Impact of Self - Esteem on Academic Achievement among Adolescents

Sushma, Kumar Kuldeep

Abstract: The aim of the study was to work - out the relationship of cognitive variable (self - esteem) in regulating academic achievements among adolescents in Karnal city of Haryana state. The sample of this study consisted of 611 adolescents (281 boys and 330 girls) studying in 9 and 10th grades. Rosenberg?s Self - Esteem Scale was used to establish the relationship between the two variables. The analysis of the obtained responses were done through One - Way - Analysis of Variance and ?t? test for ascertaining the significance of cause and effect relationship. The findings showed that high, average and low self - esteem groups shown significant effect on the academic achievement of the adolescents between and within the academic achiever groups of high, average and low performers which were formed with the help of formulae as Mean+1Standard Deviation, taking academic achievements an independent variable. High self - esteem adolescents among high, average and low academic achievers were differed significantly with respect to their mean scores of the respective group. High achiever group gave highest mean score (2.62) than average (2.57) and low (2.49) achiever groups with high self - esteem adolescents. Adolescents with high self - esteem achieved higher academic grades than average and low achiever groups. Similarly, adolescents with average self - esteem showed significant differences in the mean scores of the three academic achiever groups. Adolescents with average self - esteem were largely low performer with respect to academic achievement based on the mean scores (2.46, 2.37 and 2.28 with low, average and higher self - esteem groups). Low self - esteem adolescents among high, average and low academic achiever groups were differed significantly with respect to their mean scores of the respective group. The low achiever group gave the highest mean score (2.20) followed by average (2.09) and low (2.00) achiever group with low self - esteem adolescents, accentuating that adolescents with low self - esteem achieved lower academic grades than average and high achiever groups of adolescents in the studied sample. The study recommends that high self - esteem can be taken as a positive stimulus for enhancing the academic performance of adolescents. Contrary to this, low self - esteem is negatively related to the academic achievement of the adolescents.

Keywords: Self - esteem, academic, achiever, adolescents, variance, high, average, low, performer, group, grade, relationship, cognitive