Family Climate in Nurturing Individuals’ Self-Concept: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

In general, family has a significant influence on how individuals form their self-evaluations because they form their primary self-concepts in their familial context, which serves as a foundation for secondary self-concepts formed through relationships outside the family. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on the influence of family climate in nurturing individuals’ self-concept. This study obtained the data from qualitative research for the doctoral degree of one of the authors and involved 46 millennial respondents who lived in Malaysia. The Google Forms (Docs) have been utilised in conducting a web-based written interview from May to July 2021. By referring to the feedback of the respondents, this study found the family climate influenced the self-concept of the individuals in five aspects, which are in terms of their ideology, education, character building, religious belief, and political belief. This study believes that the identification of the influence of family climate toward the self-concept of their family members allows more opportunities for them to improve their families’ significant responsibilities in helping their children build and refine their positive self-concept. As a result, key qualities and characteristics of good citizenship are promoted at the individual, interpersonal and societal levels.