Abstract
Students with high self-esteem are likely to perform better in school and deal with stress better than those with low self-esteem. Therefore, to prove that this is so, we researched the impact of self-esteem on stress management and academic performance in colleges. Face-to-face interviews with several college students and several college professors were carried out to get their opinions. Information gathered from the interviews was the main causes of stress to students, how students deal with stressful situations and characteristics of high-performing students and those who score relatively lower. Results showed that students with high self-esteem score much better due to their openness their outgoing nature and their ability to express themselves. On the other hand, Students with lower esteem may perform below average or average because of their inability to express themselves and if in a stressful situation, they may fall into depression.
Keywords; face-to-face interview
Impacts of Self-esteem in Stress Management and Academic Performance in Colleges
Different people have varying self-esteem, and it is the level of self-esteem that determines their behaviour. “Self-esteem is feeling at the centre of your being of self-worth, self-confidence, and self-respect” Duari, Pravakar, (2012). “Self-esteem is the disposition to experience oneself as being competent to cope with the challenges of life and of being worthy of happiness” Nathaniel Branden (1969). People with high self-esteem are open, more outgoing, confident, expressive, proud of themselves and outspoken. On the other hand, those with low self-esteem are the complete opposite and are likely to fall into depression.
Students may get stressed due to academic demands from their teachers, family issues, social issues, and personal issues. Different students cope with stress differently, and this may affect their academic performance. Therefore, we seek to find out the impact of self-esteem on the management of stress and academic performance in colleges.
Objectives
To find out the characteristics of the high-performing students
To find out the traits of students scoring lower than average
To evaluate the main causes of stress among students
To find out how different students deal with a stressful situation
To find out if self-esteem affects stress management
To find out if self-esteem impacts performance in school
Methods
We conducted face-to-face interviews with ten college students and five college professors from random colleges. The students were picked by their performance: five scored high, and five performed relatively low. Opinions from both the students and professors were recorded and later analyzed to give accurate results. The interviews took one hour for all fifteen interviewees.
Conclusion
Research results showed that students who perform well are very confident, open, and outgoing, can express themselves well, and are comfortable with their opinions. Meanwhile, students who perform poorly don’t believe in themselves, are afraid of asking questions, and have low confidence. We also found out that most students get stress mainly from academic demands and some from social issues, and it is their level of esteem that determines how they cope with the stress. We, therefore, concluded that students with high self-esteem are likely to deal with stress better when talking with other people and coming up with solutions. In contrast, those with low self-esteem tend to keep stressful situations to themselves and end up in depression.
References
Nathaniel Branden (1969). http://nathanielbranden.com/on-self-esteem
Duari,Pravakar(2012)IndianJournalofPositivePsychology.
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