An Examination of Factors Effecting Adolescent Self-esteem Adolescence is a time in a persons development when many changes are occurring. Transitions in an adolescents development that take place include physical maturation, shifting educational environments, an increased association with peers, and developed cognitive abilities (Barber & Chadwick, 1992). Barber and Chadwick (1992) report that these developments allow the adolescent to consider their value and position in society. They further report that an adolescents self-esteem can be a useful marker of the success with which he or she is proceeding through this important period (Barber & Chadwick, 1992, p.128).Block and Robins (1993) define self-esteem as:The extent to which one perceives oneself as relatively close to being the person one wants to be and /or as relatively distant from being the kind of person one does not want to be, with respect to person-qualities one positively and negatively values. (p. 911)Block and Robins (1993) discuss self-esteem as requiring two kinds of assessment. The first is an evaluation between how an individual perceives themselves and the self they desire to be. The second involves the specific elements and criteria an individual uses in relation to their self-evaluation (Block & Robins, 1993). Verkuyten (1990) discusses how individuals differ in their view of perceived self-concept. Certain characteristics of the self-concept are not equally important regarding self-esteem. Verkuyten (1990) reports that most research that has studied self esteem uses a long list of characteristic features and the person is to rate his/her degree of agreement or disagreement; the relevance to the individual is disregarded. William James (as cited in Block & Robins, 1993) conceives self-esteem as the correlation of a persons successes with their desired goals and ambitions. Rosenburg (as cited in Block & Robins, 1993), along the same comprehension as Jam...
