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The Importance of
Teaching Self-Esteem
Why Teaching Self-Esteem is Necessary and
Important for Middle and High School Students
Health Curriculums


Selena Evora







Senior Seminar
Stacy Joslin

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Positive self-esteem, begin truly proud of who you are, such a simple concept, but it is so
difficult to achieve. When young girls are given a positive role model and the importance that a
mentor or role model can make a difference in a child. There are many factors and solution in
improving self-esteem in young girls. Many young girls, growing up, have low self-esteem with
affects that can last a lifetime. One way to improve self-esteem is by having curriculum in
schools, along with positive role models and mentoring young girls will be informed, educated
and motived to live up to their full potential in life.

Today, women have overcome many obstacles and in the past 100 years women have
received the right to vote, became world and political leaders and have broken numerous
negative stereotypes. It is important to encourage young women to strive for their dreams and
aspire to be who they want to be. Instead the media falsely create an image of what women are
supposed to look like and conjure up an unrealistic view of beauty. These perceptions are
harming the minds of young girls (Gurian) and can create low levels of self-esteem. Self-esteem,
according to Websters Dictionary, is confidence in one's own worth or abilities; self-respect. To
improve self-esteem in young girls there has to be a balance between education, providing
positive mentors and creating a self-esteem curriculum in our health classes to ensure that young
women get the information they need to develop positive, healthy self-esteem.

Background
Young girls who have high self-esteem feel good about themselves, join sports teams,
and are more outgoing and also more social (Gurian). While in contrast having low self-esteem
can have negative effects on how young girls perceives themselves. Having a high self-esteem
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not only helps a young girls feels good about herself but can also give her the confidence to
accomplish many goals in life. Over 70 percent of young girls ages 15-17 avoid activities
because they are not happy about their looks (11 Facts about Teens and Self-Esteem). There is an
unbelievable amount of young girls who are unhappy with their body image. Over half of these
girls are not happy with their appearance. Society, and the environment children live, in can be a
factor and contribute to having low self-esteem. Every day young girls are bombarded by the
media about what is beautiful and what is not. From rap videos with girls in bikinis and men
treating them like objects, to magazines on newsstands telling girls how to dress and act. For
example, an article in Seventeen Magazine had diet tips encouraging young girls to get Bikini
Body Confidence by taking extreme and unnecessary dietary measures. Furthermore, there are
limited positive role models for these young girls to look up to for example women who are
CEOs of major companies and have overcame difficult circumstances in life and beat the odds.
In addition, negative role models for girls like Nicki Minaj and Rihanna are plastered all over
magazines. Giving young girls positive role models and showing them how strong and confident
they can be by gaining more self-confidence can improve their self-esteem.
Section One: Self-esteem is a major issue
Females who have low self-esteem are more likely to harm themselves in physical,
emotional, or sexual. Today, the majority of people with low self-esteem are young preteen and
teenage girls. According to Dosomething.org, Seven out of ten young girls believe they do not
measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school and relationship to family
and friends. Young women are influenced by media and their peers based on expectations and
influences presented to them by the media. Having positive self-esteem helps females make
healthy life styles choices. Girls who have low self-confidence are more prone to be victims of
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eating disorders, self-harm, sexual abuse, dating violence and depression (Cognitive Symptoms
& Consequences of Low Self-Esteem). An alarming, 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported
engaging in negative activities like cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, and or having eating
disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, compared to 25% of girls with high self-esteem (11 Facts
about Teens and Self-Esteem). Self-esteem is not only affecting the physical appearance of
young girls but their mental health, and can become a major factor in going through puberty and
growing up.

Developing self-esteem starts at an early age and gaining self-esteem comes from
experience. Having low self-esteem can be caused by bullying, child abuse or neglect, peers,
and also traumatic life experiences (News in Brief). A traumatic experience can be bullying in
which others can be mean and discouraging. Bullying can play a major role in harming self-
esteem. One way to improve self-esteem, after bullying in youth, is by encouragement and
letting them know that what bullies say or do does not reflect on the person that they are.
Teachers, parents and role models can praise students when accomplishing a goal or task and
even when students do not perform up to standard by giving constructive feedback along with
guidance that can help boost their self-esteem (Love Our Children). By encouraging and
supporting young girls will help them build a solid bases to grow up with self-esteem at an early
age.

