The Influence of Temperament on Self-Esteem and Achievement Motivation among Day Scholars and Boarders

Abstract

The  concept of  temperament  and its impact on  self-esteem  and achievement motivation  among  adolescents in  boarding  schools and those who are days- scholars are less explored . The current study was undertaken to study the influence of   temperament on   self-esteem and achievement motivation and among adolescents in boarding schools and those who are days- scholars. The study was conducted on242 adolescent students, among them 119 boarders and 123 were day scholars. The sample of boarders and day scholar adolescent students were selected randomly from residential higher secondary school.  The General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) was used for screening tool and by the   Self- esteem Scale, Achievement Motivation Scale and Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQ-R) were used for data collection. Statistical analysis of Pearson product moment correlation and independent sample t test and linear regression were used. The results indicate that temperament parameters such as surgency, negative affect and affiliativeness does not have any impact on self-esteem of adolescent students whether they are boarders or day scholars. But effortful control, which is a parameter of temperament, is efficient to predict self-esteem among day scholars. Both boarding and day scholar students show equal levels of surgency and affiliativeness. This study also found that temperament parameters such as effortful control, surgency and negative affect has an impact on self-esteem based on gender. Day scholar students shows high self-esteem than boarding students.