Abstract
School non-attendance is often accompanied by declines in self-esteem. The present study investigated factors associated with self-esteem in junior high school students. Self-esteem, “willingness to attend school”, "school life competency" and "consistent lifestyle practice" were evaluated using anonymous questionnaire surveys in 892 students. Self-esteem was quantitated using the scale created by Rosenberg (1965). Association between self-esteem and other variables were analyzed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Self-esteem was significantly associated with school life competency (r = 0.501) and consistent lifestyle practices (r = 0.352). Moreover, self-esteem was significantly correlated with willingness to attend school (r = 0.449). Willingness to attend school was also correlated with school life competency (r = 0.476) and consistent lifestyle practices (r = 0.41). These findings imply that improving the consistency of lifestyle practices and enhancing school life competency may increase self-esteem in the students, which will be beneficial to increase students’ willingness to attend school.
