SOCIAL SUPPORT AND SELF ESTEEM AS CORRELATES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN ILORIN METROPOLIS

Abstract

Whilst the pursuit for wellbeing is virtually universal, the path to its attainment varies largely among individuals as a result of several factors. This present study adopted an Ex-post facto design to investigate psychological well-being among adolescents in Ilorin
metropolis in relation to self-esteem and social support. Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES), Berlin Social Support Scale (BSSS) and World Health Organization-Five (WHO-5) were used to measure self-esteem, social support and psychological well-being respectively while 576 participants made of 375 males and 201 females between the ages of 14-22 years were conveniently sampled. The study's results indicated that self-esteem and social support, jointly influenced psychological wellbeing [F (2, 565) =33.914; p<.05]. Also, the analysis of the independent variable showed that self-esteem (t =-4.164; p<.05; β = -.200) and social support (t = 6.391; p<.01; β =.306) had an independent influence on psychological wellbeing. The second hypothesis revealed that participants with high self-esteem reported high level of psychological well-being than participants with low self-esteem. Likewise, third hypothesis revealed that female participants  reported high level of psychological wellbeing than male participants. This study concluded that there is significant influence of self-esteem and social support on the psychological well-being of adolescents. The study recommends the importance of parents, educators, and psychologists to recognize the need to provide active social support to adolescents through healthy social relationships to cultivate a robust self-esteem in order to promote favourable psychological well-being.