Self-Esteem and Sexual Behaviors in the Youth - Research Paper Example

Self-Esteem and Sexual Behaviors in the Youth al Affiliation: Self-Esteem and Sexual Behaviors in the Youth Self-esteem is powerful in an individual’s student life. In this regard, self-esteem can be defined as a person’s feeling towards himself/herself. Psychologists and sociologists define self-esteem as a reflection of a persons’ overall emotional evaluation about him or her. Additionally, self-esteem is usually based on personal beliefs, personal judgment and personal emotion. In this regard, individuals usually create a judgment of self worth, self confidence, self integrity and self respect (O’Sullivan, Meyer-Bahlburg & McKeague, 2006). Usually, self-esteem exists as a result of personal judgment on key issues like how to cope with life challenges, conflict resolution and decision making, as well as ability to achieve success and respect. My paper seeks to address the issue, and also look into possible behavioral consequences with an overall goal of increasing awareness about the effect of self-esteem on sexual behaviors. Discussion Self-esteem is an attractive social psychological construct in which researchers have idealized it as having significant predictor of human outcomes such as exercise behavior and academic success. This is because it has high correlation with an individual’s psychological wellbeing. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, self-esteem is divided into different forms. The first form is the need to respect others while the other form is the need to respect one’s self (inner self-esteem). In this case, Maslow recognizes the need for esteem for one to reach self actualization. He also explained that self-esteem has two aspects; positive self-esteem (characterized by self-love, confidence, social respect and recognition and belief in one’s skills) and negative self-esteem (the complete opposite of positive self-esteem characterized by low self confidence, concern for social flattery and fame). An individual’s self-esteem is developed through his personal life experiences. In this regard, exposure of children to positive experiences creates a favorable attitude thus initiating a positive feeling of self appreciation (Sulak, 2004). Conversely, exposure towards negative life experiences may result to low self attitude and an attitude of low self worth. Parents have a significant role in emphasizing positive morals and exposing the children to positive experiences of unconditional love, parental care and nurture as well as respect for authority (Sulak, 2004). Additionally, parents should expose young children to personal responsibilities as well as providing them with a platform in which they are allowed to air their opinions in the family decision making. This can be achieved by speaking and listening to them in a respectful manner, providing them with appropriate level of affections and attention, acknowledging and accepting their efforts and acknowledgement and teaching them how to accept and correct their mistakes. Parents must also avoid negative self-esteem by exposing the children to heavy criticism and harsh correction of mistakes, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and exposure to domestic violence and drug abuse. This process should be continuous and should be maintained beyond adult life. In the school environment, the teachers (who represent adult authority should) expose the students to behaviors that promote self-esteem. These include equal treatment of students despite their social and economic backgrounds, providing equal opportunities for all students in school activities and encourage group work. However, social experiences also determine self-esteem since in a school environment students will often use social comparisons to determine whether they are better off (or worse off) than their peers in academic or social activities. Additionally as a student gets to adolescence, peer influence also further magnifies the social comparisons creating social grouping of students in which social appraisals creates relationship where an individual becomes a friend to other peers who are of equal peer ranking. This creates a huge problem since some ranking may require the students to perform socially unacceptable behaviors (like engaging in pre-marital sex, drugs and other crime related behaviors). In most cases, successful relation and recognition with friends creates high self-esteem while rejection by peers results to low self-esteem. Despite several suggestions that indicate unique relationship between self-esteem and early pre-marital sex, the exact nature of this relationship is unknown. Interestingly, the exact relationship between different sexual behavior patterns (based on age, population and culture) and self-esteem is also unknown. According to sociologists, there are three categories of self-esteem associated with adolescents’ sexual behavior (Sulak, 2004). They include school self-esteem, home