{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T10:23:56Z","timestamp":1787048636244,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787011200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Dental anxiety is a prevalent condition in pediatric oral healthcare and linked with multiple etiologic factors. Although sociodemographic factors are frequently examined, the influence of internal psychological constructs such as self-esteem remains underexplored in children. This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate the association between dental anxiety and self-esteem among school-age Turkish children. Methods: The study was conducted with 204 participants aged 7\u201312 years. Dental anxiety and self-esteem were assessed using Corah\u2019s Dental Anxiety Scale and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, respectively. Group comparisons were performed with the Mann\u2013Whitney U and Kruskal\u2013Wallis tests, and their association was examined with Spearman\u2019s rank correlation. Independent predictors of dental anxiety were further identified through a stepwise multiple linear regression. Results: Dental anxiety was prevalent in 24.5% of participants. No significant differences in anxiety or self-esteem were found by gender, age, or socioeconomic status (p &gt; 0.05). A moderate negative correlation (r = \u22120.301, p &lt; 0.001) was observed between self-esteem and dental anxiety. Regression analysis confirmed self-esteem as the only significant independent predictor of dental anxiety (Adjusted R2 = 0.080, p &lt; 0.001) in this model. Conclusions: Findings indicate that self-esteem is independently associated with pediatric dental anxiety, although the explained variance was modest. Whether incorporating children\u2019s psychological profile into behavioral management improves clinical outcomes remains to be investigated.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children13081102","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T09:06:41Z","timestamp":1787044001000},"page":"1102","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Self-Esteem as a Predictor of Dental Anxiety in Turkish Children: A Cross-Sectional Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2698-2092","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aybike","family":"Memi\u015f","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Aksaray University, 68000 Aksaray, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yasemin","family":"Ak\u0131n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Gazi University, 06490 Ankara, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Merve","family":"Demirkoparan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Gazi University, 06490 Ankara, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Didem","family":"Atabek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Gazi University, 06490 Ankara, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"818","DOI":"10.1038\/s41415-019-0853-y","article-title":"The impact of dental anxiety on the oral health of children aged 5 and 8 years: A regression analysis of the Child Dental Health Survey 2013","volume":"227","author":"Coxon","year":"2019","journal-title":"Br. 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