Am I Worthy of What I Achieve? Imposter Syndrome and its Relationship with Self-Esteem in Indian Adolescents

Abstract

With the advent of extreme social media usage, it is observed how adolescents encounter difficulties in forming their identities. This is the stage where they are developing their self-concept and finding answers to questions such as- Who am I? While they are involved in several activities of their interests including academics, it has been observed that they often question their capabilities, compare themselves with others and develop doubts about their achievements. The present study has focused on a very well-defined concept of Imposter syndrome and how it is related to the self-esteem of adolescents. Clance IP Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale has been used to assess the imposter syndrome and self-esteem of 105 Indian adolescents. The sample belonged to Delhi NCR, India. Participants in the present study were contacted through a snowball sampling technique and data was collected using Google forms. Pearson’s product-moment correlation was used as an analytical strategy to examine the relationship between the two variables. Results did not reveal a significant relationship between imposter syndrome and self-esteem. However, it is observed that the relationship moves towards a positive direction, contradicting previous literature suggesting a negative relationship.