Lackovic-Grgin, K. & Dekovic, M. (1990, Winter). "The contribution of significant others to adolescents’ self-esteem." Adolescence, XXV (100), 839-846.

OVERVIEW

Today’s adolescents have very few deep relationships with adult significant others outside the family. The developmental effects of the absence of adult significant others in the socialization of adolescents must be examined. This study attempts to show the relationship of adolescents’ self esteem to the evaluations of significant others including mother, father, teacher, and friend.

DESIGN

A survey was given to 399 junior and senior high school students in Yugoslavia. The surveys were administered during classroom hours in a group setting to ensure anonymity. The students were divided into three age groups: 104 early adolescents (13-14 years old), 172 middle adolescents (15-16 years old), and 123 late adolescents (17-18 years old). The survey included questions such as, "As a student my teacher thinks I am..." followed by two bipolar adjectives such as "smart...stupid". The students answered on a scale from one to five, with one being "smart" and five being "stupid".

FINDINGS

In the study, self-evaluation was the dependent variable. The means for global self-evaluation for females in the three age groups were 5.29, 6.16, and 6.79. The same figures for males were 6.47, 8.66, and 8.73. For each, the lower values reflected higher self-esteem.

The independent or predictor variable was perceived evaluation of significant others. The four predictor variables (perceived evaluation of mother, father, teacher, and friend) explained the following percentages of variance in self-esteem for each group: 79% for early males, 40% for early females, 62% for middle males, 60% for middle females, 61% for late males, and 60% for late females.

CONCLUSION

The researchers found that younger adolescents had higher self-esteem than older adolescents and females had higher self-esteem than males. The age factor may be due to the fact that adolescents become more critical as developmental changes in logical thinking evolve.

The researchers hoped to prove that the impact of significant others would decrease as adolescents become older. This was only supported in males.

CRITIQUE AND EVALUATION

This study has several minor shortcomings. The first is whether the results and findings are reflective of adolescents around the world since it was done in a selected country. It would be helpful to us if a similar study was done to compare between adolescents in several countries.

The second shortcoming is that it did not include adults outside of the family, or teachers as significant others. This may be because very few adolescents have significant others outside family and teachers and very few adults are involved deeply with adolescents outside their family.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Who are significant others and of what importance are they to adolescents?
2. How are today’s adolescents socialized or "taught" to be adults? Who or what is substituting for parents, teachers and other significant adults who have traditionally helped adolescents transition to adulthood?
3. What is self-esteem? Why do younger adolescents tend to have more self-esteem than older ones? Why do females have more self-esteem than males?
4. What happens to adolescents when they do not become involved with positive adult role models? Is this a serious problem?
5. Why is youth work important today? Do today’s youth need adult friends more today than in the past?
6. How and why does a significant adult’s opinion of an adolescent affect the young person?

IMPLICATIONS

• Youth workers, parents, teachers, and anyone involved with adolescents must know about the effects of self-esteem and socialization on youth. The role of adults in an adolescent’s growth is critical; it has been overlooked to the point that it is now a serious problem. As young people move into their high school years, what a significant other adult says to them becomes more important as does their need for guidance and encouragement.
• Unfortunately, personal surveys results show that an extremely low percentage of high school students feel close to any adults outside the family. Increased positive adult involvement, at deeper levels, is essential.
• The role of the significant other is predominant in relational youth work. Although much attention has not been given to relationships, programs alone do not reach kids. Kids are more effectively and longitudinally reached by the individual and personal touch of adults.

Eric Taylor cCYS