Adolescents’ self-esteem: assessment of the roles of religiosity, gender and parenting style

Abstract

The study investigated roles of religiosity, gender and parenting styles on self-esteem of adolescents in Enugu State, Nigeria. Two hundred and eighty-two (282) Secondary School (SS) students in SS classes I, II and III, drawn from Community Secondary Schools (CSS) participated in the study. Participants comprised 134 males and 148 females within the age range of 14 and 17 years, with a mean age of 16.6 years. All the participants were from two-parent homes. Three of instruments were used for data collection: Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Parenting Authority Questionnaire and Religiosity Scale. The results indicated a statistically significant influence of parenting styles on self-esteem, p < .05; significant role of religiosity on self-esteem of adolescents, p. < .001. The result also indicated a non-significant gender differences in self-esteem of adolescents, and non-significant interaction of parenting style, gender and religiosity on self-esteem of adolescents. The results were discussed in terms of the relevance of religiosity and parenting style in self-esteem of the adolescents. Though the result of the study may be partly attributed to the roles of some other factors, such as economic adversity, that were not accounted for in the study. However, it was concluded that higher self-esteem in adolescents is positively related to authoritative parenting style and adolescents’ higher religiosity.