RELATIONSHIP BETWEEEN SELF ESTEEM AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG ADOLESCENTS FROM EZEAGU L.G.A OF ENUGU STATE

Abstract

This study discussed the relationship between self esteem and academic achievement among adolescents from Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State. The design was correlation survey and the area of study was Ezeagu Local Government of Enugu State. The population of the study consists of SS II students in public secondary schools in the local government. The sample size was 500 secondary school students chosen through simple random sampling technique. The questionnaire items consisted of three clusters used to determine the relationship between self esteem and academic achievement of adolescents from Ezeagu local government area of Enugu State. Three briefed assistants helped in the administration of the instruments which were all retrieved.  The reliability of the instrument was established using split half method and the results obtained analyzed using Cronbach’s alpha (α) and the result was found to be 0.71. The data collected were analyzed using Pearson product moment of correlation to answer research questions 1,2,3 and 4. The findings of the  study revealed a relationship of 0.78, 0.79, -0.70 and -0.71 for healthy self esteem, poor self esteem, high self esteem and low self esteem respectively. The study further revealed that high and healthy self esteem indicated high positive relationship with academic achievement, poor and low self esteem showed negative high relationship implying that the students with good self esteem tend to achieve higher than students without good self esteem.  The following recommendations among others were proffered and they include, Stakeholders to organize conferences and seminars on overcoming poor and low self esteem, there is the need to train more counselors, referral services should be encouraged, stigmatization of any sort should be discouraged.