A STUDY OF SELF-ESTEEM, ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT, AND LOCUS OF CONTROL AMONG BEHAVIORAL PROBLEM AND NON-BEHAVIORAL PROBLEM CHILDREN

OBJECTIVE: The aim of current study was to identify and compare the children with behavioral problems and without behavioral problems on self-esteem, academic self-concept, and locus of control. METHOD: For this study, a cross sectional research design was used, for data collection purposive sampling technique was applied. Out of 300 children a sample of 34 children with behavioral problems (that lies above 67th percentile) and a matched comparative group of 34 children (fall below 33 percentile children) were selected. The age range of sample was 11-13 years and from Wah Cantt data was collected. A booklet consisted of consent form, demographic sheet, children behavioral problem checklist; self-esteem scale, academic self-concept, and locus of control scales were administered.  RESULTS: Correlational analysis indicated that there was significant relationship between all the study variables. Children with behavioral problems exhibited lower level of self-esteem (M=39.92; SD=16.4) than non-behavioral problem children (M=47.57; SD=9.52). On academic self-concept, children with behavioral problems exhibited lower mean scores (M=32.9; SD=26.3) as compared to children having non-behavioral problems (M=44.6; SD=15.8). Furthermore, results also highlighted that non-problematic children exhibit less external locus of control (M=8.35; SD=2.51) as compared to problematic children (M=10.70; SD=3.36). CONCLUSION: This study highlighted that SE, ASC and LOC are related process children behavioral problems. Therefore, in order to handle such children, teachers and school counselor should develop such intervention strategies that promote their self-esteem, academic self-concept and internal locus of control. Keywords: self-esteem, Locus of control, Behavioral problems, academic self-esteem.