Relationships between Children's Personality Traits and Self-Esteem in Terms of Children's Sex

아동의 성별에 따른 성격특성과 자아존중감과의 관계

The purposes of this study were to identify the relationship between children's personality traits and self-esteem, and to find out if there were any differences in the relationship patterns in terms of children's sex. The questionnaire were collected from 984 subjects in 5th grade of elementary schools located in cities of Seoul, Suwon, Daejeon, and Daegu. Results showed that personality factors such as stability, sociability, responsibility, and superiority had stronger correlations with self-esteem factors whereas masculinity, activity level, and reflectivity did so to a less degree. Children's personality factors such as superiority, sociability and responsibility were better predictors of their self-esteem factors such as scholastic competence, social acceptance and general self-worth. Girls showed higher level of stability, sociability, responsibility and superiority, however there was no sex difference in the self-esteem such as scholastic competence, social acceptance and general self-worth. Children's behavioral conduct were mainly explained by masculinity, activity level, and responsibility. Responsibility turned out to be the strongest predictor of behavioral conduct among boys, while the activity level did among girls.