The goals of sexual health programming in youth populations frequently focus on reducing sexual risk taking, as these behaviours can lead to sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies. A focus on enhancing distal factors such as social support is starting to be considered of greater importance in adolescent sexual health programming. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the relationship between social support and sexual risk taking behaviours in school age youth in Northern Nova Scotia in 2000. Social support was found to be a factor in some sexual risk taking behaviours, with different relationships seen for males and females. Depression and self-esteem also influence the relationship between social support and some sexual risk taking behaviours. Health programming with a wholistic approach, including a focus the role of support and psycho-social variables, may be a positive way to reduce sexual risk taking behaviours and support healthy adolescent sexuality.

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This study examined the influence of two personality variables, Dependency and Self-Criticism, on mothers' postpartum adjustment. These dimensions were also examined in relation to social support and infant characteristics. During pregnancy, 204 primiparous women completed measures of Dependency and Self-Criticism, depressive symptomatology and mood, and social support. A subsample of 72 women, identified as Dependent, Self-Critical, Mixed, or Control, were assessed at 6 weeks and 3 months postpartum on measures of depressive symptoms, mood, and maternal characteristics. Infant measures were obtained at 6 weeks and 3 months. Multiple regression analyses revealed that Self-Criticism was a stronger predictor of depressive symptomatology and mood than Dependency and predicted a wider range of problems in maternal role functioning. Social support and infant characteristics made significant contributions to postpartum adjustment, and maternal depressive symptoms predicted less optimal infant socioemotional development. Results suggest the need to modify current conceptualizations of Dependency and Self-Criticism. Implications for identification and treatment of women vulnerable to adjustment problems during the transition to motherhood were discussed.

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Self-concept in social and academic domains, as well as global self-worth (GSW) were assessed among 4th, 5th, and 6 th graders, in children with learning disabilities (LD, n = 49) and a matched sample of children without LD (NLD, n = 49). Mean differences between LD and NLD groups and the relative importance of social versus academic self-concept in the prediction of GSW were examined. Children with LD evidenced significantly lower self-concept in academic and social domains; however, the two groups did not differ in terms of global self-worth. In addition, academic and social self-concepts were significant predictors of GSW in children with LD, although there was a high degree of overlap between the two variables in their predictive ability. In the NLD group, social and academic self-concept areas were significant predictors of global self-worth yet there was minimal overlap between the two self-concept areas. Implications are discussed.

Social risk elicits an internal struggle between wanting to form significant relationships (i.e., connectedness goals) and avoiding rejection (i.e., self-protection goals). The current research tested an intervention designed to reduce perceptions of risk for low self-esteem individuals (LSEs). However, the intervention did not function as anticipated and regardless of self-esteem level, participants reported lower perceived acceptance and lower state self-esteem in the intervention condition compared to the control. In a post-session two weeks following the manipulation, high self-esteem individuals (HSEs) in the intervention appear to not only recover, but actually reported significantly more perceived regard and global self-esteem than HSEs in the control. A second study investigated the impact of the intervention in light of these surprising findings. Results suggest that viewing the intervention video in a socially risky situation caused both HSEs and LSEs to experience social threat. In contrast, the control video actually served to reduce social risk.

Relatively little is known about the relation between body image satisfaction and self-esteem to academic behaviour in pre-adolescent and adolescent girls and boys. The current study is guided by three research questions. The first question is to examine how does body image satisfaction and self-esteem relate individually and collectively with academic behavior? The second question is to examine how much do the relationships between body image satisfaction, self-esteem and academic behavior differ across grades 7, 8, and 9? The third question is to examine how much do the relationships between body image satisfaction, self-esteem and academic behavior differ across genders? A correlational research design is adopted for this study. The data is analyzed using multiple regressions to examine various relations. This study analyzed secondary data gathered from 161 girls and boys from a junior high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada as part of the school plan for the 2011 - 2012 academic year. Self-esteem had high positive correlation to academic behavior for both girls and boys across grades 7 - 9. Other highlight was that only for grade 9; body image satisfaction had a low positive correlation to academic behaviour.

The aim of this paper is to reveal peculiarities and to determine the relationship between psychological well being of pupils in upper classes at school and their self-esteem, by comparing those studying in Catholic school with the ones studying in non-Catholic school. In the first and the second (theoretical) chapters the peculiarities of teenagers’ psychological well-being and self-esteem, as well as their importance in the process of personality development have been studied. In the third chapter the aim, the object and the tasks of the survey are indicated. In the fourth chapter the methodology and the sample of the survey are described. In the fifth (practical) chapter the results of the survey are analysed. The conclusions of the research are drawn in the sixth chapter.

Students who meet criteria for both being intellectually gifted and having a disability are known by the term ‘twice exceptional’. To date there is little known about the classroom interactions of these students, and how these interactions impact their developing self-esteem. The interactions of four gifted primary school students with identified learning difficulties (twice exceptional) were observed along with four matched typically developing students and their teacher during normal classroom teaching activities. The number and type of positive, negative, neutral or no response interactions were recorded over four, one hour observation sessions. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was then administered to the four twice exceptional and four comparison students. Results indicated that there was little difference between the twice exceptional and comparison students in terms of number of interactions recorded, with the twice exceptional students showing slightly more positive interactions with their teacher and peers. All four twice exceptional students reported lower self-esteem levels than their matched peers, with two students being in the low range. The results suggested that these four twice exceptional students were interacting in a manner similar to their typically developing peers, although they displayed lower self-esteem levels. The implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Background: All the students in the University College of Södertörn in Sweden who are studying to become a teacher, are attending practice education. Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to illuminate and analyze how the students experienced their practice education. My intent was to investigate if the students by their experiences have been affected in their own self-esteem. Method: This is a qualitative study that has been responded by 60 teacher students. The students attended in an internet- survey that included ten different questions. Result: The result of the interviews shows that the self-esteem has been affected, mostly in a positive way. Conclusion: The most common reason that affected the student self-esteem depended on how their supervisor has been treating them during their practice.