Building Self-Esteem in Children and Adolescents

Self-esteem refers to the evaluation subjectively by an individual towards their worth personally. The composition of self-esteem includes the belief that a person has about themselves and the state in which they are emotional, for example, shame, triumph, pride, and disparity. Self-esteem is divided into three categories that involve: high, low and inflated self-esteem. Self-esteem is composed of some few components: having a competent feeling, having a sense of belonging, identity, and self-confidence (Keane, & Loades, 2017). Building self-esteem in children and adolescents is critical for their growth and for them to express themselves. There are many ways in which parents can help in the building of self-esteem in their children. Some of the guidelines in which parents can build confidence include; parents helping their children at an early age learn to do things by themselves.

While teaching the children how they can go about doing their own activities as a parent, one has to do the activity first. The child requires to be praised and cheered as they try to do things on their own. Harsh criticism should be avoided and instead focus on what the child is going to. As a parent, the kid should be allowed to give and help by the parents being good role models. For adolescents’ self-esteem to be built, it needs a team that involves teachers, parents, and other people who wish them good well-being. Adolescents require awareness to make them know that the voice that plays in their own mind has a role to play (Orth, & Robins, 2019). Adolescents also need encouragement to learn how to do things independently and often be encouraged to be amongst people who bring out positivity in them by saying encouraging and helpful words.

Adolescents are needed to know that it is okay to accept the things that are not perfect and work on the ones that are perfect through the setting of goals and keeping the focus on the goals that go well. My research question is ‘How can the building of self-esteem in adolescents and children help in reducing mental issues?’ the research question relates to my specialization in psychology as it requires one to connect to the patients who are adolescents and children (Keane, & Loades, 2017). As a psychologist, one needs to be equipped with ways in which I can help my patients with the nourishment of their self-esteem, incredibly when it is low. Some of the ways self-esteem can be instilled in the patients, especially children and adolescents, includes; affirming them of their worth, guiding them on how they can learn to appreciate the compliments given to them.

How they can stop criticizing themselves and instead be compassionate about themselves. As a psychologist learns about the issues such as mental illnesses that cause many issues related to self-esteem amongst adolescents and children. This helps in the learning of giving affirmations that are positive in the correct manner by assisting patients in identifying their strengths and encouraging them to learn (Harris, & Orth, 2020). When dealing with the parents whose children have self-esteem issues, they need to be involved in their children’s healing process and be guided on how they can help build the self-esteem of their adolescents and children to show support and their love towards the victims.

Literature review

Internalized shame and racism

According to Amber (2020), she explained that internalized shame and racism among African Americans had an association with self-esteem making children and adolescents have mental issues. Through Amber’s research, she tried to find out the relationship racism and internalized shame had to do with self-esteem. She involved African American college students in helping with her research. Students who were greatly cruised because of their race and color were likely to suffer from self-esteem issues. This is because they are viewed as an outcast due to the parents of the Whites spreading hatred to their children about the African Americans who are considered slaves, making it be passed from one generation to another, thus forming a cycle of racial biasness. Racism is said to cause psychological injuries to African Americans, causing depression, stress, anger, anxiety, and trauma, leading to a reduced quality of life. Amber, through her research, answers the research question, ‘How can the building of self-esteem in adolescents and children help in reducing mental issues?’

Self-esteem and quality of life

According to Martinsen et al. (2021), their research on self-esteem and quality of life suffers when children and adolescents have mental problems. Their research was carried out on school going students aged 8 to 12 years wanting to find out whether the emotion intervention could have an influence on the children dealing with depression and anxiety. With the results obtained, it was found out that depressive and anxiety symptoms in older children have lower levels of self-esteem. The research explained that having a reduced life quality and self-esteem was not fully mediated by the reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. Having people taking part in an intervention that focuses on self-esteem and life quality may have a positive impact.

Social networking sites

According to Krause et al. (2019), they explain how social network sites have an impact on the self-esteem of adolescents and children using them. Through the relation of different theories that show how self-evaluative information is put into processing in a human mind and how it influences the self-esteem of individuals. Through the research, some processes that happen in updating self-esteem are; the processing of social feedback, the comparison process socially, and the process of social reflectiveness. From the results, it was found that adolescents and children use social networking sites to compare themselves. When they receive positive feedback, their self-esteem is elevated, while negative feedback injures their self-esteem, making them have low self-esteem.

Conclusion

There has been different research that show self-esteem impacts a child’s ability to learn and interact with other people. Studies show that self-esteem has a role in a child’s behavior and how they relate. Adolescents and children are sensitive, and they show low self-esteem, especially when their emotions are hurt. A psychologist asks those responsible for them to be on the lookout for some of the following signs: hostility and criticism sensitivity, whereby they are extra sensitive from criticism if they have esteem issues. Other signs include when having personal problems excessive preoccupation may be observed while they withdraw from social interactions, and other physical could be observed. Ways to improve the children and adolescents’ self-esteem need to be considered as soon as it is noted they are affected and have self-esteem issues. For children and adolescents, it is advisable to have their esteem built from a tender age.

References

Amber J. Johnson | Juliet Wakefield (Reviewing editor) (2020) Examining associations between racism, internalized shame, and self-esteem among African Americans, Cogent Psychology, 7:1, DOI: 10.1080/23311908.2020.1757857

Hannes-Vincent Krause, Katharina Baum, Annika Baumann & Hanna Krasnova (2021) Unifying the detrimental and beneficial effects of social network site use on self-esteem: a systematic literature review, Media Psychology, 24:1, 10- 47, DOI: 10.1080/15213269.2019.1656646

Harris, M. A., & Orth, U. (2020). The link between self-esteem and social relationships: A meta- analysis of longitudinal studies. Journal of personality and social psychology, 119(6), 1459.

Keane, L., & Loades, M. (2017). Low self‐esteem and internalizing disorders in young people–a systematic review. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 22(1), 4-15.

Martinsen, K. D., Rasmussen, L. M. P., Wentzel-Larsen, T., Holen, S., Sund, A. M., Pedersen, M. L., … & Neumer, S. P. (2021). Change in quality of life and self-esteem in a randomized controlled CBT study for anxious and sad children: can targeting anxious and depressive symptoms improve functional domains in schoolchildren? BMC psychology, 9(1), 1-14.

Orth, U., & Robins, R. W. (2019). Development of self-esteem across the lifespan.