Effects of Adolescents’ Socioeconomic Status on Their Self-esteem: A Case of School going Adolescents in Central Bhutan

Many factors have been suggested, debated and instituted across the schools toward enhancing the quality of learning. However, the psychological aspect of learners rarely come up as an issue of discussion though various researches has pointed that improving the psychological aspect of learners can have a profound effect on the overall success and well-being of learners. One prominent psychological aspect of learners is self esteem that can have a significant effect on the way learner engages in activities, deals with challenges and connects with others. It also has an influence on learner’s motivation to learn competently and willing to face challenges. Therefore, this study examines the effects of adolescents’ socioeconomic status on their self-esteem at school. The study was conducted on the 61 adolescents from grade six to eight studying in three different schools in central Bhutan. A sequential mixed method based on survey, students’ reflections and interview were used to collect the data. Descriptive statistical techniques and Pearson correlation were used analyzed the quantitative data. The qualitative data was inductively analyzed through qualitative thematic analysis. The findings showed the significant positive correlation between the self-esteem and socioeconomic status indicators such as father’s education level, family monthly income and modes of travel to reach. Findings also indicated that adolescents’ school context experiences such as low academic achievement, interpersonal relationship with their teachers and peers, participation in co-curricular activities, friends undermining their intelligence was reported to be affecting their self-esteem at school. Further, finding suggest that adolescents’ school experience was influenced by their SES that ultimately affecting their self-esteem at school. The findings from this study suggest that education stakeholders in Bhutan need to understand how the adolescents’ school context experiences and socio-cultural aspects could impact the students’ self-esteem and emotion at school. While there has been some indication in this study that school context experiences and socio-cultural aspects impacting the students’ self-esteem and emotions, further research needs to carried out to explored this issue and accordingly addressed. Otherwise, the poor self-esteem and negative emotions at adolescence age period is link to later mental health and its related behaviour, poor educational attainment and economic participation, and well-being. Keywords: adolescent, self-esteem, socioeconomic status DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-8-01 Publication date:March 31st 202