Association between the Way of Being Scolded and Self-Esteem in University Students

Self-esteem is an important factor in the rise of depression cases among children and adolescents. In order to build self-esteem, it is important for parents to respect their children, acknowledge their value, and always encourage them, as well as for teachers to acknowledge their character and ability, in addition to allowing them to experience success. At the same time, voices calling for parents and teachers to rediscover their willingness and responsibility to scold children when necessary have also been growing. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to determine the association between self-esteem and the way of scolding. With 311 university students as the study subjects, self-esteem and the relevant factors thereof were evaluated. As a result, no association was observed between the way of being scolded and self-esteem. Moreover, the reasons for being scolded were also not associated with self-esteem. However, regarding the association between the degree of acceptance (convinced by the way of being scolded) and self-esteem, it was revealed that student groups with higher self-esteem had a higher degree of acceptance. This suggested that self-esteem is associated with whether or not the people being scolded are convinced, as opposed to the way of being scolded or the reason for being scolded. Therefore, it was suggested that building a good relationship with those you scold is more important than the way of scolding.