Influence of Family Types, Peer Pressure and Parental Care on Self Esteem

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of family types, parental care and peer pressure on self-esteem. Five hundred (500) research participants which include undergraduates drawn from Ekiti State University, Ado – Ekiti and Federal University of Oye, Oye – Ekiti were used for this study. Four research instruments were used for this study and this includes Brief family relationship scale used in measuring family orientations and types. Other research instruments include, Rosenborg self-esteem scale used in assessing individuals self-esteem and peer pressure inventory used in assessing domains of peer pressure. Three hypotheses were tested in this study; the first hypothesis tested the relationship between all the variables. Also, the second hypothesis tested the influence of peer pressure on self-esteem while the third hypothesis tested gender differences in self-esteem. Appropriate statistical methods were used in testing the hypotheses. The result of hypothesis one using Pearson Momentum Correlation analysis revealed that there is a significant relationship between self-esteem and family relation. Also, the result revealed further that there is a relationship between self-esteem and peer influence. Moreover, result from hypothesis two using independent t-test table revealed that peer pressure has an influence on self-esteem while result from hypothesis three revealed there is a gender differences in self-esteem. Findings are discussed according to literatures, conclusions are formulated and it was recommended that government should organize programmes and symposia to orientate parents to enhance policy formulation. This research was carried to know and understand how family types, parental care and peer pressure influence self esteem, self-esteem is defined as the feelings of affection for oneself, and there are several research that argue about self esteem and its relation to self evaluation, it also posit the imbalance within family about the equalization and acceptable of role, it also argues about how parental care can influence the person’s development and it explains that peer pressure starts becoming a real influence in a child's life as he grows older because peers interaction becomes to influence as people grow. There is an highlights about the relationship between family type, parental care on self-esteem and personality characteristics. Studies have shown that family and parental influence acts as a mediator of self-esteem and personality development.