Two hundred and one unemployed men and women participated in a cross-sectional study that assessed self-esteem, financial deprivation, number of alternate roles, and use of social support. Financial deprivation, alternate roles, and social support each had a main effect on self-esteem. In addition, these variables interacted with gender to affect self-esteem. Specifically, financial deprivation had a greater negative association with self-esteem in men as compared with women. In contrast, alternate roles and social support had a stronger positive relationship to self-esteem in women than in men. The incorporation of these findings into intervention programs for unemployed persons is discussed. Self-esteem can be important in terms of how one thinks, feels, and responds to stressful life events (Overholser et al., 1995). Research has also shown a relation between low self-esteem and feelings of depression and hopelessness in adolescence. Females with low self-esteem are twice as likely to develop depression following a stressful life event than those with average or high self-esteem (Andrews, 1998). During adolescence, a person may experience increased stress in relation to school, friends, and family, as well as new responsibilities and interests (Overholser et al., 1995). An adolescent's environment, especially school, can have a significant influence on selfesteem development, with junior and senior high being critical years (Chubb et al., 1997). Junior high school has been shown to be an important transition time for an adolescent in terms of healthy self-esteem development (Eccles, Midgley, & Adler, 1984; Seidman, Aber, Allen, & French, 1996). In a relevant longitudinal study, it was found that adolescent self-esteem development may be disrupted by transition to a new school (junior high or high school) (Wigfield, Eccles, Mac Iver, Reuman, & Midgley, 1991). This finding could be related to the interruption of students' social networks at a time when friends and peers are important to adolescent development. Another study found that adolescents who remained in a stable school environment had a greater increase in level of self-esteem over an 18-month period than did adolescents who changed school environments (Cairns, McWhirter, Duffy, & Barry, 1990). Many factors are related to self-esteem development in adolescence; previous research has focused on academic ability, social acceptance, body image, gender differences, school environment, media influences, socioeconomic status, relationship with family, age, and ethnicity (e.g., Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997). For this study, the focus was on investigating self-esteem in relation to age, ethnicity, gender, and risk behaviors among students attending schools outside the mainstream educational system. AGE AND SELF-ESTEEM Findings on age as a predictor of self-esteem have been inconsistent. Several longitudinal studies (Bergman & Scott, 2001; Block & Robins, 1993; Chubb et al., 1997; Wade, Thompson, Tashakkori, & Valente, 1989) and a cross-sectional study (Mullis & Chapman, 2000) found that self-esteem levels remained constant with increased age, and therefore increased age was not a significant predictor of self-esteem. Other longitudinal research indicated a gradual increase in self-esteem across adolescence (Hirsch &
Rapkin, 1987; Jones & Meredith, 1996; O'Malley & Bachman, 1983; Wigfield et al., 1991). Conversely, other studies have shown that self-esteem decreased over time during adolescence (Brown et al., 1998; Robins, Trzesniewski, Tracy, Gosling, & Potter, 2002). Robins and colleagues (2002) reported that self-esteem is highest during childhood, drops significantly during adolescence, and then increases again into adulthood. Age, as a predictor of self-esteem, has yielded many different findings. Thus, it may be useful to explore the relation between age and self-esteem in nonmainstream student samples in order to clarify this disparate knowledge base. GENDER AND SELF-ESTEEM Previous research on gender, in relation to self-esteem, has been fairly consistent. The majority of studies have found that during adolescence, females report lower self-esteem (Cairns et al., 1990; Chubb et al., 1997; Martinez & Dukes, 1991; Quatman & Watson, 2001) and greater depressive mood (Marcotte, Fortin, Potvin, & Papillon, 2002) in comparison to males. Some research has also shown that not only do adolescent females report lower self-esteem, but their self-esteem decreases and depressive symptoms increase over time when compared with males (e.g., Robins et al., 2002). Maehr and Nicholls (1980) suggested that some gender differences in self-esteem might be due to a response bias, in that girls have been found to be more modest in self-report measures than boys. Furthermore, some research has shown that gender differences in adolescent self-esteem may be linked to gender differences in the perception of physical appearance. For example, a longitudinal study of students in the 3rd through 11th grades indicated that in elementary school, boys and girls viewed their physical appearance equally, but at the end of high school, girls' views of their physical appearance was significantly lower than those of boys (Harter, 2000). Brown and colleagues (1998) also found that European American boys rated themselves as more attractive and reported liking themselves better relative to European American girls. In addition, African American females were found to be as adjusted or better adjusted than European Americans, to generally feel satisfied with themselves, and to have high educational expectations (Gibbs, 1985). In conclusion, the available research consistently shows that males tend to have higher self-esteem than do females; therefore it is important to explore gender in relation to self-esteem among nonmainstream students. Reference: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_155_39/ai_n9488734/pg_4/? tag=content;col1
