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Adolescent Self Esteem Essay

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The study by Steese et al. (2006) included 63 adolescent girls with a mean age of 13. The program met for ten weeks. Each session featured a different topic, such as relationships and friendship. Results of the study indicate that self-esteem measures between testing were not significant, but several related concepts proved to be. Self-efficacy attitudes did significantly improve after treatment and can be linked to positive self-esteem. An explanation for their results is the possibility that the short duration of time could not change girls’ levels of self-esteem. “Every Body is Somebody” is another program (McVey & Davis, 2002) with the goal of improving several areas in participants’ lives, including body image satisfaction, eating …show more content…

Parents’ involvement in the process of building self-esteem appeared to contribute to adolescents’ improved perceptions of how their parents view them. There are also multicultural considerations to have within the literature on adolescent self-esteem. Berk (2007) considers culture as one of the greatest influences on a child’s self-esteem. Cultural values and traditions impact how an adolescent feels about themselves and their place in the world. Culture can be protective or it can present an adolescent with stress that may damage self-esteem. Keeny and McEachern (2009) identify many multicultural challenges to self-esteem. Some of these challenges include acculturation and discrimination. If an adolescent does not demonstrate behaviors valued by the culture in which they reside, their behaviors will prove to be potential challenges to their self-esteem. This must be taken into consideration when reviewing the literature on these adolescent populations. In addition to being cautious about what language and vocabulary is used in self-esteem research, researchers should clearly define what aspect of self-esteem they are measuring. In a sample of adolescents ranging in age from 12 to 16 years old, Kenny and McEachern (2009) found that Hispanic adolescents scored higher than both African American and Caucasians on their self-concept. When different subscales were used, the results were

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