Improving self-esteem levels among Ghanaian Junior high students using designed activities

Abstract

The study explored the self-esteem levels of Junior High School students in Ghana. The researchers used designed classroom activities with local sociocultural themes to improve students' self-esteem levels. Also, we examined students' gender difference and association with their self-esteem scores. A total number of 40 students were selected using simple random sampling. The participants were made up of 21 females and 19 males, who were between the ages of 12 and 17 years old. At Phase 1 of the study, all the 40 participants undertook the pre-test assessment. Based on their scores, 11 of them who had low self-esteem scores were selected for both Phase 2 (intervention) and 3 (post-test). By means of a simple random sampling, 6 and 5 students were again assigned into Experimental and Control Groups respectively. Results at Phase 1 showed that there was no significant difference and association between students' gender and self-esteem scores. However, there was a significant difference between the Experimental and Control Groups' self-esteem scores following the intervention phase. Consequently, we recommend that the curricula for basic schools should incorporate self-esteem oriented topics and activities. In addition, future studies should employ a longitudinal approach to study students from the primary level until they reach high school.