ABSTRACT

Background: Self-esteem, evaluation of an individual about themselves, is substantially owed to the fact that how one is perceived by other individuals, makes up a perception regarding them.

Aim: To determine the association of self-esteem with regards to gender and medical year of students.

Methodology: A cross sectional observational study was carried on medical students of Liaquat Medical Hospital Jamshoro which included students from second to fifth year. To determine self-esteem, Rosenberg self-esteem scales (RSES) was utilized which is regarded highly reliable and valid tool for quantitative assessment of self-esteem. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis. Demographics included age, gender, educational year, family system. For qualitative variables, frequency and percentages were reported. Multivariate analysis of associations’ in-between students’ characteristics and self-esteem were recorded keeping p-value of <0.05 as statistically significant.

Results: From total 240 medical students, 63.7% were females and 36.3% males. Majority, 52.5% of students were 22 years or above. 41.3% of students were from fourth year and 28.3% from third year. 63.9% students lived in joint families. A significant association of self-esteem was reported in 4th versus 2nd year medical students (p-0.023). All other year students were observed to have insignificant association with self-esteem as well as in terms of age, gender and family system.

Conclusion: Association of self-esteem only in-between fourth year and second year medical students was found to be significant, while in other years as well as with gender, the association of self-esteem was reported to be insignificant.

Keywords: Self-esteem, Stress, Depression, Medical students