The relationship between mental health and self-esteem

Self-esteem relates to how you value yourself and is based on different opinions and beliefs that you may have about yourself, some of which can be negative and quite difficult to change (Mind, 2019). For a learner experiencing low self-esteem, this could be displayed as feelings of worthlessness, unfairly blaming themselves for mediocre performance, worrying about being unable to accomplish study tasks, avoidance of engagement in study activities or not feeling able to speak up during learning sessions. Importantly this can be context specific – so learners may display these feelings in all aspects of life or just some of them e.g., work, study and/or home life.

You can listen to people talking about their experiences of self-esteem in the video below, produced by the UK mental health charity, Mind.

You can find out more about the work Mind does in the UK on their website [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Low self-esteem can be considered a barrier to success in a learner’s studies, and therefore academic success can be positively influenced by increasing feelings of self-esteem (Marsh et al., 2006). In Week 7 you will specifically look at how you can support confidence and self-belief in learners through different elements of practice in your own learning environment.