Low Self-Esteem

what is self esteem? Psychologicaly self-esteem is the overall opinion and how we

look at ourselves. "Self-esteem can involve a variety of beliefs about the self, such as the

appraisal of one's own appearance, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors " (Braden, 1969).

Low self-esteem means that the child is having a negative opinion about himelf and that

is caused by many reasons which are children abuse, bullying, social position, physical

apperance, execcive critisim and always being compared to others and too many other

things (Fennel, 1999). It has many effects on the child's life, damging and painfull effects

as it can make him choose wrong choices or make repeated suicide attempts when he is

older or make him fail to live his life well. But it is easy to overcome this problem by

awaring the parents of how to bring up their children well with high self-esteem. In the

fisrt place causes of low self-esteem will be discussed, then its effects of the problem.

The problem of low self-esteem in children can be caused by many reasons such

as child abuse, social and financial position, physical appearance and excessive criticism.

Firstly, abuse and harsh punishments destroys the child's ability to feel and share feelings

and also destroys his self-esteem.Children need care and support to grow in a good

manner with no personality disorders but children abuse make the children lose

confidence in themselves and in others also. Many studies are now done on this issue and

were found that 76% of adults with childhood abuse and neglect have at least one mental

disorder throughout life and about 50% have three or more. (Harper et al., 2007).

Secondly, physical appearance also may cause the children to have low self-esteem

especially for those who suffer from obesity or birth defects. Obese children have

significantly low self-esteem than their normal weight peers and that was proved by some

studies