Factors of Self-Esteem Contributing to Academic Performance in Adolescents

Abstract

The focus of the study was to find out whether factors of self-esteem and certain socio-demographic factors contribute towards academic performance in adolescents. Sample: The sample consisted of students taken from classes (VII–XII) from one school and their age ranged between 12 and 17 years; thus the final sample taken was of 727 students. Methodology: The tools used in this research were Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), Sociodemographic Questionnaire and previous year final-term scores. Analysis of Data: Data was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, t-test, F-test, ANOVA and Post hoc Tukey. Conclusion: Self-esteem as a whole and its four sub factors correlated significantly with academic performance. That is, higher the self-esteem, higher was the academic performance. Of the four sub factors, school self-esteem factor appeared to have the highest correlation and home self-esteem appeared to have lowest correlation with academic performance. Self-esteem differed significantly in terms of socio-demographic variables (i.e., age, gender and family type). Academic performance differed significantly in terms of socio-demographic variables (i.e., age, gender and birth order).