Self-esteem is the basis for all motivated behaviour through interaction with the environment for students, especially those in the secondary schools. This study investigated the effect of self-instruction technique on secondary school students’ low self-esteem in Orlu Education Zone, Imo state. The study is a quasi-experimental research which adopted a pre-test, post-test, control research design. One research question guided the study while one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. A sample size of 110 SS 1 secondary school students were purposively sampled from two highest determined schools with students identified with low self-esteem. The instrument for data collection was Index of Self-esteem which was developed by Hudson in 1982 but revalidated and used in Nigeria by Onighaiye (1996). The data collected was analyzed using mean scores for the research question while ANCOVA was used in testing the null hypothesis. The mean score norm of 31.47 for students provided in the instrument’s manual guided the decision. The findings of the study revealed among others that self-instruction technique was effective in enhancing the students’ low self-esteem. Based on the findings and implications of the study, the researcher recommends that programmes on self-instruction technique and self-esteem enhancement designed by counselling psychologists and sponsored by non-governmental organizations and the government should be encouraged to enhance students’ low self-esteem.
Keywords: low self-esteem, secondary school students, self-instruction technique
