Psychology, Health & Medicine

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The relationship between self-esteem and

happiness of college students in China:A
moderated mediation model

Ye Yuan, Zhengkun Yang, Zihan Zhou, Yumeng Wang, Huiqing Shen, Yayan
Song, Yali Zhang, Xi Wen, Ke Zhao & Ke Jiang

To cite this article: Ye Yuan, Zhengkun Yang, Zihan Zhou, Yumeng Wang, Huiqing Shen, Yayan
Song, Yali Zhang, Xi Wen, Ke Zhao & Ke Jiang (2023): The relationship between self-esteem and
happiness of college students in China:A moderated mediation model, Psychology, Health &
Medicine, DOI: 10.1080/13548506.2023.2190985

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Published online: 26 Mar 2023.

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PSYCHOLOGY, HEALTH & MEDICINE
https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2023.2190985

The relationship between self-esteem and happiness of

college students in China:A moderated mediation model
Ye Yuana,b**, Zhengkun Yangc**, Zihan Zhoua**, Yumeng Wanga**, Huiqing Shena,
Yayan Songa, Yali Zhanga, Xi Wend, Ke Zhaoe and Ke Jianga
a
School of mental health, WenZhou Medical University, WenZhou, China; bDepartment of Statistics,
Chonnam National University, Guangzhou, Korea; cSchool of Educational Science and Technology, Zhejiang
University, Hangzhou, China; dDepartment of Innovation and entrepreneurship, WenZhou Medical
University, WenZhou, China; eLishui Second People’s Hospital Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University,
Lishui, China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The objective of the study is to explore the influence of self-esteem Received 26 February 2022
on the happiness levels of college students and the mediating roles Accepted 8 March 2023
of social avoidance and loneliness. 1021 college students between KEYWORDS
18 and 24 years of age completed the Self-esteem Scale, General Self-esteem; Happiness;
Well-being Scale, Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, UCLA Social avoidance; Loneliness;
Loneliness Scale and Interpersonal Trust Scale.And descriptive sta­ Interpersonal trust
tistical analysis and correlation analysis, structural equation model
analysis were conducted. The result turns out that Self-esteem
negatively predicted the happiness levels of college students. Self-
esteem indirectly predicted happiness through three paths: med­
iating the roles of social avoidance, mediating the roles of lone­
liness and the chain-mediated roles of social avoidance and
loneliness in college students.Interpersonal Trust moderated the
relationship between loneliness and happiness.The higher the self-
esteem levels of the college students, the less happiness they
experienced.

1 Introduction
Happiness is an important research topic in positive psychology. Happiness refers
to the individuals’ comprehensive cognition and evaluation of their life quality in
accordance with their own standards. Thus, it is a positive emotional experience
produced by an individual after their needs and expectations are met and realized,
which is a long-term and stable state formed by the long-term interactions
between individual psychological needs and external influences. General well-
being is mainly composed of life satisfaction and both positive and negative
emotional experiences (Diener, 1984). General well-being is influenced by both
subjective factors, such as such as self-esteem, and objective factors, such as social
support (X. Y. Liu et al., 2009). Self-esteem is the individual’s judgment of self-

CONTACT Ke Zhao cocozk1986@163.com Lishui Second People’s Hospital Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical
University, Lishui, China; Ke Jiang jiangke200@126.com School of mental health, WenZhou Medical University,
Wenzhou 325035, China
*These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship.
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 Y. YUAN ET AL.

