The relationship between self-esteem, self-confidence and academic achievement among undergraduate students in selected public and private universities in Iringa region, Tanzania

This study assessed the relationship between self-esteem, self-confidence and academic achievement among undergraduate students in selected public and private universities in Iringa region, Tanzania. Specifically, the study had four objectives: (a) to compare the level of self-esteem between undergraduate students enrolled in public and private universities, (b) to explore the variation in self-esteem by age, sex and socioeconomic status, (c) to examine the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement among undergraduate students in private and public universities, (d) to examine the relationship between self-confidence and academic achievement among undergraduate students in private and public universities. The study employed quantitative approach, using exclusively the structured questionnaire as data collection instrument. Two hundred and forty five (245) participants involved in this study out of which 132 were from Ruaha University College and 113 were from Mkwawa University College of Education. Results show that there is statistically significant difference in self-esteem between private and public universities’ undergraduate students (p=0.000, eta squared=0.05). Public university undergraduate students reported higher level of self-esteem than private university undergraduate students. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant variation in self-esteem due to age, sex and socioeconomic status of undergraduate students. It was further found that there was no statistically significant relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement (r=-0.047, p=0.464), and self-confidence and academic achievement(r=0.007, p=0.916).Given that this study was limited with a few (2) selected universities and structured questionnaire as the exclusively data collection instrument, it is recommended further research to be conducted which should involve a large randomly selected sample and various data collection instruments for comparative and generalisation purposes. Moreover, a study should be done on exploring why females undergraduate students in Tanzania have higher self-esteem than their males counterparts.