The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of idealistic, realistic friendship and general, social self esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy, and to investigate the effects that the type of friendship expectation has on the...
The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of idealistic, realistic friendship and general, social self esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy, and to investigate the effects that the type of friendship expectation has on their self-esteem.
For this purpose, three questionnaires were distributed to a total of eighty students. Subjects in this study were eighty students with spastic cerebral palsy composed of forty pre-adolescents and 40 early adolescents. Eighty normal students, forty pre-adolescents and 40 early adolescents as a comparison group. The type of friendship expectation and self esteem of each group were investigated by test instruments, and the relationship between the type of friendship expectation and self esteem was analyzed through statistical process.
The type of friendship expectation was examined in two separate questionnaires of idealistic and realistic friendship. Subjects were to respond to each item on the Liker scale of 1 to 5. The test for self-esteem consisted of 6 categories, and among them, only two categories of general self-esteem and social self-esteem were measured.
In order to observe the difference of the type of friendship expectation, t-test was used on the responses. In addition, two way variance analysis was used over the results of self esteem questionnaire to see the characteristic of self esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy. Pearson correlation was produced to see the correlation between types of friendship expectation and self esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy.
The conclusion from the results and discussion of this study were as follows:
First, among the factors that affect friendship expectation, help/support was considered the most significant factor in idealistic and realistic friendship. There was no a significant difference for ages, but pre-adolescents have higher significance in help/support than that of early adolescents. According to sex, girls regard intimacy as the highest factor in idealistic, realistic friendship. Second, no significant differences were observed for age and gender in self esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy in comparison with normal students, but social self esteem was lower than that of normal students, especially of girls.
Third, the type of friendship expectation of students with spastic cerebral palsy showed a significant relationship with their self esteem in help/support and community. That is, the general self-esteem of students who have higher significance in help/support and community for friendship were higher. It means that the type of friendship expectation of help/support influences considerably general self-esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy. There was no relationship between the gap of idealistic and realistic friendship and general self esteem.
Forth, the type of friendship expectation of students with spastic cerebral palsy had a significant relationship with social self esteem in help/support and community. Help/support was the most significantly related with social self-esteem, and intimacy was higher than community factor. There was negative correlation between self esteem and the gap of idealistic and realistic friendship. That is, if the difference between idealistic and realistic friendship in help/support was higher, social self esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy was lower. When the expectation in help/support for realistic friendship was different from that of real friends of them, self esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy was low.
In summary, there was significant correlation between self esteem and the type of friendship expectation of students with spastic cerebral palsy. Social self esteem and friendship were closely connected with their self esteem, and it was also related to their social adjustment. Therefore it can be concluded that developing educational programs to improve self-esteem of students with spastic cerebral palsy.