worth, the perception of self-ability and the acceptance of the overall self (Sha &
Zhang, 2016). As a relatively stable personality trait, self-esteem has a significant
impact on the general well-being. The levels of well-being and good mental health
of individuals with high self-esteem are significantly greater than those of indivi­
duals with low self-esteemTian (Tian et al., 2012).
In real university campus life, we observe this phenomenon: students with higher self-
evaluation feel more of a sense of loss when receiving sub-standard test scores and
participate less in a variety of extracurricular activities. Thus, individuals with high self-
esteem are more sensitive to self-esteem threats.
On the basis of the above analysis, this research hypothesized that the relationship
between self-esteem and well-being may not be a simple positive correlation, but that
there may be a variety of mediating or regulatory factors.
By consulting previous studies, we found that social avoidance and distress, as well as
loneliness and interpersonal trust, may mediate the relationship between self-esteem and
happiness. Social avoidance and distress represent the avoidance behavior and feelings of
individuals during social processes, and they are manifested as withdrawal and escape
behaviors, as well as negative emotions (Zhang et al., 2018). Social avoidance and distress
are significantly negatively correlated with core self-evaluation. Thus, individuals with
higher self-evaluations are more likely to display social avoidance behaviors and dis­
tressed emotions(Li et al., 2016; Tu & Zhang, 2015; Yue & Huang, 2012). Self-esteem is an
emotional experience based on self-evaluation. Self-esteem and social avoidance are both
related to self-evaluation, and the withdrawal, avoidance behaviors and negative emo­
tions that result in social avoidance and distress will affect the individual’s evaluation of
his own happiness level. Therefore, self-esteem may affect college students’ happiness as
displayed through social avoidance and distress. Therefore, this study assumes that social
avoidance plays a mediating role between self-esteem and happiness.
Loneliness is emotional and social isolation and the emotional experience of
emptiness, anxiety and uneasiness caused by the individuals’ dissatisfaction with
the quantity and quality of current interpersonal relationships. Long-term loneliness
has a negative impact on an individual’s self-esteem, self-identity and life satisfac­
tion (Qu et al., 2010).Self-esteem is closely related to the level of individual lone­
liness. There is a significant negative correlation between loneliness and self-esteem
(Bozoglan et al., 2013; Dai et al., 2009; Wan, 2018; Ye, 2019). Individual loneliness
can be used to significantly negatively predict self-esteem. However, loneliness, as
an emotional experience, usually changes along with the real state of the individual.
This state makes loneliness more suitable as a mediating variable than self-esteem.
Tan and other studies showed that loneliness is a factor that affects happiness, and
less social connections and a greater lonely experience reduce individual happiness
(Qu et al., 2010). Therefore, loneliness may be a mediating variable between self-
esteem and happiness. In addition, some research has shown that the more serious
the individual’s social avoidance tendency, the more difficult it is to integrate into
a group or the more likely it is to be excluded from a group, resulting in painful
experiences and a stronger loneliness experience for the individual (Moore &
Schultz, 1983; X. Jin et al., 2017). Even in different populations, loneliness has
a negative predictive effect on well-being (Heng et al., 2020); (Y. C. Jin et al., 2020;
Yao et al., 2018). Therefore, self-esteem affects individual well-being not only
 PSYCHOLOGY, HEALTH & MEDICINE 3

through the mediating effect of loneliness, but also through the chain-mediating
effects of social avoidance and loneliness. Therefore, this research assumes that
loneliness plays a mediating role between self-esteem and well-being, whereas social
avoidance and loneliness play chain-mediated roles between self-esteem and well-
being.
Good interpersonal relationships and positive social interactions contribute to the
acquisition of individual psychological and social resources, which are the key factors
affecting well-being. Individuals with a high level of interpersonal trust are more
likely to subjectively believe in themselves and others, and they have a more positive
attitude towards themselves and others, which results in their being more satisfied
with their own lives. Therefore, this research assumes that interpersonal trust, as
a regulating variable, affects the predictive effect of loneliness on happiness. Thus, in
an individual with a lower level of interpersonal trust, the predictive effect of lone­
liness on happiness is stronger.
Here, we introduced three variables that may affect the relationship between self-
esteem and happiness, and we put forward the following hypotheses: (1) Social avoidance
plays as a mediating role between self-esteem and well-being; (2) loneliness plays
a mediating role between self-esteem and happiness; (3) Social avoidance and loneliness
play chain-mediating roles between self-esteem and happiness; and (4) Interpersonal
trust plays a regulating role between loneliness and happiness.

