Japanese high school students had tendency on low self-esteem: an investigation in Japan, the U.S., China and South Korea

Recently the NHK News On-line reported the following:

日本の高校生 自己肯定感低い傾向 日米中韓で調査

4月3日 4時34分

日本の高校生はアメリカや中国、韓国の高校生と比べて自己肯定感が低い傾向にあるという調査結果がまとまりました。

この調査は、国立青少年教育振興機構がほかの３か国の研究機関と協力して実施し、各国の高校生合わせて８４８０人から回答を得ました。

この中で、自分が「価値のある人間だと思う」と答えた高校生の割合は日本が４４．９％で、ほかの３か国は８０％以上でした。

また、「自分に満足している」、「つらいことがあっても乗り越えられる」という質問に、「そう思う」と解答した日本の高校生の割合は４か国で最も低く、自己肯定感が低い傾向にあることがわかりました。

さらに、日本の女子高校生は自分の体型を「太っている」「少し太っている」と考える割合が５１.９％で、アメリカの高校生より３０ポイント以上高くなっていました。

高校２年の女子生徒は「人より得意なこともないし自信がないことばかりです。夜になるといつも落ち込みます」と話していました。

国立青少年教育振興機構は「集団生活の体験が減って、他人の評価を気にする若者が多くなっていることが原因ではないか」と話しています。

Translation

A survey result gathered had showed that Japanese high school students’ own self-esteem tended to be low compared with high school students in the United States, China and Korea.

This investigation was done by the national youth education promotion organization and was carried out in cooperation with 3 other research institutes on a high school student of their respective countries; it had a response from 8,480 people in total.

On the percentage of the high school student who had replied that "I think I have a value as a human being", it was 44.9% in Japan while it was over 80% in the other 3 countries.

Also on the questions "I am satisfied with myself" and "Even if it was hard, it could be overcome",  those who replied "I think so" among the 4 countries, the percentage of the Japanese high school student was the lowest, it was understood as having a tendency on low self-esteem.

Furthermore,  the Japanese female high school students who thought themselves as "I'm overweight", "I am a little bit overweight" was 51.9%; and was more than 30 points higher than the American high school students.

A schoolgirl of a high school second years said that “I am not as good as others, I just have no confidence. I always feel depressed at night."

The national youth education promotion organization said "there is less experience on group life, and may be it is because more young people become worry about the comments of others."

     It is an interesting survey and the outcome in Japan is surprising to me.