INTRODUCTION

Mattering is an important, albeit overlooked, component of self-concept. First specified by Rosenberg and McCullough (1981), it is potentially a powerful analytic tool. Rosenberg and McCullough viewed it as having multiple dimensions. First, it is based on one's understanding that he or she is the object of another's attentions. Individuals are not likely to harbor a sense of mattering to a person if they are not an object on whom that person focuses at least some attention. Moreover, in order for attention to contribute to the sense of mattering, the attention must be of a certain quality; specifically, it needs to convey the understanding that one is a valued and important object to the other. The sense of mattering is thus based on the individual's conviction that what he or she thinks, wants, or does is of salient concern to others.

A third dimension of mattering, central to the analysis presented in this chapter, is one's perception that others depend on her or him for something needed or wanted. The recognition that another person depends on us can be, according to Rosenberg and McCullough, a powerful reinforcement of mattering. As we will detail, the sense of mattering that stems from the knowledge that the satisfaction of the vital needs of another person depends on our assistance is a pivotal source of mattering in the population being studied here. We will show that the loss of that source can have deleterious consequences.