The Relationship of Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy to Student Engagement among Gay and Lesbian Students: A Case Study

This study was conducted to determine the self-esteem, self-efficacy, and student engagement among gay and lesbian students in the University. It is specifically aimed to associate the level of self-esteem and self-efficacy of the respondents with their affective and cognitive engagement. A purposive sampling procedure was used in gathering the data from the 85 respondents. Adapted survey questionnaires by Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and General Self-efficacy Scale and a modified Student Engagement Instrument were utilized as guide in gathering the necessary information. Results show that the students’ level of self-esteem was high (3.06) and self-efficacy was also high (3.04). The findings suggest that they have a positive attitude about themselves, and they believe they can surpass almost all the challenges that come their way. In terms of engagement, the level of affective engagement was all high in all indicators while in cognitive engagement, relevance of school work was high (3.39), future aspirations and goals revealed as very high (3.68), however, extrinsic motivation was interpreted as moderate in cognitive engagement (2.32). On the other hand, self-esteem and affective and cognitive engagement were not significantly correlated with each other. It can be gleaned that self-esteem has no bearing on how they engage in affective and cognitive aspects. Hence, it was found out that their level of self-efficacy yielded with a 0.410 Pearson-correlation and a p-value of 0.000 which revealed a strong positive relationship which was significantly associated with their affective and cognitive engagement. It can be deduced that their positive beliefs that they can surpass their problems can be strongly associated with how much they engage affectively and cognitively.

Keywords: Self-esteem, self-efficacy, affective and cognitive engagement, gays and lesbians