The question of this thread seems to be : Do school programs aimed at improving students' self-esteem produce results?
Rather than speculate, let's see if anyone has actually investigated this.... gimme a second.....
"Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles?" by Baumeister, Roy F., Department of
Psychology, Florida State University. The article appears in the journal "Psychological Science in the Public Interest"....
Quick Abstract:
"Self-esteem has become a household word. Teachers, parents, therapists, and others have focused efforts on boosting self-esteem, on the assumption
that high self-esteem will cause many positive outcomes and benefits-an esteem assumption that is critically evaluated in this review.... "
The abstract doesn't tell a whole lot, but the author was actually an advisor of mine before he left for FSU. Actually, a lot of research aimed at
the construct of "self-esteem" was done at the institution. I would get this article, but it's not carried by the library where I work.
Anyways, "self-esteem" exists. That is, it's something that you can measure, and something that can change over time. As an above poster mentioned,
self-esteem is related to an individual's ability to regulate their own behavior, interpret their experiences in a way that enhances their self-image
or reinforces positive aspects of their self-image, and it's also tied to an ability to resist group influence, although not as strongly.
However, self-esteem isn't really distributed normally on a bell curve. Actually, the majority of us have "high self-esteem." Younger individuals
on the lower end, who have very low self-esteem, may be at risk for failure in school, getting involved in drugs, and being involved in other
"risky" behaviors (like sex at a very young age, etc.).
The self-esteem movement was created from the (faulty, imho) interpretation of this pattern that low self-esteem = low grades/success, high
self-esteem = good grades/success. There is no data that I know of showing that self-esteem the cause of academic achievement, only that there is a
correlation between low achievement and low self-esteem. Even this is confounded by socioeconomic factors, parenting factors, and who knows what else.
These programs are created with the best intentions, but I don't think they are based in enough research. With more critical evaluations of these
programs and the movement itself, we will either see these programs go away, get less funding, or improved.
Of course, I'm biased. I'd like to see more arguments/data showing that self-esteem "programs" at the older age levels are capable of increasing
self-esteem. I'm not saying that this data doesn't exist, just that I don't know where it is.
[Edited on 18-2-2004 by phaedrusxxx]
[Edited on 18-2-2004 by phaedrusxxx]