Self-Esteem Factors among Urban and Rural College Students in Relation to Socio-Economic Status

The present study examined selected self-esteem factors among urban and rural college students in relation to socio-economic status. A balanced sample of 160 B.A. undergraduate students from Jalgaon District, Maharashtra, was selected for the study. The sample included equal representation from urban and rural areas and from high- and low-socio-economic-status groups. The Self-Esteem Scale developed by Dr. Santosh and Dr. Upindar Dhar was used to measure six factors of self-esteem: positivity, openness, competence, humility, self-worth, and learning orientation. Socio-economic status was classified by using the Socio-Economic Status Scale developed by R. L. Bharadwaj. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and two-way analysis of variance were used for statistical analysis. Results indicated significant main effects of area and socio-economic status on all six self-esteem factors. Significant Area x SES interactions were found for positivity, openness, humility, self-worth, and learning orientation, whereas the interaction for competence was not significant. Correlation analysis showed that socio-economic status was positively related to positivity, openness, competence, and self-worth, and negatively related to humility and learning orientation. The findings suggest that self-esteem factors are not uniform across student groups and are shaped by both residential and socio-economic background.