A Meta-Analysis of Students' Sense of Self-Esteem Among Iranian Studies

Abstract

Self-esteem is crucial for the survival and mental health of human. It is not stable and changes heavily depend on physical conditions (health or disease), life experiences (success or failure), as well as mental moods (happiness or sadness). As many basic needs do not be satisfied with a lack of self-esteem, it is thought of as a prerequisite to an emotional life. Self-esteem is defined as "how people describe and evaluate themselves". The present research aimed to conduct a meta-analysis on studies discovering the effects of psychological interventions on students' sense of self-esteem.  The sample consisted of 50 Iranian studies. The snowball sampling technique was employed for studies have done in the last 14 years. Cohen's W effect size, Cochran q-statistic, Etu squared regression, publication bias, n-index, invulnerable number to error, as well as Orwin statistics were employed. Then CAM software was used to analyze data. Cohen's effect size value obtained from the effects of psychological interventions on students' self-esteem was 52.14±1.0 () (P-Value<0.001). 682 studies were required to reject the significant effects of psychological interventions. All early studies suggested a significant effect on Cohen's effect size, so leaving out every one of them changed the results. However, the significance of psychological interventions on students' self-esteem still maintained when any of the studies were omitted. Results suggested a significant effect of psychological interventions on students' sense of self-esteem, and most of them have raised its index.