Author(s)

Carla Lettnin¹, Karina Dohms¹, Aline Rocha Mendes¹, Claus Dieter Stobaus², Juan José M. Mosquera¹, Saul Neves de Jesus³

¹Postgraduate Program in Education, Pontifical Chatolic University of Rio Grande do Sul—PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
²Postgraduate Programs in Education and in Biomedical Gerontology, Pontifical Chatolic University of Rio Grande do Sul—PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
³Postgraduate Program in Psychology, University of Algarve—UAlg, Faro, Portugal.

From a bibliographical study, based on relevant authors in this field, it is found that a more positive self-image and self-esteem contribute to the formation of intra and interpersonal healthy and affectionate increasing the action in the educational environment. This exploratory study aims to determine the levels of self-esteem of adolescents, comparing data among students in Portugal and Brazil. Therefore, participants were 189 Portuguese students and 176 Brazilian students, from secondary school/medium public schools in these countries, responding to Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, adapted for each population. For data analysis, descriptive statistics were used to compare means and subjected to SPSS. The results showed lower levels of self-esteem in Portuguese students (M = 3.22 and D. P. = 0.58) than those in Brazilian students (M = 3.45 and D. P. = 0.41). Although both means are elevated, the comparison between these two samples is significantly different (t = 3.275, p = 0.001), which enables to say that Brazilian have the best self-esteem than Portuguese, also that these adolescents indicate positive levels of self-esteem, demonstrating to be pleased with him/selves. Cultural factors may influence these results and the environment in which students are placed can contribute to the construction of self-esteem, from interpersonal relationships present in their social context, the evaluation of each under their own experiences as success or failure, as well as the affective evaluation, which is the foundation for a more positive self-esteem.

Education, Student, Self-Esteem

Lettnin, C. , Dohms, K. , Mendes, A. , Stobaus, C. , Mosquera, J. & Jesus, S. (2015). Evaluating Self-Esteem Levels of Brazilian and Portuguese Adolescents. Psychology, 6, 314-322. doi: 10.4236/psych.2015.64032.