A Study of the Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Academic Performance in Students

Abstract

This article is dedicated to examining the relationship between self-esteem and academic indicators in students within the framework of contemporary research. Although academic achievements have increased in recent years, it is noteworthy that the level of students' self-esteem has not developed in the same positive way. The research aims to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and academic indicators among students studying in different departments of Baku State University. Rosenberg's (1965) methodology was used in the research, which is a widely applied tool for measuring self-esteem in psychology. The research sample included 300 students (137 males and 163 females) randomly selected from 22,279 undergraduate students of the university. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software for statistical analysis. The results show that the level of significance is 0.065, which is higher than 0.05. This indicator reveals that there is a weak positive correlation between students' level of self-esteem and their academic achievement. As self-esteem increases, academic performance improves to a certain extent; however, this relationship is weak, suggesting that the impact of self-esteem on academic achievement should be examined in more depth. An interesting result is that increased self-esteem sometimes leads students to feel more confident, but the effect on academic indicators is minimal. This further emphasizes the role of social support systems related to students' motivation, stress management and the academic environment. In conclusion, there was a weak but positive correlation between self-esteem and academic indicators in male students, whereas there was no relationship between these indicators in female students. Therefore, other factors affecting academic achievement should also be taken into account.