Because self-esteem affects an individual’s success in social adaptation, reduced self-esteem can eventually lead to social maladjustment. Specifically, people with low self-esteem tend to exhibit negative responses, while those with high self-esteem tend to be less affected, as they are inclined to reject or restrict the scope of negative feedback ( Brown and Mankowski, 1993). An individual with high self-esteem and an individual with low self-esteem may respond similarly to positive input, but they could exhibit different responses to negative input. High self-esteem indicates a high level of social adjustment ( Martin et al., 2014). Self-esteem implies an awareness of one’s value system and one’s emotional evaluation of one’s self-worth ( Schunk, 1985). Self-esteem is regarded as a personal psychological characteristic relating to self-judgment based on one’s values about humans ( Alesi et al., 2012).

According to Rosenberg (1965a), self-esteem is one’s positive or negative attitude toward oneself and one’s evaluation of one’s own thoughts and feelings overall in relation to oneself.