Self-Esteem in Children: A Parental Perspective
Format
Poster Presentation
Location
Harborside Center East and West
Strand #1
Social & Emotional Skills
Strand #2
Mental & Physical Health
Relevance
The proposal ties directly into the "Heart": Social and Emotional Skills strand. Parents are key in helping young children develop positive self-esteem. Many parents over-estimate their child's self-esteem. Parents and other key adults need to learn signs and symptoms of low self-esteem in children for awareness and intervention purposes.
Brief Program Description
Objective: Discuss the results of the study that assessed the parental perspective of self-esteem in elementary school children. Topic: Improve awareness of child self-esteem for parents and key adults (teachers, church leaders, coaches). Target audience: parents and school personnel including teachers, administrators, staff and extracurricular personnel.
Summary
The purpose of this study was to assess the parental perspective of self-esteem of children in elementary school. The researchers hypothesized that the parental perspective of their child’s self-esteem would be high. Previous literature has discovered a higher level of self-esteem is associated with a low level of unhappiness with one’s body (Sabbah, 2009). It has also been shown that higher levels of self-esteem are associated with lower amounts of time for television, participation in different sports activities as well as the ways that parents raise their children (McClure, 2010). The research design that was used in this study was a quantitative, descriptive, non-experimental study in which a 15-question survey parental perspective of their child’s self-esteem. 131 parents participated. The instrument used in this research design was a modified version of the Tennessee Self-Concept questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics reported means and significant differences. Data analysis indicated that 38.9% of parents believed that their child often liked the way they are. When asked if their child is very careful about his/her appearance, 35.9% of parents answered often. The average self-esteem score parents assigned their child was 46.07 putting them in the high self-esteem range. There was no statistical differences by a child’s age, race, gender, or grade (p<0.05). When a parent was asked if their child wishes to change a few parts of his/her body 48.9% said never while 42% said sometimes. Parents were also asked the question is their child happy with himself/herself and 55% said always. Conclusions show that most parents perceive their child’s self-esteem to be high no matter what age, sex or race. Parents and educators should learn the signs and symptoms of a child with low, moderate and high self- esteem for intervention purposes if and when necessary. Recommendations would be education of parents and educators on the literature available in regards to childhood self-esteem.
Evidence
This proposal gives results of a research study measuring parental perspective on child's self-esteem. The research study included a full literature review on children self-esteem. Data was collected from 131 parents and statistical analyses gave results.
Biographical Sketch
Ms. Shelly Good and Ms. Raven Young are students in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health in Statesboro GA completing a degree in Health Education and Promotion. Their senior capstone experience is to work with an after-school program with elementary school. The intervention program they have implemented works with improving self-esteem among these children.
Dr. Helen Bland is a Professor in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health In Statesboro. She has over 60 peer-reviewed national and international presentations. Dr. Bland has authored over 30 articles with areas of expertise in stress among adolescences and increasing physical activity in vulnerable populations. She teaches Research Methodology, Epidemiology and Healthcare System courses.
Keyword Descriptors
youth, self-esteem, intervention programs
Presentation Year
2015
Start Date
3-3-2015 4:00 PM
End Date
3-3-2015 5:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Good, Shelly; Young, Raven; and Bland, Helen W., "Self-Esteem in Children: A Parental Perspective" (2015). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 107.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2015/2015/107
Self-Esteem in Children: A Parental Perspective
Harborside Center East and West
Objective: Discuss the results of the study that assessed the parental perspective of self-esteem in elementary school children. Topic: Improve awareness of child self-esteem for parents and key adults (teachers, church leaders, coaches). Target audience: parents and school personnel including teachers, administrators, staff and extracurricular personnel.
