RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-ESTEEM AND HAPPINESS AMONG RURAL ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

The present study was designed to assess the relationship between self-esteem and happiness among rural adolescents. A sample of 200 rural adolescents (100 males and 100 females) studying in Government Senior Secondary Schools located in the Jhajjar district of Haryana. Their age ranged from 15 to 18 years, representing the middle and late stages of adolescence has been taken for this purpose. A questionnaire on Self-Esteem Inventory, developed by Virk and Chauhan (2003) and Chinese Happiness Inventory (CHI) developed by Lu and Shih (1997) were administered on the samples. The obtained data was analyzed through mean, SD and Pearson’s coefficient of correlation. The findings revealed two important observations. First, the participants demonstrated relatively high levels of self-esteem. Second, they reported comparatively low levels of happiness despite their positive self-evaluation. The findings of the present study have important implications for educational psychology, clinical psychology, counseling psychology, and community mental health. Since self-esteem was found to be positively associated with happiness among rural adolescents, interventions aimed at strengthening self-esteem may contribute significantly to improving their overall psychological well-being.