"Coopersmith described four components of self-worth:
(1) power, or the ability to influence people and events important to the person
(2) significance, or a sense of being accepted and valued by others
(3) competence, or the ability to reach goals
(4) virtue, or behaving consistently with one's moral values and beliefs.
" 'Self-esteem' is the most common term given to self-evaluative behavior, attitudes, beliefs, or perceptions. Global self-esteem, according to Rosenberg, is the most important aspect of the self-concept and involves a person's feelings regarding adequacy and worth, health, appearance, skills, and sexuality. Miller aserted that self-esteem is an important variable in developing hopelessness or maintaining hope, in that individuals need to feel good about themselves, their value, and their worth before they can invest in improving their situations."
From: A theory-based nursing intervention to instill hope in homeless veterans, Tollett, Jane; PhD, RN; Thomas, Sandra; PhD, RN in Advances in Nursing Science, 18(2):76-90, December 1995.
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My high school senior. When she was born and breastfeeding every two hours, 24-7, and I couldn’t shower or read the Sunday paper anymor...
I think developing and maintaining self-esteem is a real challenge in our society, for adults, but particularly for youth. So much of what are kids do is externally motivated and directed, rather than letting it come from inside them, and the development of their own "agency and compass" as I would say it, or their own "power, significance, competance and virtue" as you call it out.
ReplyDeleteJust looking at the titles of your posts it looks like you and I are wrestling with a lot of the same things, though maybe from different perspectives.
Thanks, Cooper - I checked out your blog and I agree. Finding our voice and agency is not easy and shouldn't be so hard. It is one of the responsibilities I feel as a parent - that is, that my girl be safe and take risks, respect others and speak her mind, be strong and count on me. The balance is so fine that it takes a lot of reflection and talking it through with Chris.
ReplyDeleteAlejandra... It does take a lot of reflection, and I think too many parents err on the side of caution and control and give their kids too little of an environment of liberty so those kids can develop their own agency and compass.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it happens - although from where I stand (where I live, work and play), I tend to see less caution and control from parents and more needed. I see that parents tend not to be firm for fear that they will squash their child's creativity and freedom of expression. Or because they want to raise their kids differently than they were raised.
ReplyDeleteI envision parameters set for children by parents with freedom within those parameters. Otherwise, why do they have us around? We are supposed to have more experience, better judgment and wisdom (theoretically). Our offspring tend to be more spontaneous and feel invulnerable. Should 5 year olds bungee jump? What are the risks and benefits? Who will initiate and help with the developmental cost-benefit analysis for any risk taken?
Of course I think all kids are different and parents too. But it seems to me that there are pendulum swings in trends toward a more or less controlling style of parenting. Maybe one or two generations ago, it was more controlling. I don't perceive that to be the social norm now. But that could just be where I am standing.