2 Methods
2.1 Research subjects
For the scale type questionnaire, the common standard of sample size is 5 or 10 times of
the scale items, the sample size more than 500 will be nice. In order to be more accurate,
we set the sample size of the questionnaire to more than 1000. In this manuscript, the
sample size is 1021.
Using the method of a simple random cluster sampling, full-time undergraduates
from Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou University and Wenzhou Vocational and
Technical College were selected as the research subjects. Using star and offline ques­
tionnaires, 1,050 responses were collected. After eliminating 29 unqualified question­
naires having obvious errors or regular answers, there were 1,021 (97.23%) remaining
valid questionnaires from 451 males and 570 females, ranging in age from 18 to 24 years
old. The purpose of this survey was explained in the questionnaire’s instructions, and the
relevant information on the subjects was promised to be kept confidential.

2.2 Research tools

2.2.1 The self-esteem scale
The self-esteem scale consists of 10 items, and uses four grades: 1 indicates very
consistent, 2 indicates consistent, 3 indicates inconsistent and 4 indicates very incon­
sistent. The total scores range from 10 to 40, and the higher the score, the higher the
degree of self-esteem. The Cronbach α-coefficients reported by Dobson et al. and
4 Y. YUAN ET AL.

Fleming et al. were 0.77 and 0.88, respectively. The Cronbach α-coefficient in this
research was 0.844.

2.2.2 General well-being scale

The general well-being scale, containing 33 items, is used to evaluate the subjects’
statements of happiness. The higher the score, the higher the degree of happiness. The
correlation range between a single item score and total score was 0.48–0.78, the correla­
tion range between the subscale and total scale was 0.56–0.88, and the internal consis­
tency coefficients were 0.91 in males and 0.95 in females. The Cronbach α-coefficient in
this research was 0.835.

2.2.3 Social avoidance and distress scale

The social avoidance and distress scale contains 28 items, of which 14 items are used
to evaluate social avoidance and 14 items are used to evaluate social distress. A ‘yes –
no’ or 5-level scoring system can be used for grading. When using the ‘yes – no’
scoring system, the average correlation coefficient between the mean and the total of
the item was 0.77. When using the 5-level scoring system, the α-coefficient of
Cronbach was close to 0.900, and the reliability coefficients of the avoidance and
distress subscales were 0.85 and 0.87, respectively. The correlation coefficients
between the two scales were 0.54 for males and 0.71 for females. The Cronbach α-
coefficient in this research was 0.790.

2.2.4 UCLA loneliness scale

This scale contains 11 positive order items of ‘loneliness’ and 9 reverse order items of ‘non-
loneliness’, which are used to evaluate the loneliness caused by the gap between the desire
for social communication and the actual level. Russell reported that the α-coefficient of 20
revisions in the second edition, indicating the internal consistency and reliability, was 0.94.
Jones used the original table to retest at two-month intervals, and the test – retest reliability
was 0.73. Cutrona retested freshmen at intervals of 7 months, and the correlation was 0.62.
Russell et al. (1987) retested the elderly with the third edition, and the correlation was 0.73.
Both the second and first editions are positively correlated, indicating the aggregation
validity, with depression (r = 0.50) and anxiety (r = 0.3–0.4). The Cronbach α-coefficient of
the UCLA loneliness scale in this research was 0.906.

2.2.5 Interpersonal trust scale

This scale consists of 25 items, involving interpersonal trust in various situations, most of
which are related to the trustworthiness of social roles, and some items are related to the
degree of optimism about our future society. A 5-point symmetrical scoring method was
adopted, and the score ranged from 25 points (the lowest degree of trust) to 125 points
(the highest degree of trust).
The split-half reliability of the scale was 0.76, with 0.77 for males and 0.75 for females.
The test – retest reliability of an average interval of 7 months was 0.56 (p < 0.01, N = 24),
whereas the test – retest reliability of an interval of 3 months was 0.68 (N = 42). Research
on structural validity suggests that scores of this scale reflect the differences in family
background, social stratum and religious belief, and there is no gender difference. The
Cronbach α-coefficient in this research was 0.755.
 PSYCHOLOGY, HEALTH & MEDICINE 5

2.3. Procedure and statistical analysis

In accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, this study was conducted after
approval from the ethics committees of WenZhou Medical University. The study
was conducted in the form of paper questionnaires and online questionnaires in
WeChat. In the spring of 2021, Researchers administered self-report measure­
ments during regular school hours in the classroom. The purpose of the survey
was explained in the questionnaire instructions, and guarantees regarding the
confidentiality of participant information were made. Before participation, every­
one either provided their oral consent or checked a box indicating informed
consent on the online questionnaires. Participants were given instructions regard­
ing each scale before rating the items. They were invited to fill out the five self-
report questionnaires in sequence anonymously and voluntarily, and they were
free to terminate the participation at any time.
SPSS17.0 was used for descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis. Mplus
7.0 was used for structural equation model analysis.

