Adolescence is an important period of growth in a person's life. Studies have shown it is a period of high incidence of mental illness [1], such as depression. According to statistics on the cause of death among adolescents aged 15–19, depression has become the second leading cause of death [2]. In recent years, it has been reported frequently that young people hurt themselves and others. The generally high level of hostility among adolescents may be an important factor. The detection rate of adolescents’ highly aggressive behavior has reached 26.1%. [3]. Moreover, the level of hostility of adolescents with depression is often higher than that of ordinary adolescents. Because of the high level of hostility, many adolescent patients are poor compliance with treatment, which not only brings difficulties to treatment, but also wastes medical resources, causing a vicious circle. However, there were few researches on hostility in China, and there was no empirical research that could be used for reference. Therefore, this paper studied the hostility of depressed teenagers in order to enrich the research results related to hostility.
In 2000, Lin Yimei referred to hostility as verbal attack, physical attack, and suppressing hostility without expressing it.
Hostility will destroy teenagers' physical and mental health, interpersonal relationship and family harmony, and bring serious adverse effects to families and society [4]. It has been clinically proven that the severer the patient’s depressive symptoms, the higher his level of hostility [5]. The well-known psychiatrist Karen Horney mentioned in her book "The Neurotic Personality of Our Time" that children will feel insecure if they do not receive or lack the real care from their parents in childhood, which will trigger basic hostility [6]. Under the influence of the traditional Chinese culture of “the male dominates outside”, the father absence is a very common phenomenon: a study found that in the semi-stay state (only one parent goes out for working, while the other one stays at home), the percentage of families with the father out of town was 82.82% [7]. Father absence refers to the phenomenon that children lack father's care and love due to various reasons [8]. In addition to the father is dead or does not live with his children, it also includes the father's lack of functionality caused by his busy father or poor communication between father and son (psychological deficiency) [9]. And studies have shown that father absence was closely related to the level of hostility of depressed teenagers [10][11]. So, how does father absence cause hostility? This study focused on the depressed adolescent population and explored the relationship between father absence and the hostility of adolescents.
Self-esteem is an individual’s evaluation of self-worth, perception of self-capability, and acceptance of the overall self [12]. Self-esteem stems from the individual’s early experience and will remain relatively stable after formation [13]. Abundant evidence has shown that teenagers with father passing away often have the problem of low self-esteem level [14][15]. There is a significant negative correlation between self-esteem and aggressive behavior [16] [17], and a large number of studies have proved that aggressive behavior is positively related to hostility [18] [19], which infers that self-esteem and hostility are also negatively correlated. Self-esteem is an important psychological dimension of adolescents. Depressed adolescents often have the lower level of self-esteem, and self-esteem has an important impact on the hostility of adolescents.
Psychological frustration tolerance is the ability to overcome obstacles and withstand stressful situations [20]. It is the ability to tolerate setbacks and adopt a positive mental mechanism when experiencing adversity, trauma or major negative events. According to Berkowitz’s frustration-aggression hypothesis and the viewpoint of new cognitive connectionism, hostility is caused when an individual feel frustrated [21], and some studies have shown that hostility is significantly negatively correlated with psychological frustration tolerance [22], while many individual personality characteristics and will-power qualities, such as decisiveness, tenacity, courage, optimism and self-confidence are all related to father's upbringing [23]. Therefore, it can be assumed that when the father is absent, the teenager feels more frustrated facing with setback, which will produce a stronger anger and hostility towards others or themselves.
Although both self-esteem and psychological frustration tolerance may be mediating variables between father absence and adolescent hostility level, there is a certain correlation between them, instead of parallel relationship. A previous study has shown that the lower the level of self-esteem of an individual, the lower the psychological frustration tolerance [24], and that people with high self-esteem have better psychological adaptability, and can regulate their mood and behavior better [25], so they can cope with setbacks better.
This study aim was to determine potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between father absence and the level of hostility in depressed adolescents. Specifically, we will examine how father absence influences hostility through self-esteem and psychological frustration tolerance. Based on the literature review, we propose the following three hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1
Self-esteem is a mediating variable between the degree of father absence and the level of hostility.
Hypothesis 2
psychological frustration tolerance is a mediating variable between the degree of father absence and the level of hostility.
Hypothesis 3
father absence affects the level of hostility in depressed teenagers through multiple mediating roles of self-esteem and psychological frustration tolerance.