Self-esteem of high school students: A structural equation modelling analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the parents’ success pressure, academic stress and fear of negative evaluation on high school students’ self-esteem. The relationships between self-esteem and parent’s pressure for academic success, fear of negative evaluation and academic stress on high school students were investigated employing structural equation modelling. The data were collected from 499 students studying at an Anatolian high school in Duzce province with purposeful sampling method. The characteristic of this school is a project school with successful students who get the highest score in the High School Entrance Examination. The result demonstrates that parental pressure for academic achievement on students and associated academic stress increase students’ fear of being evaluated negatively at school, which in turn affects students’ self-esteem. The fear of negative evaluation is a partial mediator between parental pressure and self-esteem, and full mediation between academic stress and self-esteem.

Keywords: Parent pressure; fear of negative evaluation; academic stress; self-esteem, high school.