Relationship between self-esteem and social support in college students

Shaobin MA; Cunxin FAN; Xin PENG; Xiaoyan WU

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Some scholars thought that social support is one of the key factors in determining self-esteem, and most scholars thought that subjective support is more meaningful than objective support. Yet on the domain of social support, Chinese scholars still put forward a problem about utilizations of social support besides subjective and objective support. However,how is the relationship between self-esteem and social support, especially the utilizations of social support in college students?

OBJECTIVE:

To probe into relationship between self-esteem and social support of college students and understand self-esteem and social support status of them.

DESIGN:

Cluster sampling and present situation study based on college students.

SETTING:

Department of medical psychology and behavior science in medical college of a university.

PARTICIPANTS:

Totally 154 comprehensive college students in south China were investigated.

METHODS:

Adopting self-esteem scale(SES) and social support questionnaire(SSQ) to conduct a self-evaluating investigation among 154 students in a comprehensive university in south China.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

The scores on SES and SSQ on three dimensions for 154 college students.

RESULTS:

The boy college students got higher scores on self-esteem than that of girls' ( t = 2. 510, P ＜ 0 05). Non-only-child college students' total scores and utilizations of social support were significantly higher than only child college students(t= -1.983, P ＜0.05; t= -3.475, P=0.01).The self-esteem was significantly positive correlated with the utilization of social support.

CONCLUSION:

College students'self-esteem is related to social support.