THE STUDY OF SELF-ESTEEM OF TEENAGE STUDENTS OF DIVORCED FAMILIES IN BANGKOK
This research aims to study the relationship between the self-esteem and the experience of parents divorced among the teenager students of divorced families. The study process was separated into two parts, the first is the quantitative research with 288 students using self-report questionnaire and the qualitative research with 7 in-depth interviews. The target population is the group of high school students both male and female from divorced families.
The research areas included sex, age at parents divorce, birth order, school achievement, adult in charge of student, family size, income, occupation, parent’s remarriage, cause of divorce and the frequency of parental visit. The study found that sex, school achievement, cause of divorce, frequency of parental visit to have strong effect on the level of self-esteem and on the world view and future outlook of the children from divorced families. Female teenagers have the lowest self-esteem compared to males. Those aged between 4-7 years old when divorce occurred have the lowest scores on self-esteem. High school achievement has positive relationship with self-esteem. While those living with mothers have the highest self-esteem scores, those living with relatives have the lowest scores on the same scale. Frequent violent argument between parents is found to be the cause of divorce that has strongest blow on the children self-esteem especially girls. Low frequency of parental visit is also found to relate to low scores on Coopersmith self-esteem scale. The study found that birth order, school achievement and the cause of divorce have effected the students world and future outlook. First child with low school achievement and those with the parent who divorced because of frequent violent argument have lower average scores of the world and future outlook compared to other groups of students.
POPULATION AND SOCIAL RESEARCH : M.A.(POPULATION AND SOCIAL RESEARCH) MAHIDOL