Influence of Parental Employment Status on Caribbean Adolescents' Self-Esteem

Abstract

Potential connections between the self-esteem of adolescents and their parents’ employment status have been revealed in the literature. This cross-sectional study examines the relation of gender, age, and parental employment status to academic and global self-esteem of 369 fourth to upper sixth form Caribbean secondary school adolescents. Their ages ranged from 13 to 18 years old (M=15.52, SD=1.21), 223 were females and 146 were males. The participants completed a questionnaire that assessed academic and global self-esteem. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, Independent t-tests and Multiple Regressions were used to analyse the data obtained from the sample. Results indicated no significant differences in self-esteem between male and female adolescents. With regard to age, the 16-18 year old age group had higher levels of academic self-esteem than the 13-15 year olds. Adolescents of unemployed parents had the highest academic and global self-esteem. However, multiple regression analyses did not reveal any predictive relationships. These findings are discussed with due consideration of earlier research and their implications for the psychology of Caribbean people.