Self-esteem changes in hospitalized school-age children

This study compared changes in self-esteem in three groups of late school-age children (ages 9 through 12 years): those undergoing surgery (26 subjects), those hospitalized for nonsurgical reasons (25 subjects), and those not hospitalized (28 subjects). The children responded to the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory which is designed to measure self-esteem derived from four sources--self, peer/social, school, and home/family--on two occasions with a one-month interval between responses. The hypothesis was tested using a one-factor analysis of variance, with change scores (final score minus initial score) as criterion measures. The hypothesis was supported; total self-esteem scores of surgical children dropped more than scores of nonsurgical and nonhospitalized children. Differences were found for the subscales of peer/social and school derivatives of self-esteem. Peer/social subscale scores of the surgical children dropped more than those of the other groups, and school subscale scores of surgical and nonsurgical children dropped more than the scores of nonhospitalized children.