African Journal of Research in Personnel and Counselling Psychology (AJRPCP) 2009, 1 (1), 74-81
Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Adolescent Students’ Self Esteem Sesan O. Mabekoje Olusola O. Okubanjo Department of Educational Foundations and Counselling Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye. This study investigated the role of needs satisfaction in adolescents’ selfesteem. Three hypotheses were raised to determine; (i) the relationship between self-esteem and the various dimensions of psychological needs satisfaction vis-à-vis autonomy, relatedness and competence (ii) the prediction of self-esteem by the combined and relative effects of psychological needs satisfaction; and (iii) difference in self-esteem by the satisfaction of the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence. Sample included 387 students randomly selected from eight secondary schools in an education zone in Ogun State, Nigeria. Two validated instruments were used for the collection of data. Results indicated that the dimension of psychological needs satisfaction are related and also predicted self-esteem. Significant differences also exist in adolescent students’ self-esteem by the level of their autonomy, competence and relatedness. Key Words:
Psychological Needs Satisfaction; Autonomy; Competence; Relatedness; Adolescent; Students; Selfesteem
The concept of self-esteem has become the topic of debate in educational and psychological circles in recent years. The concept is taken to refer to the belief that a person is accepted, connected unique, powerful and capable. In fact, it reflects a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Synonyms of self-esteem include self-worth, self-regard and self-respect (Huitt, 2004). The school plays a major role in building or lowering students' self esteem. A learning environment that offers encouragement, praise and opportunities for accomplishment will promote the development of positive self, while children who lack opportunities to experience in-school success are likely to feel frustrated. Rubin (1999) identifies low self esteem as the underlying factor and difficulty in working independently and completing assignments. Smith while describing students' self-esteem, links it to learner’s social environmental cues, teacher's attitudes and other variables. According to Smith, improving the self-esteem of students involves teachers' considering their own self-esteem because teachers with high self-esteem are more effective teachers. The teacher who is committed to enhancing self esteem must develop a classroom environment that promotes self-esteem in an atmosphere of positive social values. Family background has also been studied alongside self-esteem of elementary and middle school children involving independent variables of gender, grade level, race, socio economic status and family structure, it was found that students living with both biological parents have greater self-esteem than those living with other family structures (Garner, 1995). ______________________________________________________________________________________ Corresponding Author: Sesan O. Mabekoje, E-mail:
[email protected]
PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS SATISFACTION 75
Peasoner (1994) reports findings which show that low self esteem is closely associated with various forms of crime and violence, thus explaining why many rehabilitation and correction programmes do not curb violent and abusive behaviors. Since individuals need a high self-esteem to cope effectively with the demands of life, the development of a child's self esteem is perhaps the most important barometer of future success (McKay & Fanning, 2001). The theory of psychological needs defines them within the framework of Self Determination Theory (SDT) as those nutriments that must be procured by a living entity to maintain its growth, integrity and health (Ryan & Dec, 2000). These needs are three namely: autonomy, competence and relatedness. According to Ryan and Deci, consideration of basic needs is important in providing explanatory utility for a large number of seemingly disparate phenomenon across a wide range of human endeavors, development epochs, and domain of activity. Sheldon, Ryan and Reiss (1996) see psychological needs as particular qualities of experience that all people require to thrive. It is important to note that when a need is fulfilled, it promotes integration and well-being, and when thwarted, fosters fragmentation and illbeing. Deci and Ryan have argued that in humans, at least, three types of nutriments are functionally essential to ongoing personal growth, integrity and well-being, and when thwarted, foster fragmentation and ill-being. The need for competence is fulfilled by the experience that one can effectively bring about desired effects and outcomes. The need for autonomy involves perceiving that one's activities are endorsed by or congruent with the self, and the need for relatedness pertains to the feeling that one is close and connected to significant others. It has been postulated that fulfillment of all these basic needs is essential and necessary for growth, integrity and well-being (Deci, Ryan, Gagne, Leone, Usonor & Kornazhava, 2000). The point is stressed that well-being suffers whenever circumstances are such that people do not experience satisfaction of all three needs. According to SDT, the satisfaction of these three needs is required for development and maintenance of intrinsic motivation, facilitating the integration of extrinsic motivation, fostering intrinsic aspirations, and becoming integrated with respect to the regulation of one's emotion. However, with extrusive literature summarizing that emotional well-being is reliably related to several personality traits (Myers, 1992; Myers & Diener, 1995) and White (1963) auguring that the need to feel competent is a basic organism propensity that underlies selfesteem and self-confidence; this study was stimulated to explaining the influence of the satisfaction of psychological needs on school going adolescent's self-esteem. In carrying out the study three hypotheses were formulated and tested 1. There is no significant relationship between adolescents' self-esteem and psychological needs satisfaction. 2. There is no significant contribution of satisfaction for the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence in the prediction of adolescents' self-esteem. 3. There is no significant difference in the self-esteem between adolescents' with low and those with high satisfaction of psychological needs. The Problem Studies have severally indicated advantages of high self-esteem on various students' learning outcomes. Yet, improvement in the achievement of students has not reached the desired level. It is believed that improving the level of adolescents' self-esteem would greatly solve the problem. However, various factors have been found to accounts for or improve adolescents' selfesteem. There is, however a need to explore the influence of the satisfaction of psychological needs and adolescents' self-esteem. The present study therefore seeks to find the influence of satisfaction of psychological needs on adolescents' self-esteem.