Section Two: Self-Esteem and Age
The most common female age group that experiences low self-esteem is girls between
the ages of eight and seventeen. According to NYC Girls Project, 40-70% of girls are
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dissatisfied with two or more parts of their body. During that age, girls are going through
puberty, a hormonal shift from childhood to adulthood. Also in that time period a girls body
transforms from a young girl to a women. Going through that transitional phase at a young age
with the hormonal transformation can put a heavy strain on a young girl. Hormonal and body
changes, that happen so quickly, can make a young girl conscious and worry about her body
image.

Some symptoms of puberty are weight gain, acne, along with growth spurts and bodily
changes such as breast and new hair growth. With all this growing and developing going on,
some girls may be uncomfortable with how their bodies are changing (All about Puberty).
When young girls have a negative perception of their bodies it can affect them psychologically
and socially. Creating groups for young girls with similar views on body image is one way that
can help them cope with the psychological and social aspects of self-esteem by relating to each
other. Having this connection and similarities between young girls shows them that they are not
alone and can confide with their new group of friends (Self-Esteem). Counseling and friendships
are important foundations and outlets for young girls to learn how to discuss feelings and
emotions to help with problem solving and accepting who they are. The more education and
support that is available to teens, from teachers, providers, and mentors, can ensure that their
self-esteem will improve.


Section Three: School Health Curriculum
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Understanding the importance of self-esteem is only the first step, consequently programs
and curriculums must be developed to address the issue. All states have a certain set of health
education standards that are recommended to teach in schools. Some states have successful
examples of guidelines on what to teach. Rhode Island has a model website for health curriculum
requirements called Thrive. Thrive, Rhode Islands Coordinated School Health Program,
provides health services and curriculum that schools are required to teach in their health classes.
Health Education is required for all students in grades 1-12. According to Rhode Island General
Laws, every school district is required to have a District Health & Wellness Subcommittee.
District health and wellness subcommittees develop policies, strategies, and plans to enhance the
health and wellness of the school community. These subcommittees are charged with making
recommendations about physical activity, nutrition, health education, physical education, and
staff health promotion (Health Education). Rhode Island schools are required to teach seventeen
topics from grades K-12. These topics range from substance abuse to suicide awareness and
prevention. Schools are required to teach health and there are a certain number of hours and
classes a high school student has to fulfill to graduate. The classes and methods that health
teachers decide to teach in their curriculum varies, but they have to cover all seventeen of the
health topics. Having a set guidelines to teach ensure that students and teachers have the same
understanding. When teachers have a broad topic to teach they are able to tailor the materials to
their classroom settings and also add information that is needed. Because self-esteem is a large
topic and can be incorporated within any lesson teachers can use the guidelines and fit lessons
about self-esteem to their students.

Self-esteem falls under the mental health section of most health curriculums. Self-esteem
has a wide variety of causes, physical, mental and emotional, that can be incorporated in health
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curriculum. An example of a successful sell-esteem program was done by a research group at
University of Massachusetts Amherst. The self-esteem program was called Self-Esteem
Enhancement Program (SEEP). In this class young girls and their parent were given pre and post
surveys about their self-esteem before and after the class was taken. The essential question was
focused around how young girls self-esteem can change from the transitional period to middle
school. Results from this study indicate that girls, students of low socioeconomic status, and
those with friends benefit most from this group-based, self-esteem enhancement
intervention(Douglass) . Demonstrating the importance of self-esteem groups and group
counseling classes allow students to talk to one another and deal with negative emotions which
can contribute to low self-esteem with a string support system. A local example of self-esteem
curriculum in schools, would be at Segue Institute for Learning, in Central Falls, RI, a school
that has a self-esteem curriculum imbedded in their courses. The school breaks up the classes by
grade and the social needs of the students. They have curriculum and classes each day according
to their developmental stages. Different teachers recommend certain students for each class.
Most of the students in the class seemed reserved and quiet sixth graders and all had a common
knowledge of what self-esteem was.

