Social competence and self-esteem: a systematic review

Abstract

This systematic review aimed to analyze the relationship between social competence and self-esteem in any type of population. The inclusion criteria selected were: (i) studies with results of the relationship between social competence and self-esteem; (ii) experimental and observational empirical studies; (iii) original full-text scientific journal articles written in English. Exclusion criteria referred to studies that could not be included in the inclusion criteria. The search platforms were ProQuest and the meta-search engines SCOPUS and Web of Science. The risk of bias was assessed with the Q-SSP quality checklist and the method of summary of the results was performed with a Microsoft Excel table. The results of the selected studies revealed a correlation between social competence and self-esteem indirectly, so it is concluded that social competence is positively related to self-esteem. Limitations are recognized in terms of the low number of studies found and the restricted variety of experimental designs.