Improving Self-esteem of High School Students

Self-esteem encompasses all that an individual perceives himself or herself to be, and takes on two characteristics: global and temporary. Global self-esteem is the overall evaluation of a person. Temporary self-esteem relates to a person's immediate evaluation. For instance, a student may have an overall positive evaluation of herself, punctuated by occasional lapses into negative self-esteem. Self-esteem exists entirely in the mind of the individual and is not necessarily connected with reality. Individuals who develop self-images of themselves as unintelligent generally act out that perception even though they might be inherently intelligent.

The foundation of an adolescent's self-esteem is derived from environment. Society plays an important role in this regard: "A positive self-concept can only be developed in an environment that promotes both acceptance and realistic self-appraisal" (Fuhrmann, 1990, p. 339).

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school; the mean age of the students was 17 years. An Alcohol Consumption Questionnaire of 21 items was developed for the study. Students were queried on their drinking responses to 15 hypothetical pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral scenarios. Students also answered questions related to their demographic status. The researchers concluded: "Although the correlations between self-esteem and drinking in both hypothetical and actual unpleasant events were statistically significant . . . the correlations . . . are so small that they account for very little of the common variance shared by self-esteem and drinking in unpleasant events" (Jih, Sirgo, and Thomure, 1995, p. 857). In contrast, the California Task Force to Promote Self-esteem (1990) cites research that concludes a definite link between self-esteem and substance abuse: " . . . alcoholics or drug addicts behave as they do because of low self-esteem, rather than developing low self-esteem as the result of deviant behavior" (p. 89). The presence of substance abuse in the home also affects adolescents. Alcoholics Anonymous has extended its Twelve-Step program to assist those raised in addicted homes. Studies indicate that adolescents of alcoholic parents measure lower
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Approximate Word count = 2622
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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