Self-Esteem in Children: A Parental Perspective

The purpose of this study was to assess the parental perspective of self-esteem of children in elementary school. The researchers hypothesized that the parental perspective of their child’s self-esteem would be high. Previous literature has discovered a higher level of self-esteem is associated with a low level of unhappiness with one’s body (Sabbah, 2009). It has also been shown that higher levels of self-esteem are associated with lower amounts of time for television, participation in different sports activities as well as the ways that parents raise their children (McClure, 2010). The research design that was used in this study was a quantitative, descriptive, non-experimental study in which a 15-question survey parental perspective of their child’s self-esteem. 131 parents participated. The instrument used in this research design was a modified version of the Tennessee Self-Concept questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics reported means and significant differences. Data analysis indicated that 38.9% of parents believed that their child often liked the way they are. When asked if their child is very careful about his/her appearance, 35.9% of parents answered often. The average self-esteem score parents assigned their child was 46.07 putting them in the high self-esteem range. There was no statistical differences by a child’s age, race, gender, or grade (p<0.05). When a parent was asked if their child wishes to change a few parts of his/her body 48.9% said never while 42% said sometimes. Parents were also asked the question is their child happy with himself/herself and 55% said always. Conclusions show that most parents perceive their child’s self-esteem to be high no matter what age, sex or race. Parents and educators should learn the signs and symptoms of a child with low, moderate and high self- esteem for intervention purposes if and when necessary. Recommendations would be education of parents and educators on the literature available in regards to childhood self-esteem.