Building self-esteem and forming career identity are the most important things for high school students who are preparing for working life. We assume that students with high self-esteem and career identity do well scholastically, We set the following ...
Building self-esteem and forming career identity are the most important things for high school students who are preparing for working life. We assume that students with high self-esteem and career identity do well scholastically, We set the following four questions:
First, is high school student self-esteem meaningfully correlated with career identity?
Second, do gender and grades affect high school student self-esteem?
Third, do gender and grades affect high school student career identity?
Forth. do high school student self-esteem and career identity affect scholastic achievement?
This study was conducted on 360 students: 173 first-grade high school students (85 males and 88 females) and 187 second-grade high school students (98 males and 89 females). Coopersmith(1967)s CSEI (Self-Esteem Inventory) translated by Song, In-seop (1989) was used to measure self-esteem. Kim, Bong-hwans translation (1997) of the MVS (My Vocational Situation) Identity Scale developed by Holland, Daiger, and Power (1980) was used to examine career identity. Regarding scholastic achievement, the subjects' GPAs for 2003 were taken as measurement standards. The statistical package to analyze the data was SPSS 10.0, and the relationships were analyzed by T-test, two-way ANOVA, and regression analysis. Correlations of the variables (self-esteem, career identity, and scholastic achievement) were analyzed.
It was found that students with high self-esteem and career identity did better scholastically than students who did not. It was also found that grades rather than gender prominently affected career identity.
The major inference of the study was that to enhance efficiency and to succeed in works, cognitive factors have to be in harmony with affective factors such as interests, motivation, and self-esteem. I conclude that counseling programs should be developed for each high school grade to form and enhance self-esteem and career identity during the sensitive phases of adolescence. In addition, it is time to develop structured positive self-evaluation programs and to use them in schools. Moreover, there is a strong demand for a study to see how career prospects are shaped by the affective aspects that are indicated by grades.