Gender Difference in Self-esteem, Physical and Mental Health in Adolescents

청소년의 성차에 따른 자아존중감, 신체적 및 정신적 건강

The purpose of this study was to investigate the gender difference of relationships between the self-esteem and physical and mental health of adolescents. The sample were consisted of 410 adolescents, 202 boys and 208 girls in two urban city of Korea and the mean age was 17.4 years old. The instruments used in this study were Hare Self-Esteem Scale(Hare, 1985) and School Health Efficacy Questionnaire(Froman & Owen, 1991) which is consisted of both physical and mental health. The results showed that there was no gender difference in self-esteem of adolescents. However, the school domain of self-esteem was related to physical health of boys, and both the family domain and the school domain of self-esteem were related to physical health of girls. And both the school domain and the peer domain of self-esteem were positively related to mental health of boys, and all domains of self-esteem(peer, school, and family) were positively related to mental health of girls. In conclusion, there was not gender difference in degree of self-esteem, but there were gender difference in specific domains of self-esteem related with physical and mental health in adolescents.