self-esteem, and peer self-esteem. Adolescents with higher school self-esteem are likely to have sex regularly, at least once every month. On the other hand, adolescents with higher home self-esteem are likely to be conservative; most of them are non-virgins who choose to abstain from sex. Adolescents with higher peer self-esteem are likely to participate in sexual intercourse prior to marriage. To them, sexual experience is a means of getting accepted by peers. Additionally, psychologists have also found that low family self-esteem is associated with risky sexual behaviors for both sexes (Sulak, 2004). Adolescent males with low school self-esteem are likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. On the contrary, female adolescents with low peer self-esteem are unlikely to engage in risky sexual behavior. Researchers also observed that a lower self-esteem increases unwanted pregnancies among girls. Additionally, most of the students who engage in early pre-marital sex have lower levels of self-esteem (based on Rosenberg self-esteem scale) as compared to the students who did not engage in early pre-marital sex. This is because of the attitude created by such students had the main attitude of departing from the socially acceptable societal standards. Adolescents with low self-esteem are interested in validating or enhancing their self-worth, and they consider sex as the best way to do it (O’Sullivan, Meyer-Bahlburg & McKeague, 2006). In addition, adolescents with low self-esteem engage in sex because of affect management reasons. Psychologists believe that adolescents who have not had sex but had a high expectation of doing it in the next year are likely to have lower self-esteem. Higher self-esteem also promotes experimentation in sexual activity with an ultimate aim of improving one’s social status and acceptability by a social group. In addition, several researches indicate self-esteem and its relationship with pre-marital sexual activity are influenced differently on males and females. In this regard, male youth with low self-esteem are likely to have sex for intimacy or desire. Additionally, males are more likely to engage in sexual intercourse by self-esteem reasons with an increase in self-esteem among boys increases the number of sexual partners. Conversely, higher self-esteem among girls reduces early sexual intercourse. Also, an increase in self-esteem reduces the number of girls’ sexual partners. An increase in self-esteem among girls increases the chance of using condoms or contraceptives. Interestingly, Sexual Agency, Sexual Arousal, and Negative Sexual effects are the reliable dimensions of female adolescents’ sexual self-concepts. Both Sexual Arousal and Sexual Agency are correlated with positive sexual self-esteem. Girls in this category express intentions of engaging in intercourse in the near future (Sulak, 2004). On the contrary, girls with Negative Sexual Affect are associated with substantial abstinence attitudes. In contrast, adolescents with higher self-esteem are likely to have positive attitudes towards sex. For instance, they tend to be comfortable with sex; they can talk freely about it. On the contrary, adolescents with lower self-esteem do not prefer to talk about sex. Most of them think that sex brings trouble to individuals. In addition an increase in self-esteem reduces the chances of using a condom among boys in the lowest rank of self-esteem. Conclusion The relationship between self-esteem and pre-marital sex is of paramount significant (O’Sullivan, Meyer-Bahlburg & McKeague, 2006). Pre-marital sex has negative effects to students and economy in general, in this regard, Furstenberg (1989), suggests that the student’s family, companions, and groups all affected the choice of a student to start taking part in pre-marital sex. In the United States, approximately, $29 billion is used yearly as cost providing assets to pregnant adolescents, while the lifetime cost for individuals who have gotten a STD amid the ages of 15 to 24 are roughly $6.5 billion. A study of 12 to 19-year olds reported that 47 percent of youth felt their guardians had the most impact on their decisions about sex. It is therefore very important for parents, as well as other individuals of authority to appreciate the role of parental guidance (Sulak, 2004). In this regard, parents are expected to create a closer connection with their teenage children and create open communication channel that facilitates fruitful dialogue on effects of pre-marital sex. Furthermore, positive father figure presence and interaction is a significant contributor in deferring pre-marital sex among teenagers and adolescents. References O’Sullivan, F.L., Meyer-Bahlburg, H.F.L., & McKeague, I.W. (2006). The Development of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory for Early Adolescent Girls. Psychology of Women Quarterly 30, 139–149. Sulak, P. J. (2004). Adolescent sexual health. Journal of family practice, 53, S3-S4. Read More