Self Esteem Whose Responsibility Is It Anyway?
...is it?
Jenni Looper
Self esteem plays a strong role throughout a person's life, effecting relationships, career choices, and emotional wellbeing. Every person who comes into a child's life can have an effect on their self-esteem. Although many people are interested in self esteem, what exactly does that mean and whose responsibility is it to nurture a child's self esteem? Since by age five most of a child's self concept is formed, I believe parents have the biggest impact in building self-esteem in their children. Although there are exceptions most adults with high self esteem can point to encouraging parents. While I believe parents have the primary responsibility for laying the foundation for healthy self esteem in their children, I also believe everyone who comes in contact with the child has a role in nurturing self-esteem, including teachers and day care workers.
It is important to have a true understanding of what self-esteem actually means. "Some people may believe that self esteem is how they feel about themselves, but actually self esteem is a set of unconscious self beliefs formed over a lifetime and a reflection of our perceptions of our abilities, our lovability and how we attribute causality to the events in our life." (Shindler, 2006, p.1).
Children who have high self-esteem generally make friends easily, show enthusiasm for new activities and can control their behavior. They play by themselves and with other children, are cooperative and follow age appropriate rules. They are full of energy and have their own ideas. "In his book The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Branden discusses the six practices he's found to be essential to healthy self-esteem. They include, respect for facts, self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertiveness, living purposefully and personal integrity." (Branden, 2006, Para.3)...
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