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Self-esteem is a subjective evaluation of an individual’s worth as a person (Orth & Robins, 2014 p.381). Self-esteem is among the main researched themes in the contemporary psychology. Men have shown to have higher self- esteem in a number of longitudinal, cohort-sequential and cross-sectional studies. Additional finding revealed that self-esteem increased with age, increasing from teenage to middle adulthood according to Orth & Robins (2014) Donnellan & Robins (2013) cited in Rentflow et al (2015)
The cultural background of a person expresses a strong and pervasive set of situational impacts which may direct the expression, origins, and perhaps also self-esteem development (Bleidorn et al, 1999). A study carried out to examine gender differences across cultures also effects in self-esteem. A sample of 985,937 men and women. Data was collected between 1999 to 2009 being part of the Gosling-Potter Internet Personality Project (Gosling, Vasire, Srivastava, & John, 2004). The age of the participants ranged between 16-45 years. The pooling of respondents from each country was grouped into age groups with the following 5 cohort groups, that is, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35, and 36-45). Country’s sample for culture diversity findings included samples from Bolivia, Dominician Republic, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey and U.S. A (average age =25 years, SD= 7.2; 60% females from 48 different nations) Single Self-esteem Scale (SISE) using self-report was used to measure self- esteem (Robins et al, 2001). Using 5-point likert scale, participants responded to the item, “I perceive myself an individual who with high self-esteem’’ The scale ranged from Disagree Strongly with point 1and to Agree Strongly with
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point 5). There was a strong evidence of reliability and validity of .75 in the SISE scale (Robins et al, 2001). The current research was not cross-sectional nor did it cut across cultures, it used correlation research design. Self-esteem was measured using Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (RSES) with 10 questions on self-esteem measured at 4-point likert scale. Only a small sample of 480 form 4 high school adolescent students from Nairobi County, Kenya participated in the study. Gender influence and self-esteem was not basically on cultural environmental factors but rather assumed to be the localised different school environments on self-esteem by gender. The boys’ differences in self-esteem and differences in girls’ self-esteem by school type was both studied.
Kristen, Shibley, Carolin, & Brenda (1999) conducted two meta- analytical researces on gender differences in self-esteem. The first analyses had 216 effect sizes which represented participation of 97,121 respondents. The overall effect size was 0.21, a small difference favouring males. The second analyses examined gender differences with 3 large, nationally representative data sets from the National Centre for Education Statistics (NCES). The study involved approximately 48,000 young Americans. The results showed that there is a higher male self-esteem (0.04 to 0.24). The findings from both studies showed that males exhibited high scores on global self-esteem than females, though the difference was small.
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Gentile, Twenge, Grabe, Wells & Maitino (2009) conducted a Meta-Analysis on differences in gender according to specific domains of self-esteem. This involved 10 domains of self-esteem among 115 studies using 32,428 participants. Men recorded significantly higher scores in the area of physical appearance than women (d = 0.35), and self-satisfaction self-esteem (d = - 0.38), personal self (d = 0.28), Academic achievement had no significant gender difference. This also included social acceptance domain, family and influenced self-esteem. The results tell a lot on the influence of reflected appraisals on self-esteem where people try to associate their self-esteem on other people’s opinions and perceptions. In conclusion reflected appraisals model will predict gender differences especially in cultures that exhibit different social standards for men and women (Gentile et al, 2009). The current study was carried out in a different culture, where also gender cultural differences exist. Reflected appraisals on one’s personal attributes were also assumed to vary across gender in relation to school type attended. The current study only used the global self-esteem rather than specific domains of self- esteem. The study also endeavoured to establish if there were both differences in boys’ self-esteem by school type and differences in girls’ self-esteem by school type.
James (1890) competency model asserts that individuals get their self-esteem arising from victories in specific areas. Therefore this model predicts differences in gender in areas where actual performance between these genders
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vary. It is a perspective of self-efficacy that predicts that people have high self- esteem when they have done well and reciprocally do well when they exhibit high self-esteem (Bandura, 1989). The current study is premised within the frame work of this assertion.
Therefore, Students who have performed very well in KCPE and go to well performing national schools will develop high self-esteem. Conversely, high self-esteem may make them perform better in academics. The competencies model (self-efficacy theory) predicts that when females perform better in an area, the gender difference will favour females. For example, when the average girl earns better grade than the average boy, thus academic gender differences in self-esteem should favour females (Gentile et al, 2009). The current study endeavoured to establish whether there were differences in gender and self- esteem across school types for boys only and girls’ only schools.
Hossaini conducted a study among pre-university students in Shiraz using the variables of self-esteem, parenting and gender. Data was collected using Copper Smith self-esteem scale to a sample of 240 students. The findings revealed gender is not a predictor of self-esteem of pre-university students. The current study was to establish if there are gender differences in self-esteem among secondary school students from various school types. The study was also interested in finding out if there is any influence or relationship between self-esteem of boys and girls and their academic achievement. This study
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collected data using modified Rosenberg Self-esteem scale as opposed to Copper Smith self-esteem test scale.
Hossaini (2002) has contradicted other studies that have found a relationship between gender and self-esteem. Zeinvand (2006) cited by Naderi et al (2009) studied the relationship between self-esteem, social support and student’s educational progression in high school in Dareh Shar, a city in Iran. A random sample of 72 (37 boys and 35 girls) was used. Coppersmith questionnaire of self-esteem was used. The t test analyses revealed that more boys had high self- esteem than girls. Naderi cites Zareh (1994) and asserts that there are significant differences in boys and girls self-esteem. Zareh had also used Coppersmith self-esteem scale.
Naderi et al (2009) studied on self-esteem, gender and academic achievement of undergraduate students. There was a sample of 153 (105 males and 48 females) who completed the Persian version of RSES. Multi nominal logistic regression and independent sample t-test was used to analyse the data. A significant gender difference was found between males and females. The current study sought to establish whether there are gender differences in students’ self-esteem among public secondary schools in Nairobi County, Kenya. Those who completed the questionnaire were 451(262 boys and 189 girls) form four students. They used the ten item questions in the modified RSES to determine their level of self-esteem.
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