A STUDY OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOCUS OF CONTROL, SELF ESTEEM AND BODY IMAGE CONCERN AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Adolescence is a transitional stage where major bodily changes take place. Higher secondary school is where a child reaches when he or she is in adolescence. Not only bodily or physical changes, but also a lot of hormonal changes, behavioral changes and changes including impulse control, maintaining or establishing relationships, self-consciousness, abstract thinking, decision making and many more can be seen during this stage. The goal of this study is to investigate the correlation between Locus of Control, Self Esteem and Body Image Concern among Adolescents. Locus Of Control means the perception or a belief of a person about how much he or she thinks he or she has a control over the events that are happening in his or her life. A person may either have an Internal Locus of Control or an External Locus of Control. Talking about Self Esteem, it means how a person values himself or herself. Body Image means the mental image one develops of their body, along with their attitudes towards their physical qualities. Body Image Concern means pessimistic preoccupation with one's body shape or body weight. To reach this goal, a total of 147 students from classes 11th and 12th from Ambala district of Haryana were chosen for the study. The tools being used in the study was Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale (NSIES) developed by Nowicki and Strickland in 1973, The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) developed by Morris Rosenberg in 1965, and The Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ 16) developed by Evans and Dolan in 1993. The data obtained was analyzed and statistics obtained were Mean, Standard Deviation, correlation coefficient and t-test. The results show that there is a significant negative relationship between Locus of Control (External) and Self Esteem among adolescents, there exists a significant negative relationship between Self Esteem and Body Image Concern among Adolescents and an insignificant negative relationship between Body Image Concern and Locus of Control (External) among adolescents. Also, there exists no gender difference among boys and girls in Locus of Control, Self Esteem and Body Image Concern among adolescents.