Self-esteem is a common struggle among female college students

By: Ann O’Sullivan
Posted In: News

Shifting positions in the drab blue speckled armchair, Liz Minifie, coordinator of counseling services at Salve Regina University, started to tell a story about a young woman who had come into her office, struggling with several problems stemming from low self esteem. One of the problems was a dependency on her boyfriend. That week, however, she had made a breakthrough.

At that point in the story, Minifie’s eyes welled up and she couldn’t finish without taking a breather. The woman decided that she was going to stand up to her boyfriend and start doing things for herself.

That decision heartened Minifie, who is no stranger to the power of self-esteem. According to a statistical profile done by the Chronicle for Higher Education, 59.8 percent of college students rate themselves as having above average intellectual self-esteem, while 49.9 percent rate themselves as having above average social self-esteem. The statistics were taken from students at 413 four-year colleges nationwide in the fall of 2003.

According to the statistics, men were seen as having higher self-esteem in both areas. Socially, 54.7 percent of men thought they had above average self-esteem, compared with 46 percent of women. Intellectually, 52.1 percent of women saw themselves as having above average self-esteem, differing from the 69.2 percent of men.

Mininfie sees the statistics at play at Salve, saying that one out of every five or six males who come into her office are there for self-esteem related issues, whereas many more of the females that see her are there for problems that stem from poor self-esteem.

The males who see Minifie are generally made to go because of disciplinary issues. The females go to the counseling services center for a variety of reasons, including disciplinary issues, depression, anxiety disorders and the most common problem: eating disorders.

“College,” stressed Minifie, “is a very fragile time for self-esteem.”

According to Minifie, “validation of self” is very important. She said that during the college years, students break away from caring parents who will always love them for being them. She then said that the problem then is finding friends that will do the same. Towards the end of college and the first few years after college graduation is when people tend to get a kick of self-esteem.

Minifie saw this in herself when she graduated from college, and she sees this very often at Salve. This is when students realize who they are and what they want to do. By doing what they want to do, students get a feeling of purpose and importance. This is what is called self efficacy, or the belief in one’s ability to do.

James Campbell, a counselor at the University of Rhode Island, promotes self efficiency as the best way to increase someone’s self-esteem. Campbell thinks that this is both a powerful and a permanent way to develop higher self worth.

More importantly, people need to do things that make them feel good. If people are doing things to please others or that make them feel discouraged, they may feel inadequate and their self-esteem will suffer.

Campbell said that two thirds of his patients are females – a number he speculates could reflect the fact that women are much more open to talking about personal issues then men. Campbell said that the college years are difficult because, college is a time to be, “tested, more then just academically.” He also stated that “every individual has to work through the challenge of finding who we are.”

College students have to work through the peer pressure and through both social and academic stress that is so common, especially in the college years, to find their true potential and purpose.

Colleen Thompson, a Salve sophomore, said that college has actually helped her to shed any image problems that she may have had when she was younger. While Thompson thinks that she never has had any serious self-esteem problems, she cited the maturation of her intellect for the diminishing of any self-confidence or image problems that she did have.

“I’ve accepted my differences that make me unique,” said a smiling Thompson.

She does, however, notice many people around campus with various self-esteem related issues, such as apparent eating disorders, people who drink to excess “just to fit in,” and various other problems dealing with the “identification of self.”

According to Thompson, “There are bigger problems in my life than my image.”