The Mediating Role of Self-esteem in the Relationship between Persistence and Satisfaction with School and Life in Elementary School Children

ABSTRACT

It has been suggested that children’s persistence is associated with their satisfaction with school and life. However, the mechanism of this relationship in children is not understood well. The present study investigated whether there is a correlation between persistence and school and life satisfaction in elementary school children, considering that self-esteem is a mediator between the two factors. A total of 107 children in Grades 1 through 6 and their mothers participated and they answered the questionnaires on persistence, self-esteem and school and life satisfaction. We found that self-esteem explains the relationship between children’s persistence and school and life satisfaction. Our findings suggest the underlying mechanisms linking children’s persistence and school and life satisfaction. The development of persistence and self-esteem may play an important role in the education of elementary school children.

KEYWORDS:

• Elementary school children
• self-esteem
• persistence
• school satisfaction
• life satisfaction

Acknowledgments

M. I., and A. A. designed the experiments, conducted the experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. All the authors contributed to the work described in this paper and take full responsibility for this manuscript. We thank all the children and their parents who participated in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data analysed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The research is supported by JSPS KAKENHI [grant numbers 19K14392] and Musashino University Research (2020) to M. I.

Notes on contributors

Masahiro Imafuku

Masahiro Imafuku is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education, Musashino University. At the university he teaches developmental psychology and educational psychology for university students aiming to become nursery teachers or elementary school teachers.

Airi Akatsuka

Airi Akatsuka was a student at Musashino University at the time of her research, and now she is a teacher at an elementary school.