Do homeschooled students lack self esteem

The aspect of self-esteem and its implications for society are both contentious and polarizing. On one end of the spectrum, many cite social media as a means of encouraging self-esteem through social groups and other networks. Others, counter this argument by pointing to research showing that social media has adverse impacts on the self-esteem of young women (Antony, 2005). Likewise, proponents for homeschooling indicate the parents are a primarily catalyst of for self esteem as they have the ability to impacts their child’s thoughts without the intervention of other students. This argument is also countered by research that shows peer groups, particularly for adolescents often can have the greatest benefit towards developing self-esteem for students (Tracy, 2003). Through this paper, the aim is to provide evidence that self-esteem, particular for homeschooled children can have varying outcomes depending on a variety of factors. These factors, which include age, sex, socio-economic status, time spend on social media websites, and others can either have a positive or a negative impact on the student.

To begin, research has shown that social media has a disproportionate impact on the self esteem of students irrespective of the school they intend. The correlation between self esteem and the different forms of school a student attends is very low. As the internet is ubiquitous, its ability to permeate the lives of all students is very large. Exacerbating this issue, is that social media allows students to from connections primarily with like-minded individuals, which often excludes those with opposing views or thoughts. These silo’s harm students, particularly adolescents as their brains are still forming during this period. As a result, of only seeing certain viewpoints within a certain silo, many students can confuse their immediate sphere of influence as the “norm.” We have seen this phenomenon at work in various others circumstances including politics, race relations, vaccine misinformation, international relations, and more. As one group immerses themselves with only like-minded individuals, their judgement is often skewed towards one belief. Here, individual don’t account for misinformation, or the fact that their views could possibly be incorrect. In psychological terms, this concept is called confirmation bias, and it can adversely impact students, particularly women. Confirmation biases, ultimately impacts self-esteem as students look for approval form their like-minded peers within these online silos. Homeschooled students are not immune to these concepts. The concept of “beauty” for example has been extensively researched. Due to these confirmation biases, young women develop a sense of what society deems as “beautiful.” As many brains of young girls are developing, research as shown that they perceive anything other than what is shown on social media or the television that deviates from this norm as not being “beautiful” (Vogel, 2014). What occurs is what psychologies term “anchoring,” in which people attribute a large part of their decision making to one core concept. In this case that core concept would be the societies perception of what beauty means. As a result, the self esteem of young women is tied to this “anchored” view and as a result, they work hard to achieve this result. Social media exacerbates this anchoring through confirmation biases associated with peer groups and the silos that result from them. What occurs is this self-destructive loop which directly impacts self-esteem. Here, the young woman is anchored to the notion of beauty and what it means to be beautiful from a societal perspective. Using this, the young woman sets expectations for herself and often looks to mimic what she sees on social media or the television. She then looks for confirmation on social media from a peer group of like-minded individuals who have similar beliefs in what beauty is. Her self-esteem is therefore tied to the thoughts, opinions, and belief of others within the silo which often times are strangers. This up until recently has had adverse impacts on the self-esteem of students as it is directly tied to the beliefs of others in an online and often anonymous environment. This directly impacts the self-esteem of students. Figure 1 below, summarizes the concepts discussed above. Social comparison, through anchoring and confirmation bias leads to reduced self-esteem, which finally resulted in greater social anxiety.

Figure 1.

As it relates to homeschooled children, many of the impacts mentioned above are somewhat mitigated. For one, parents have a larger and more pronounced ability to impact the thoughts, opinions, and behaviors of their students. As a result, they are better able to reinforce beliefs in a manner that is much more constructive, free from the potential negative influences of peers. Through repetition, the student can also develop a greater sense of self through the foundation established by their parents through homeschooling. More importantly, parents can better influence the belief system of student to orient them towards discovery as oppose to simply acceptance. Parents can orient their child to better discover, learn, and gain information in a much more constructive manner. This includes looking at both sides of an argument and not being heavily biased until all the facts have been assembled. Essentially, parents can better teach their students critical thinking skills that are often absent on social media platforms on other sources of media that influence self-esteem. Through home schooling, the parents can first develop critical thinking skills for their students. Second, they can uplift their students through an environment that encourages thought and awareness. Likewise, they can reinforce positive behaviors the can positively impact self-esteem. These behaviors can often mitigate, but not completely eliminate, the influences that many other outlets such as social media have on self-esteem. All the influences above such as confirmation biases, anchoring, and social media silos are still at play, they are often counteracted by the behaviors established through homeschooling.