Volume II, Issue III, March 2015 IJRSI ISSN 2321 - 2705 www.rsisinternational.org/IJRSI.html Page 18 A Comparative Study on Self Esteem and Stress among Private and Government High School Students Sadananda Reddy* 1 , Prasad Kannekanti 2 , Md.Ameer Hamza 3 1 Assistant prof., & HOD in Social Work, M.Phil (PSW), M.Sc (Psy) (UGC NET), Don Bosco Academy, Degree and P.G college, Nalgonda. 2 P.hD scholar, (PSW), Department of Psychiatric Social Work, NIMHANS, Bangalore. 3 Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychiatric Social Work, NIMHANS, Bangalore. Abstract: Introduction: High school student’s stage is human development of the nations by skills development through proper education that occurs between childhood and adulthood. Some sensitive factors like physical, mental, family, school, relationship and social factors influence on the students while learning. Stress free creates pleasant environment such as mental peace, better and healthy thoughts and good relations. Self-esteem is confidence in one’s capacity to achieve values. It is subjective and enduring sense of realistic self approval. It reflects how the individual views and values the self at the most fundamental levels of psychological experiencing Aim of the study: To compare self esteem and stress among high school students of private and government schools Methods & Materials: The study was taken urban area of Nalgonda district, data was collected from Government and Private high schools students (SSC) were enrolled for the study from private (30) and government (30) high school’s student samples were (N=60) recruited in the study. The researcher administered Socio demographic questionnaire, stress questionnaire for students and self esteem scale, it consists of 20 items and 10-items self esteem scale developed by Rosenberg. Ethical issues have been followed while conducting the study. Results & Conclusion: Results revealed that students from government and private schools don’t have any difference on self esteem and stress. Students from both schools had low level of stress and normal level of self-esteem. The findings give enormous scope for improvement of high level of self esteem and stress management for private and government schools. Stress management among secondary school students, it necessitates orienting teachers on conducting activities to enhance the self esteem and adapt stress management of students. Through arranging and encouraging a variety of group activities, ensuring that all pupils experience trust-building activities, instigating positive behaviour programmes and a systematic scheme of rewards. Key Words: Stress, Self esteem, High school students, Private, Government I. INTRODUCTION igh school Students stage is human development of the nations by skills development through proper education that occurs between childhood and adulthood. Some sensitive factors like physical, mental, family, school, relationship and social factors influence on the students while learning. Stress free creates pleasant environment such as mental peace, better and healthy thoughts and good relations. Self-esteem is confidence in one‟s capacity to achieve values. It is subjective and enduring sense of realistic self approval. It reflects how the individual views and values the self at the most fundamental levels of psychological experiencing Self-esteem is a widely used concept both in popular language and in psychology. The term self-esteem comes from a Greek word meaning “reverence for self.” The “self” part of self-esteem pertains to the values, beliefs and attitudes that we hold about ourselves. Simplistically self-esteem is the acceptance of us for whom and what we are at any given time in our lives. Self-esteem is a positive or negative orientation towards oneself, an overall evaluation of one‟s worth or value. Coopersmith S.A (1967) defines self-esteem is „a set of attitudes and beliefs that a person brings with him or herself when facing the world. But Gray.p (2001) defines Self-esteem as one‟s more or less sustained sense of liking oneself. Branden,N (1969) defined self-esteem as “ the experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness”. He also believes that Self-esteem is the confidence in one‟s capacity to achieve values. . Self-esteem of an individual has been affected by a multitude of factors. Repeated negative evaluation makes children to be dumb, stupid, slow, fat and so on. Severe or repeated criticism damages the self-worth and self- confidence. Criticism disguised in a joke or Negative humor, errors or failures can lower confidence and ultimately self-esteem. But none is more significant than the family (Mruk.c). The greater the involvement of parents with their child, the higher will be the levels of self-esteem of child. It is believed that, a person possessing high level of self esteem will be confident, happy, highly motivated and have the right attitude to succeed. Low self esteem feeds negative thinking and causes to believe the criticism others make of one self. In the field of Education, the role of Self-Esteem cannot be ignored numerous studies have shown a positive association between Self-Esteem and H