The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of social support and self-esteem on adolescents' loneliness according to their gender and school types. The theoretical model was specified and estimated. Subjects of this study consisted of 80...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of social support and self-esteem on adolescents' loneliness according to their gender and school types. The theoretical model was specified and estimated. Subjects of this study consisted of 808 adolescents drawn from 4 academic high schools and 4 vocational high schools in Chungbuk province. The pilot study was used to examine the applicability of survey instrument. The test of the model was carried out with analysis of correlational matrix in LISREL Ⅷ package using a maximum likelihood estimation. The theoretical model proposed was supported by the data and fitted adequately.
The results of this research were as follows:
First, there were statistically significant differences in social support, self-esteem and adolescents' loneliness according to their gender, school types, their parents' educational level, fathers' job, birth order, family type and family economic status.
Second, social support and self-esteem had a different effect on adolescents' loneliness by gender. For both boys and girls, the support from friend displayed direct effects on self-esteem, emotional and social loneliness, and indirect effects on emotional and social loneliness. For both boys and girls, the support form teachers had a direct effect on self-esteem and indirect effects on emotional and social loneliness. For boys, the support from family had a direct effect on self-esteem and indirect effects on emotional and social loneliness, but for girls, the support from family displayed direct effects on self-esteem, emotional and social loneliness, also it had indirect effects on emotional and social loneliness. Moreover, self-esteem had direct effects on emotional and social loneliness regardless of the gender of adolescents.
Third, social support and self-esteem had a different effect on adolescents' loneliness by school types. For both students attending the academic and vocational high schools, the support from friend displayed a direct effect on self-esteem and indirect effects on emotional and social loneliness. For students attending the academic high schools, the support from teachers displayed a direct effect on self-esteem and indirect effects on emotional and social loneliness. However, for students attending the vocational high schools, the support from teachers did not have the influence on self-esteem, emotional and social loneliness. For both boys and girls, the support from friend displayed direct effects on self-esteem, emotional and social loneliness, and indirect effects on emotional and social loneliness. For both students attending the academic and vocational high schools, the support from family displayed direct effects on self-esteem and emotional loneliness, and also it had an indirect effect on social loneliness. More especially, self-esteem had direct effects on emotional and social loneliness regardless of the school types of adolescents.
The result of this study implies that the effect of social support on adolescents' emotional and social loneliness mediated by self-esteem is practically different according to adolescents' gender and school type.