Modeling Self-Esteem: The Potential Impact of School Personnel on Students

Abstract

The term self esteem is an amorphous one, often both used and interpreted in a casual subjective way. In the professional literature, self-esteem is viewed as a component of a more inclusive schematic notion, typically labeled self-concept, (Beane & Lipka, 1980; Calhoun & Morse, 1977; Dickstein, 1977; Rosenberg, 1979), with self-concept being those aspects of self-image that are descriptive, nonjudgmental, and fairly consistent across time, and self-esteem being the aspects or attitudes that are self-evaluative and more vulnerable to situational and value influences According to Covington's (1984) theory of selfworth, the tendency in our society is to equate accomplishment with human value, which creates a perception that individuals are only as worthy as their achievements. Is this notion anywhere more reinforced, both implicitly and explicitly, than in the schools? Students often confuse ability and worth, and there may not be sufficient guidance to help them modify this perception. The net result all too often is that children struggle not to achieve but simply to avoid failure. Because school can be a significant determinant of a student's sense of self, it is essential that school personnel not only understand the fluctuating nature of selfesteem, but also how their own self-esteem, and how they model this through their actions and behaviors, might influence students. To effectively address student self-esteem at a conceptual level, it is first necessary to gain a better understanding of the general climate of self-esteem that exists in the environment where students spend a sizeable portion of their time. Toward this end, the purpose of this present study was to examine levels of self-esteem in school personnel in order to form a base from which to explore the impact of their self-esteem on the students for whom they consistently provide models, and with whom they intimately and consistently interact. The Genesis of Self-Esteem Once children enter school, it is a combination of school factors, family, and innate intelligence that appear to be essential to increasing their self-esteem during the academic years (Hoge, Smit, & Hanson, 1990). Interestingly, Amundson (1991) reports, in an analysis of data from The National Center for Self-esteem, that, as students get older, their self-esteem diminishes. Eighty-nine percent of kindergarten students were reported to have high self-esteem, whereas only 20% of fifth graders, 5% of high school graduates, and 2% of college graduates reported high self-esteem. Children enter school expecting to be successful, and are generally not concerned with achievement outcomes (Stipek, 1984). Over time, however, they learn to care about grades, and many come to have negative beliefs about the likelihood of their being successful. While these changes are attributed in part to the ways children process feedback about their performance as they develop cognitively, they are attributed more significantly to their eventual acceptance of the emphasis on external evaluation for achievement that is common in school systems. Thus, both academically and interpersonally, evaluations from school personnel, family, and peers have a daily impact on students' self-esteem. Because of the multitude of academic and social roles that students assume, they must constantly evaluate and reevaluate their knowledge and skills and compare them to those of others. The School Climate and Self-Esteem School climates are generally considered to be either custodial or humanistic (Beane, Lipka, & Ludewig, 1980). A custodial school climate is characterized by concern for maintenance of order, autocratic procedures, student stereotyping, punitive sanctions, and impersonal interactions. The humanistic climate is characterized by democratic procedures, student participation in decision making, personal interactions, respect, fairness, self-discipline, interaction, and flexibility. …