A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of D. LITT in Communication Science University of Zululand, South Africa, 2005. / In this dissertation I present the results of a literature survey on the reasons for demotivation among adolescents, and the role of communication in remotrvating demotivated adolescents, and a subsequent empirical survey of how adolescents feel about themselves and others of a group of grade 10 and 11 learners in the eThekwini region of the KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. I report results on the respondents' self-conceptualisation, their family, how they feel about school, homework, school relationships, peer and finally regarding their health matters.