and relation based self-esteem (RBSE) (Johnson & Blom, 2007), active and passive maladaptive socio-behavioural styles and health status. The active style was indicated by hostile perfectionistic strivings whereas the passive style was indicated by avoidance and emotion suppression. In a cross-sectional design 284 Swedish adults completed personality and health questionnaires. The results showed that CBSE is a stronger predictor of poor physical health than RBSE and that the relation is primarily mediated by an active “toxic” style, whereas the role of RBSE for health appears purely indirect, mediated by a passive repressive style. An additional finding was that the two types of contingent SE and socio-behavioural styles were associated with different kinds of health problems.