3 Research results
3.1 Common method deviation test
A Harman single-factor test was used to determine the deviation of the common method,
and all the items were analyzed using a principal component analysis without rotation.
The variance explained by the first factor was 19.54%, which was less than the critical
value of 40%. Therefore, the study data were minimally affected by the deviation of the
common method.

3.2 Demographic variables

We collected 1050 questionnaires through our survey, and 1021 were valid
(including 570 females), yielding a valid response rate of 97.23%. All participants
were 18–24 years old. There were 374 freshmen, 429 sophomores, 141 juniors, and
77 seniors. Among them, 67.5% majored in Science and Engineering, 29.4%
majored in Medicine, 1.7% majored in Literature and History, and 1.3% majored
in Art. Additionally, 63.3% were registered rural residents and 45.6% were only
children.Demographic variables are shown in Table 1.

3.2 Correlation analysis among variables

The correlations among variables are shown in Table 2. The correlation analysis showed
that self-esteem was positively correlated with social avoidance and loneliness. Social
avoidance was positively correlated with loneliness. Happiness was negatively correlated
with self-esteem, social avoidance and loneliness. The relationships among the variables
supports the test of the subsequent hypothesis.
6 Y. YUAN ET AL.

Table 1. Demographic variables.

Basic characteristics Grouping Capita Percentage (%)
Gender Male 551 54
Female 570 46
Grade Freshmen 374 36.6
Sophomores 429 42
Juniors 141 13.8
Seniors 77 7.6
Major Science and Engineering 689 67.5
Medicine 300 29.4
Literature and History 18 1.7
Art 13 1.3
Single-child family Yes 466 45.6
No 555 54.4
Registered permanent residence Urban residents 646 63.3
Country residents 375 36.7

Table 2. Correlation matrix among variables.

Project Self-esteem Social avoidance Loneliness
Social avoidance 0.387***
Loneliness 0.497*** 0.298*** −0.238***
Happiness −0.268*** −0.310***
Note: * * represents p < 0.001.

3.3 Relationship between self-esteem and well-being: chain-mediated roles of

social avoidance and loneliness
The chain-mediated model was tested using Mplus7.0, and the 95% confidence interval
obtained for 5,000 iterations was extracted by the deviation-corrected bootstrap method
to determine the significance of the effect. If the confidence interval does not contain 0,
then the statistical results are significant. As shown in Figure 1, self-esteem had
a significant predictive effect on social avoidance (β = 0.387, SE = 0.028, t = 13.849, CI
p < 0.001, 95% CI = [0.340, 0.433]), and social avoidance had a significant predictive
effect on well-being (β = −0.310, SE = 0.027, t = −11.295, p = 0.001, 95% CI = [−0.356,
−0.265]). Self-esteem was a significant predictor of loneliness (β = 0.497, SE = 0.028, t =
17.474, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [0.451, 0.545]), and loneliness was a significant predictor of
well-being (β = −0.238, SE = 0.032, t = −7.370, 95% CI = [−0.289, −0.185]). Social avoid­
ance was a significant predictor of loneliness (β = 0.298, SE = 0.026, t = 691, p < 0.001,

Figure 1. Chained intermediate path diagram.

