Prospective associations between self-esteem and quality of social relations may be spurious: Reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies

A recent meta-analysis reported a reciprocal link between self-esteem and quality of social relations in longitudinal analyses, characterized by a positive feedback loop. However, meta-analytic effects were estimated while adjusting for a prior measurement of the outcome and such effects are known to be susceptible to spurious effects due to correlations with residuals and regression to the mean. We reanalyzed the same data and found incongruent effects indicating, simultaneously, both increasing and decreasing effects of self-esteem on social relations. These findings suggest that prospective effects between self-esteem and quality of social relations are spurious rather than due to a true reciprocal effect.