Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is important, but how important is it? Actually, it is not as important as most people think. In the 1980’s the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem decided to find out. Researchers reviewed thousands of available studies on the subject and found that “There is little or no correlation between high self-esteem and a reduction in teen pregnancy, drug use, violence in schools.” In other words, telling children they are wonderful and that wining is not as important as playing the game makes them feel good, but there is no evidence that it makes them behave better or achieve anything.

One of the task force findings was that American students consistently have higher self-esteem but lower reading and math scores than students do from other industrialized countries. What we have in America is self-esteem unsubstantiated by intellectual achievement. In the last few years there have been several studies exploring the relationship between self-esteem and academic performance. They found that self-esteem does not produce enhanced achievement. Rather, achievement produces enhanced self-esteem.

Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. It is your general assessment of yourself. It is how much you like yourself. The following is a list of characteristics of a person with high or low self-esteem.