Questions: Ask Dr. Katz

Archive: Question 3

Question

What is your opinion of the need for self-esteem programmes in schools?

Dr. Katz
A number of self-esteem programs have been developed over the last several decades and have been used fairly widely, especially in California. However, I am not aware of any solid evidence that they have been effective in the long term.

The concept of self-esteem is not easy to define. It generally implies that individuals "estimate" themselves as high or low, or good or bad, on selected criteria that are most likely learned early within the family and strongly linked to the family's culture and, often, social status as well. Because self-esteem is based on estimations of the self on various criteria, it can be expected to fluctuate, depending on the "estimator's" actions and inactions at a given time in a given context.

Whether there are some programs that are more or less successful at helping individuals to maintain an optimal level of self-esteem over extended periods of time is not clear. Below are some resources related to children and self-esteem. If you would like a search of the psychological literature to locate in-depth studies of the phenomenon, do let us know, and we will do our best to help you to find them. In the meantime, you may want to follow the link below to a short monograph I wrote some time ago on the subject; I hope it will be helpful:

http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/books/selfe.html

Web Resources Related to Self-Esteem Programs in Schools

• Ten Activities to Improve Students' Self-Concepts
  http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson085.shtml
• How Can We Strengthen Children's Self-Esteem?
  http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/strengthen_children_self.html
• Self-Esteem and Narcissism: Implications for Practice
  http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/1993/lk-sel93.html
• Prevention of Mental Health Problems
  http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/
  chapter3/sec2.html#prevention