The contribution of significant others in the adolescent self-estimation at different age and of both sexes

Abstract

The field-work testing was done on 399 adolescents at the ages of 13 and a half, 15 and a half and 17 and a half years. The aim of this research was to discover the developing trends in the contribution of evaluation of other persons (mother, father, classmaster or friends) in self-estimation of young people. Scales of the semantic differentials were applied during this research. The results of the analysis of variances and regression analyses disclosed that young persons differ in their self-estimation with regard to sex and age: the younger ones evaluate themselves more postiv than the older ones, and the adolescent girls evaluate themselves more positiv than the boys. The assumption that the contribution of significant others in the self-estimation of young people becomes less important with the growing age, did not prove itself as consistent. However, there its a relative contribution of evalution of contain important persons at different age, as well as a relative contribution of significant others depending on sex of the adolescents.