Self-esteem is an assessment of a person’s identity towards himself, concerning self-esteem, and seeing how appropriate a person is in his environment, whether positive or negative. According to Ghufron (2011) self-esteem is a positive or negative assessment of oneself that is carried out by a person to show the extent to which the individual has self-confidence based on his relationships with other people and the environment.
At the age of adolescence, self-esteem becomes an important factor especially at the teenage stage, it requires a high level of self-confidence. Which later this will affect the social and academic aspects. Low self-esteem or low self-esteem can affect psychological, physical, and social consequences which will have an impact on the successful development of the child’s transition to adolescence.
Self-esteem determines a person’s overall mental development (McClure, Tanski, Kinsbury, Gerrard, & Sargent., 2010). In adolescence various changes — changes in emotional stability, physical, and hormonal changes will emerge and result in the formation of self-concept and assessing the meaning of oneself in living life.
In adolescence, this often happens, considering that adolescence, especially early teens need recognition of who they are, and how important they are in life. There is a mindset that wants to continue to find its identity. Who am I, what am I for, and questions like that often swirl in the minds of teenagers.
Self-esteem cannot be separated from the need for one’s identity. This is certainly very sticky with teenagers in interpreting themselves in their environment. In adolescence, individuals begin to develop new and newer thinking patterns or cognitive abilities until they reach a point that is truly mature and able to solve various problems. According to Piaget, adolescence is a phase that is at the stage of formal operational cognitive development, which means that adolescents are able to start thinking abstractly, logically, and systematically (Santrock, 2003).
The adolescent stage is considered the most important crucial stage for individuals to find their identity. Here, adolescents will begin to find identity and self-awareness, that is, with one way, adolescents begin to evaluate themselves which evaluation can come from the assumptions of others. This is also known as self-esteem. Furthermore, Guindon (2009) states that self-esteem consists of feelings of worth and acceptance that individuals develop for the consequences of awareness of competence and feedback from outside the self.
As understood, this self-esteem can be negative or positive. Individuals who have high self-esteem tend to be happy, optimistic, proud and satisfied with themselves, ignore negative feedback and seek feedback on competence, are brave, flexible, and more productive. Meanwhile, individuals who have low self-esteem have negative perceptions in viewing or evaluating themselves and their environment, are pessimistic, dissatisfied with themselves, tend to experience social anxiety, and are more sensitive or easily offended. In adolescence, self-esteem has been found to decrease in relation to puberty, the capacity of adolescents to think abstractly about themselves and the future, and the transition to a more challenging social context (Robins & Trzesniewski, 2005).
The high and low self-esteem in adolescents is influenced by three important components where these components are involved in the process of evaluating themselves, the three components are feedback from significant others (knowledge of who they are and feelings about their identity), values they have (belief in personal values). , as well as awareness of the level of competence and appreciate their achievements (Guindon, 2010; Harter, in Bos, Muris, Mulkens, & Schaalma, 2006).
However, apart from these three components, self-esteem is also related to the gender factor. Self-esteem in adolescent girls is more related to the satisfaction of being accepted, valued, emotionally, especially regarding their physical appearance. While self-esteem in men tends to be related to the development of competencies that can be shown through achievement.
Basically, self-esteem in adolescents is very complex because it has an impact on various important aspects in its development, such as academic achievement, social relations, and even psychologically. Therefore, considering that the problem of self-esteem in adolescents is very influential and has a major impact on the achievement of developmental tasks, it is very important to immediately handle or intervene in adolescents with low self-esteem.
If the problem of self-esteem is not immediately addressed, later this will cause the individual not or difficult to know personal values, not knowing the extent of his capacity, making it difficult to answer who he is and what his future plans are when he grows up.
Intervention is not only needed within the academic scope, but includes all aspects of the surrounding environment, be it friendship, family, social, and so on. The image that will appear when the teenager has good self-esteem, not only has a positive impact on himself, but also for the surrounding environment. The value that the teenager has can be a tool to be able to have a positive influence on the environment outside of him.
Adolescents who judge themselves positively will lead to subjective well-being or the way he views himself positively. Building this kind of mindset needs to start early, considering that self-esteem is needed and affects one’s self-worth and self-esteem. As in the academic field, adolescents who have low self-esteem feel that they do not deserve to get good rankings in class, feel unworthy to get good grades, and feel inappropriate to participate in activities whose image makes the school proud. Seeing this, of course, low self-esteem should not undermine the soul of a teenager.
Teenagers as the nation’s future youth should be able to build and be built with positive characters, inspire, and motivate the nation’s youth to continue to explore the potential that exists in themselves. Because basically, competence in adolescents is very crucial, saves many real miracles if teenagers are able to display at the right time, it will welcome their self-confidence and self-esteem that they are worthy and worthy.
The issue of self-esteem becomes a complex responsibility for the adolescent environment, such as the family environment through the role of parents and the school through the role of the teacher. How to build a teenager’s self-confidence, his appropriateness for his environment, and a positive mindset so that teenagers are more motivated to become better individuals and are able to evaluate themselves as optimally as possible.
Have you ever experienced self-esteem?