Currently Mrs. Ortiz and Mrs. Tessier are the main instructors for the self-esteem class
and create lesson plans specifically tailored for their students. Each week the teachers follow a
self-esteem curriculum book that has activities and lesson plans for teaching self-esteem. The
students in the class are engaged and understand the information that they are learning. These
students were learning and engaged by the questions they asked and the amount of participation
from the class. They showed how they were engaged by asking questions and being comfortable
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with an outside guest present. An example of what could be perceived as high self-confidence
from the students was the way that they presented themselves while speaking. Young women
who believe in themselves and the message that they are trying to present are proud and want
their voices to be heard to everyone in the room. Watching students evolve overtime and each
week seeing the progression in just their speech and posture showed that their confidence had
grown.

Section Four: Importance of Mentoring
Having a positive mentor can contribute to a young persons self-esteem. Mentors can
have an effect on youth, practically youth in need. Mentors provide their mentees with an
experienced friend who is there to help in any number of situations (The Value of Mentoring).
Mentoring provides a buddy system for younger kids and older adolescences and adults. By
mentoring, both the mentor and the mentee learn from one another. The benefits of mentoring
include positive academic outcomes, prevention of risky behaviors, and enhanced social and
mental development (Broderick). The Boys and Girls Club of America provide numerous
mentoring services and programs. At the Pawtucket Boys and Girls Club there are different
mentoring services ranging from academic mentoring to social mentoring. These types of
mentoring open up students to communicate with mentors and develop a friendship. Having a
positive mentor and working closely with them can help students feel comfortable talking with
others and learning about themselves more. This will help students, especially young girls feel
empowered and can relate to someone of a similar background know that there is positive around
them and strive for greatness.

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In addition to mentoring, positive role models are other ways to help young girls gain
self-esteem. Today, in the media, there are countless misrepresentations of young girls ranging
from music videos that degrade women to TV shows that degrade women like rap videos and not
giving many females strong lead roles. Talk radio and sports talk radio hosts are
overwhelmingly male (The Problem). If there were more examples of women portrayed in a
positive way, like women doctors or business entrepreneurs, young girls will see these women as
role models and examples of women they should try to emulate. Promoting and educating young
women to believe in themselves and can help set a positive example for our future generation.

My Action Research
Based on research about the problems and positive solutions on self-esteem I am
addressing the issue by teaching young girls about self-esteem. At the Boys and Girls Club of
Pawtucket, I have had the privilege of teaching a self-esteem group. I provided an eight week
session on self-esteem. The curriculum I used provided lesson plans and activities to help
motivate and empower young girls. My goal in the class was to provide a positive role model in
their community that could help create a strong support system for them. By providing a strong
support system and a positive mentor for these students my hope is that they will spread their
knowledge to other young females and help improve the self-esteem of not only themselves, but
others around them.


Counter Argument
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While most people agree that self-esteem is an important topic to teacher there are others
who believe that there are no proper guidelines to follow on how to teach self-esteem
proficiently. There are more important topics to teach in health classes and each state has
common standards and topics that they have to teach. Some health related topics are alcohol,
drug abuse, sex, healthy and unhealthy relationships, food safety and allergies, mental health,
and diseases all have state curriculum and national lesson plans that can be used. The Center for
Disease Control and Prevention has interactive activities and lesson plans to help teachers teach
students. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention also provides a downloadable lesson
plan book called the HECAT (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), where teachers and
health educators can access sample lesson plans to help instruct various health topics. By having
a set curriculum teachers can ensure that the information they are giving their students is credible
and the students will benefit from learning.

Conclusion
By providing positive mentors and creating a self-esteem curriculum in health classes
targeting middle school and high school girls so they can grow up with positive self-esteem.
There are countless organizations and initiatives that support the positive perceptions of young
womens view of themselves. Some of those organizations include Dove, Girls Scouts of
America, The Boys and Girls Club, Girls Inc. and many more. The more mentoring programs
and educational programs available for teens and young girls to access can help change the way
these young women view themselves. By educating peers, instructors and mentors more
individuals will become aware of the issues and how important it is to teach self-esteem.

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