Improving the self-esteem of high school students is a rewarding challenge for both educator and parents. Self-esteem affects the way a student learns, works, and builds relationships. Positive self-esteem enhances the student's ability to take personal and social responsibility. Since adolescence is a period of insecurity and experimentation when teenagers struggle with their self-awareness and self-confidence, it is critical that the important adults in the teenager's life possess the strategies needed to develop and maintain positive self-esteem.
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). Some characteristics, such as athletic ability, are valued highly whereas others, such as obesity, are devalued. An adolescent's parents also influence his or her self-esteem. Rounding out the environmental factors is peer perceptions.
Society's value system is expounded continually in the media, particularly advertisements. Kaiser (1993) cites statistics that reveal the average 20-year-old American watches about 50,000 television commercials a year (p. ...