ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, nursing has identified the significance of self-esteem in maintaining wellness among adolescents. Low self-esteem has been linked to numerous adolescent risk behaviors such as smoking, drug use, and sexual activity. Adolescents engaging in these risk behaviors may have subsequent health problems, such as alcohol and drug addiction, as well as teen pregnancy. Present treatment modalities for low self-esteem have not been optimally effective. Nursing needs to examine adolescent self-esteem within the discipline of nursing and develop its own prevention and intervention strategies. Guided by the Roy Adaptation Model, our study used a descriptive, correlational design and examined the self-report of self-esteem on age group, gender, exercise participation, smoking, parental alcohol usage, depression, and anger in a nonclinical, community sample of adolescents aged 12-19.
Subject(s)
Psychology, Adolescent , Self Concept , Adaptation, Psychological , Adolescent , Adult , Alcoholism/psychology , Anger , Child , Child of Impaired Parents/psychology , Depression/psychology , Exercise/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Models, Nursing , Models, Psychological , Pregnancy , Smoking/psychology , Substance-Related Disorders/psychology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Although self-esteem is an important concept, nursing has only begun to focus on the significance of self-esteem as a mechanism for achieving wellness among adolescents, and as a variable for targeted intervention. Nursing studies identifying self-esteem as the primary focus of their research in an adolescent population seeking treatment in mental health settings are scarce. The Roy Adaptation Model's Theory of a Person as an Adaptive System was used to guide this descriptive, correlational study. Research examined the self-report of self-esteem on age, gender, smoking, exercise, depression, anger, and parental alcohol use in a sample of adolescents ages 12-19 years who were being treated in an outpatient mental health setting.
