The bidirectional relationship between benign/malicious envy and subjective well-being in adolescents: The mediating effect of self-esteem.

Introduction: Subjective well-being, an important index for measuring mental health, is presently declining among junior high school students. Envy, one of their common emotions, is inextricably linked to subjective well-being. Based on the Dual Envy Theory, our research explores the bidirectional relationship between benign-malicious envy and subjective well-being. The mediating role of self-esteem, as well as the related gender differences, is examined.

Methods: Chinese middle school students (n = 1566, boys 50.3%, age = 13.96 ± 0.88 years old) were assessed at two time points over a 3-month interval. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the longitudinal relationships among the variables.

Results: (1) Cross-lagged analysis showed a positive bidirectional relationship between benign envy and subjective well-being and a negative bidirectional relationship between malicious envy and subjective well-being in the total sample. However, the path from T1 subjective well-being to T2 malicious envy in boys was not significant. (2) Self-esteem mediated the relationship between both benign and malicious envy and subjective well-being among both boys and girls. A Wald chi-square test showed that T2 self-esteem was a stronger predictor of T2 benign envy in boys than in girls.

Conclusion: The results reveal a virtuous cycle of benign envy and subjective well-being, and a vicious cycle of malicious envy and subjective well-being, while emphasizing the role of self-esteem in this process. Gender differences were also noted. These findings have important implications for improving the subjective well-being of secondary school students and exploring the positive effects of envy.