Self-Esteem In Adolescents

ABSTRACT

To an educator, the stages of human development are critical to educational reform. To a secondary educator, the stages of adolescent development are especially important. Certainly, at the very least, adolescence (Baer, 1999) is a time of considerable biological, cognitive, and emotional growth. Yurgelun-Todd (online) suggests that adolescents may process emotions in that part of the brain responsible for instinct and gut reactions, the amygdala, whereas adults process emotions in the frontal section which implies a physiological maturation of the brain during adolescence. Self-esteem, "the evaluative component of self-image, the positive or negative manner in which a person judges herself or himself" (Guinn, et al., p. 517) may be, in part, responsible for successful academic achievement. However, although there have been many studies using self-administered testing scales, there does not appear to be more than a correlation between self-esteem and successful academic performance. Other considerations, including parental income and involvement, must be studied more rigorously before developing further educational programs which are based on improving self-esteem to the exclusion of other variables.