Self-Esteem of Junior High and High School Students

The purpose of the researcher was to investigate the self-esteem of junior high and high school students. The independent variables investigated were quality of family life, birth order, family size, maternal employment, grade level and family structure. The dependent variables were the self-esteem scores from the following sub-scales of the Texas Social Behavior Inventory: Confidence, Dominance, Social Competence and Total. The sample consisted of 166 junior high and high school students. Six composite null hypotheses were tested with three-way analysis of variance (general linear model). A total of 92 comparisons were made, plus 76 recurring. Of the 92 comparisons, 24 were for main effects and 68 were for interactions. Of the 24 main effects, 8 were statistically significant at the .05 level. Of the 68 interactions, 2 were statistically significant at the .05 level. The results of the present study appeared to support the following generalizations: (1) students from happy quality of family life hove higher self-esteem (Confidence) than those from unhappy quality of family life, (2) students from happy quality of family life have higher self-esteem (Total) than those from unhappy quality of family life, (3) students of first birth order have higher self-esteem (Dominance) than those of middle birth order, (4) students from happy quality of family life have higher self-esteem (Dominance) than those from unhappy quality of family life, (5) students from family structure of mother and step-father and other have higher self-esteem (Social Competence) than those from family structure of two biological parents, (6) students from family structure of mother and step-father have higher self-esteem (Total) than those from family structure of two biological parents, 7) quality of family life, birth order and family size should be interpreted concurrently for Social Competence, (8) no associations between maternal employment and self-esteem, and (9) no associations between grade level and self-esteem