THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF ESTEEM AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In psychology, the term self-esteem is used to describe a person’s overall sense of self-worth or personal value. Self-esteem was often seen as a personality trait, which meant that it tends to be stable and enduring. It involved a variety of beliefs about the self, such as the appraisal of one’s own appearance, beliefs, emotions and behaviors. Many scholars have tried to understand the concept of self-esteem, its definition, measurement, stability, sources and the effect it has on various areas of life such as education. Most secondary school students are within the adolescence bracket 12-20 years, and this being a period of storm and stress, levels of self-esteem will likely vary from time to time. Many adolescents struggle with se 2 themselves and the level of their academic attainments. Self- esteem and academic performance seem to be most highly related between the years of about seven to fifteen (Malbi andReasoner, 2000).
Those who feel confident, generally achieve more, while those who lack confidence in themselves achieve less. However, this does not indicate that high self-esteem causes good academic performance since correlation does not mean causation. In other studies, high selfesteem has been a result of good academic performance and not the cause. Reasoner, (2005) explained that there was a general agreement among researchers that there was a close relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement but there are considerable disagreements among them as to the nature of the relationship. Therefore from literature reviewed, the relationship between self-esteem and academic performance was not yet clear since studies reveal conflicting findings. Gender, was generally asserted to impact upon the growth, demonstration and manifestation of self-esteem (Habibollah, Naderi, Rohani, Aizan, Sharir and Kumar, 2009).A number of studies suggest that boys and girls diverge in their primary source of self-esteem, with girls being more influenced by relationships and boys being more influenced by objective success. Previous studies such as one by Twenge and Campbell (2001) suggested that male adolescents have higher selfesteem compared to female adolescents.