 PSYCHOLOGY, HEALTH & MEDICINE 7

Table 3. The bootstrap 95% CI for the mediating effect test and deviation correction.
Std.
Effect Path Estimate Estimate 95%
Direct effect Self-esteem→Happiness 0.387 63.76% [0.34, 0.433]
Mediating effect Self-esteem→Social avoidance→Happiness −0.156 25.70% [−0.142, −0.098]
Self-esteem→Loneliness→Happiness −0.163 26.85% [−0.146, −0.090]
Self-esteem→Social −0.042 6.91% [−0.036, −0.019]
avoidance→Loneliness→Happiness
Total indirect / −0.323 53.21% [0.11, 0.20]
effect
Total effect / −0.607 100% [0.53, 0.63]

95% CI = [0.255, 0.340]), and self-esteem was a significant predictor of well-being (β =

−0.268, SE = 0.032, t = −8.436, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [−0.321, −0.216]). The mediating, and
corresponding effects are shown in Table 3, indicating that social avoidance and lone­
liness play partial mediating roles between self-esteem and well-being.

3.4 The regulatory role of interpersonal trust between loneliness and well-being
Further tests revealed that the path between loneliness and happiness is regulated by
interpersonal trust. Loneliness was a significant predictor of happiness (β =-0.226, SE =
0.033, t = −6.852, p < 0.001), interpersonal trust was a significant predictor of well-being
(β = 0.031, SE = 0.031, t = 1.009, p < 0.001), and the interaction between loneliness and
interpersonal trust was a significant negative predictor of happiness (β = 0.034, SE =
0.025, t = 1.367, p = 0.01). This indicated that the predictive effect of loneliness on well-
being is regulated by interpersonal trust. To understand the regulation, the average value
of interpersonal trust, plus or minus a standard deviation, was divided into the high and
low interpersonal trust groups. The mediating effect on the high interpersonal trust
group was significant, and the total indirect effect value was-0.236 (p < 0.001). However,
the mediating effect on the low interpersonal trust group was stronger, and the total
indirect effect value was−0.280 (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference between the
two groups (p < 0.01). A simple slope analysis, as shown in Figure 2, revealed that
loneliness had a significant negative predictive effect on happiness in the high inter­
personal trust group (bsimple = −0.487, t = −12.711, p < 0.001), whereas loneliness had
a stronger predictive effect on happiness in the low interpersonal trust group (bsimple =
−0.497, t = −13.546, p < 0.001).

4 Discussion
The results of the correlation analysis showed that there was a significant negative
correlation between college students’ self-esteem and happiness. Self-esteem and
social avoidance were positively correlated with distress and loneliness. Social
avoidance was positively correlated with distress and loneliness. Social avoidance
was negatively correlated with distress, and loneliness was negatively correlated
with happiness. A mediating role analysis showed that social avoidance and
distress play partial mediating roles between self-esteem and happiness.
Loneliness plays a partial mediating role between self-esteem and happiness.
8 Y. YUAN ET AL.

Figure 2. The regulatory effects of interpersonal trust on loneliness and well-being.

Through the construction of the chain-mediated model, we found that the level of
the college students, self-esteem affected their happiness level through the chain-
mediating roles of social avoidance and loneliness. Thus, hypotheses 1, 2 and 3
were verified.
In this study, self-esteem was an independent variable defined as an individual’s
evaluation of self-worth, which is from the original meaning of the concept of self-
esteem. In this sense, although individuals with high self-esteem have more positive
resources than individuals with low self-esteem, a higher level of self-esteem also results
in higher requirements for their own quality of life. To achieve these higher require­
ments, compared with individuals with lower self-esteems, individuals with high self-
esteem will experience more difficulties and obstacles, resulting in a lower level of
happiness, because happiness is an individual’s cognition and evaluation of their own
quality of life. Generally speaking, it is difficult for individuals to maintain high evalua­
tion levels at both the realistic and expected levels of the self-quality of life. The actual
situation is that the higher the individual’s expectation level of the self-quality of life, the
lower the evaluation of the reality level. Thus, the higher the individual’s evaluation of
self-worth, the higher the expectation of the self-quality of life, which leads to a relatively
reduced evaluation of the realistic quality of life. Therefore, individuals with high self-
esteem tend to have less happiness.
Our research found that there was a significant positive correlation between
self-esteem and social avoidance and distress. Thus, individuals with a high self-
esteem were more likely to display social avoidance behaviors. However, previous
studies concluded that there is a significant negative correlation between self-
esteem and social avoidance. Compared with our research, most of the previous
studies discussed self-esteem as a mediating variable, whereas in our research,
self-esteem was discussed as an independent variable. Here, self-esteem was
regarded as a mediating variable or independent variable, which reflects that the
 PSYCHOLOGY, HEALTH & MEDICINE 9

