Practicing Social Work Students and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Self-esteem has positive effects on various aspects of people’s lives, and it contributes to self-improvement and enhancement of their personal value. The purpose of this study was to explore the levels of social work students’ self-esteem the period of their practice placement (internship). Methodologically, in the context of quantitative research, the Greek Self-Esteem Scale was granted. The sample consisted of 106 (N = 106) social work students who were doing their internship. The resulting research data were analyzed with the use of SPSS, and they were then interpreted according to the evaluation criteria of the scale with the Cronbach’s Alpha index being of the order of 0.881. According to them, it seemed that the trainee students showed high percentages of total self-esteem 38.54% and particularly very high percentages on the self-esteem measurement scale of external appearance which reached up to 79%. In conclusion, it appears that high levels of self-esteem in students who carry out their internship enhance their skills in the internship setting, make them feel more confident in what they do, take initiative, be hardworking, punctual, and conscientious.