Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to assess the overall level of self-esteem among junior high school
students in two districts in the Central Region of Ghana. The sample comprised 109 students (59
males, 50 females), who were enrolled in the second and third year in two junior high schools in an
urban and a rural district. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was utilized to measure their overall
sense of self-esteem. Negatively worded questions were reverse-coded, and, as such, the higher the
score for each question, the higher the level of self-esteem. “I feel that I have a number of good
qualities” had the best overall score (M = 3.48, SD = 0.70), while “I wish I could have more respect
for myself” scored the lowest (M = 1.89, SD = 1.01). The study’s results indicate a high level of selfesteem
among respondents (M = 29.2, SD = 9.08) The independent sample t-test showed no
statistically significant results between male students (M = 29.136, SD = 3.535) and female students
(M = 33.143, SD = 26.785) in terms of their self- esteem, t (106) = -1.138, p = .258. There is no
significant difference between students in the rural area (M = 32.412, SD = 22.829) and students in
the urban area (M = 28.475, SD = 2.679) in terms of their self- esteem, t (106) = 1.084, p = .281.
The study makes a significant contribution to new knowledge on self-esteem regarding urban, rural
and gender in the formation and development of school children in Ghana.
