THE EFFECTT OF PARENTS’ ECONOMIC STATUS ON THE SELF-ESTEEM OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

Self-esteem is a big part of children’s social and emotional development, helping to shape their self-confidence, ability to communicate with others, and capacity to tackle increasingly complex tasks. Family background, particularly the socioeconomic standing of parents, is thought to shape how a child’s self-esteem emerges from the earliest years of life. Using a quantitative, ex post facto design, this study set out to examine how parents’ socioeconomic standing relates to self-esteem among young children. The study was conducted in May 2026 at Kindergarten X, involving 80 children aged 5–6 years who were selected using total sampling. Data on parents’ socioeconomic status were collected via a questionnaire covering indicators of educational level, occupation, and income, while self-esteem data were obtained through an observation sheet consisting of 20 statements. Data were processed with the aid of Jamovi software, covering descriptive statistics, an instrument reliability check, a test of normal distribution, and a simple linear regression. The results indicated that both parents’ socioeconomic status and young children’s self-esteem fell into the moderate category. Regression analysis showed that parents’ economic and social status had a positively and significantly influential effect on the development of self-esteem in young children. These findings indicate that a family’s socioeconomic conditions contribute to the formation of children’s positive self-perception. The study points to the need for closer cooperation between families and schools in building surroundings that nurture children’s self-esteem from an early age.