SELF ESTEEM AMONG PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS STUDENTS IN RIVERS STATE: IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELLING

Abstract

The study investigated self esteem among private and public secondary school students in Rivers State. The study used simple random sampling method to select 200 SS1 students from 3 private and 3 public schools, all in Port Harcourt municipality. The “Students Self Esteem Scale” (SSES) was use for collection of data for the study. Test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Reliability coefficient of 0.78 obtained. The t-test statistics was used to test two null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Null hypotheses one and two were rejected, meaning that private school students, both male and female demonstrated high self esteem, while public schools students demonstrated low self esteem. Based on the findings of the study, four recommendations
were made for effective implementations.