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METHOD Design This study adopted the descriptive survey research in which a set of questionnaire was used in gathering data for the study. This design was embraced because the variables to be studied already existed and there was no need for any manipulation. Participants Participants consisted of 387 students (male = 174, female = 213) randomly selected from eight secondary schools in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State. Fifty students were initially sampled by random selection from each of the eight schools making 400 students sampled for the study. The 387 completely filled, returned and useable questionnaires were included in the analysis. The mean age was 16.19 years (standard deviation 1.57 years, range 13.18 years) involved in the study. Measures Self-esteem The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) was originally developed by Rosenberg (1965, 1979) to measure adolescents global feelings of self-worth or self-acceptance, and is generally considered the standard against which other measures of self-esteem are compared. It includes 10 items that are usually using a four-point response ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Sample items are “I feel that I have a number of good characteristics” and “In general, I am satisfied with myself” Extensive and acceptable reliability (internal consistency and test-retest) and validity (convergent and discriminate) information exists for the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (Blascovich & Tomaka, 1991) A Cronbach alpha a = .86 was reported by Assor, Roth & Deci (2004). Psychological Needs Satisfaction Psychological needs satisfaction was assessed with a 21-item questionnaire adapted from a measure of needs satisfaction at work developed by Ilardi, Leone, Kasser and Ryan (1993) which assesses the extent to which people generally experience satisfaction of their three intrinsic needs autonomy, competence, and relatedness. There are 6 items for competence, 8 items for relatedness, and 7 items for autonomy, to which participants responded on 5-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 (not true at all) to 7 (definitely true). Examples of items are. “I generally feel free to express my ideas and opinions” and “In my daily life, I frequently have to do what I am told” (autonomy), “I pretty much keep to myself and don't have a lot of social contact” and “I consider the people I regularly interact with to be my friends” (relatedness), and “I have been able to learn interesting new skills recently” and “Most days I feel a sense of accomplishment from what I do” (competence) Procedure The participants were met in their schools. The researchers duly briefed the participants that the study was an academic exercise and the data would be used only for the purpose of the research. The instruments were administered and collected from the students the same day. Upon completing the measure, participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation. The 387 completely filled and submitted questionnaires were analyzed using the Multiple (Stepwise) Regression Analysis. Result were tested for significance at the .05 level
PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS SATISFACTION 77 RESULTS Hypothesis One. There are no significant relationship between adolescents’ self esteem and psychological needs satisfaction Table 1: Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Matrix of the Relationship among the variables of the Study (N = 387) Self-esteem
Autonomy
Self-esteem .214(**) Autonomy Competence Relatedness Psy. Needs Satisfaction Mean 18.01 30.05 Std. Deviation 3.46 5.24 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Competence
Relatedness
.203(**) .151(**)
.188(**) .028 .227(**)
28.66 6.25
38.36 5.78
Psy. Needs Satisfaction .307(**) .561(**) .739(**) .649(**) 97.07 11.31
The results in Table 1 revealed that there are significant relationships between adolescents' self-esteem and need for autonomy (r(386) = .214; p< 05); need for competence (r(386) = .203; p tcri = 1.96; df = 385; ptcri = 1.96; df = 385; p