research presuppositions differed, as did the interpretation theories and the

corresponding mechanisms.
Previous studies have used loneliness to predict the level of self-esteem, whereas in
this study, we used self-esteem to predict individual loneliness. We hypothesized that,
compared with self-esteem, loneliness is an unstable individual experience, which is
easily affected by the individual’s environment. Consequently, it is more suitable as an
intermediary variable. The results of this study are consistent with those of Wang,
which stated the higher the self-esteem, the higher the sense of loneliness (Wang,
2019). The UCLA loneliness scale used in this research has been used to evaluate the
loneliness caused by the gap between the desire for social interaction and the actual
level, which is defined as one-dimensional. There may be deviations in the definition
of one dimension.
The mediating effects of social avoidance and distress revealed that the higher the
level of self-esteem, the higher the degrees of social avoidance and distress. This
intermediary role may occur. It may also be that individuals with high self-esteem,
who have higher self-evaluations, have higher requirements for their partners and
a lower recognition of the people around them, which makes their social circle
smaller. There are also fewer social activities in which they are willing to participate.
Therefore, a higher level of social avoidance and distress affects college students’
evaluations of their own well-being. The mediating effect of loneliness indicated
that individuals with high self-esteem had reduced happiness among college stu­
dents owing to a high degree of loneliness. The construction of the chain-mediating
model showed that college students’ self-esteem affected their happiness through the
chain mediation of social avoidance and loneliness. Individuals with high self-
esteem were afraid of negative evaluations, which led them to act in a way that
eluded the chance for adverse evaluations. Loneliness and individual social avoid­
ance interact with each other. On the one hand, loneliness aggravates the alienation
of the individual from others and society, and on the other hand, this interpersonal
alienation aggravates the individual’s loneliness experience, increasing the indivi­
dual’s level of loneliness. Therefore, the happiness of college students was affected
not only by their level of self-esteem, but also by social avoidance, distress and
loneliness.
The innovation point of the present paper lies in introducing loneliness and social
avoidance into the relationship between self-esteem and happiness, and explaining the
symptoms of self-esteem through the factors related to the self. It provides a new way to
explain the mechanism of self-esteem, and a new perspective for the clinical intervention
of self-esteem, that is, intervening in patients with self-esteem from the perspective of
their self-experience and self-esteem.This research will make up for the internal influence
mechanism between self-esteem and happiness in traditional research, and put forward
new research opinions based on the experimental results.
This study also had some limitations. First, the study used a self-assessment ques­
tionnaire to collect data, and there can be a gap between self-reporting and clinical
evaluation. Second, as a cross-sectional correlation study, we can only infer the causal
relationships between variables using statistical models.Also it is possible that the cor­
onavirus crisis will affect the results. Thus, the causal hypothesis model should be verified
in subsequent experimental studies.
10 Y. YUAN ET AL.

Acknowledgments
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude for the constructive comments and suggestions
made by the reviewers and editors. And we also would like to thank all participants who
participated in this study.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This work was supported by the Fund of Educational Science planning program of Zhejiang
Province [grant numbers: 2023SB099], the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Traning
Program for College Students [grant number: 202110343067S] and undergraduate student scien­
tific research project of Wenzhou Medical University [grant number: wyx2022101118]. The
funding sources had no such involvement in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpreta­
tion of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication

Author’s contribution
Ye Yuan and Zhengkun Yang: Designed the study and helped to data collection, analysis and
interpretation.
Zihan Zhou: Searched the literature and wrote the first draft of the manuscript.
Yumeng Wang: Helped analyse the data.
Huiqing Shen and Yayan Song: Helped amended the manuscript.
Yali Zhang and XiWen: Helped amended the manuscript.
Ke Zhao: Gave suggestions.
Ke Jiang: Designed the study and supervised the whole research process and revised the draft.

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