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EFFECTS of MASLOW’S HIERARCHY of NEEDS MOTIVATION PROGRAM on
SELF-ESTEEM in EARLY MALE ADOLESCENT in FOSTER HOME
Siritorn Tanpattamadilok1*
Punyarat Lapvongwatana2*
Nattakamon Chansatitporn3*
1* Tansumrit Health Center, Nonthaburi Province, Thailand
2*Department of Public Health Nursing, Mahidol University, Bangkok , Thailand
3*Department of Biostatistics, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
*email: siritorn04@hotmail.com
Introduction
Adolescence is the critical stage for risk of mental health problems.1 Especially, in male
adolescents those problems are raising severely. In adolescent group, the prevalence of mental
health problems as follows: conduct disorder ranging from 6 % to 16 %; substance
dependence about 8.9 %; anxiety disorder ranging from 3.5 % to 4.1 %; depressive disorder
raging from 15 % to 20 %; and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) about 6 %. The ratio of
mental health problems for male to female was 2 to 1.2Mental health issues affected on
adolescents’ self-esteem3 and associated with depression, amphetamine use,4,5 hostile, and
aggression.2 These mental health issues cause the emotional and behavioral problems. The
emotional problems arise from internal drive, frustration and the impulsive reaction which
affect their relationship and adaptation.2 The relationship and adaption problems usually occurs
because of adolescents’ nature of thought, the lack of perception, self-awareness and the
awareness of others. In addition, they interpret situations in the manner contemplated by the
lack of overall detail which lead to criminal prosecution and get arrest. Thus, these adolescents
also lack of social opportunities3 such as the development of social skill and self-esteem. Most
therapists treat adolescents with mental health issues only taking care of symptoms and do not
treat the real cause of the problem which is low self-esteem.6 Mental health problems are
indicators of a desired basis which could develop by improving self-esteem. Therefore, selfesteem is important for adolescents that need to be developed in order make them live in a
normal life.
There are two factors affected self-esteem: 1) interpersonal components such as
physical and mental health problems, ability, efficacy, emotion, personal values and personal
needs, and 2) external components such as their relationships with family, school, social status
and peer groups.7 From literature reviews, the development of self-esteem focused only on
developing general skills8, 9 without involving psychological rehabilitation. As a result,
adolescents did not receive feedback from other people that could use to develop their selfesteem. The feedback received from other people is very important for adolescents to help
them learning to proud of themselves and organizes their self-image: the combination of
attitude, belief, the way of thinking and point of view. Individuals normally organized their
self-image from other people’s feedback. Thus, positive feedback is important to promote selfesteem in adolescents. Therefore, the experiences of success and good interpersonal
relationship have a greater influence on the self-esteem.
Adolescents who live in foster homes have been improperly raising. They must be in
the rules of foster homes and their mental demand is unable to be responded completely. The
conditions in foster home cause the emotional problems such as bad relationships and mistrust.
Some adolescents have problems of language development and frustration. The method that
can help adolescents in foster home to realize the other opportunities in life is to response to
emotional along with physical and social support, self-esteem and self-assertiveness.10
Self-esteem is a feeling of people who have self-confidence. It is also a basic need, the
evaluation of one’s strength, value, competence and aptitude. A person who can not respond to
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that need might be sick. Maslow11 and Trangkasombat12 described self-esteem in two
meanings: 1) the belief in self-worth and the equal status of others, and 2) the belief in selfefficacy meaning that people realize that they can think, understand, learn and make decision
by themselves; self-efficacy also means self-trust in person’s ability, effectiveness and selfreliant. People with self-esteem will achieve happiness and reduce stress. Maslow described
two different forms of esteem: 1) self-respect such as the person have strength, achievement,
mastery and competence, confidence, independence and freedom, and 2) esteem from the
others such as the need of recognition, power, prestige, and appreciation. So, self-esteem is the
fundamental of people for viewing life experiences in the past accurately without distortion,
and faces the future with strength.
Self-esteem is developed in early adolescents aged 10-13 years. In this period,
adolescents learn to follow the rules, practice self-reliance and have responsibility to help
others. Adolescents who have negative experience from the past can cause low self-esteem.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs believes that humans have the potential to do the good things
always and can motivate themselves for developing to achieve the goal of life by focusing on
the intrinsic motivation more than the extrinsic motivation. The motivation is important for
encouraging the behaviors. The most basic level of needs (deficiency needs) must be met
before the individual have strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) in the secondary or
higher level of needs which is self-actualization.
Methodology
This study is a quasi-experimental research, two group pre-test and post-test design.
The samples were early adolescent boys in foster home aged between 10 to 13 years. Samples
were calculated using effect size for mean comparison resulted in 28 boys. In order to protect
dropout rate from the program, the researcher enhanced 20 percent of sample size which
finally got 34 participants for each group. The experimental group included participants from
Phakred foster home, Nothaburi province and the comparison group included participants
from Maharaj foster home, Pathumthani province. Simple random sampling was used for
selecting participants from three dormitories. The proportion was calculated according to the
number of adolescents in each dormitory. Including criteria were: 1) early adolescences aged
10 - 13 years, and 2) voluntarily attending the research. The comparison group had one person
leaving the program; when combining two groups together there were 67 participants. The
experimental group received Maslow’ hierarchy of needs development motivation program. In
this program, participants received intervention for four sessions. Each session had two-hour
activity including: the five-minute introduction to the lesson, and the learning activities. In this
study, there were the evaluation before and after intervention in both control and experiment
groups.
Research Instrument
1. Instrument for sample selection including the general information of early
adolescences, the strength difficult questionnaire (SDQ) for parent, and the general
information of parents
2. Instrument for program evaluation
The researcher developed the questionnaires guided by the need model to assess
the level 1-3 of the need models such as the assessment of physiological needs (8 items),
security needs (11 items) and sense of belonging and love needs (12 items). In addition, the
researcher developed the self-esteem scale (41 items) from the Five-Scale Test of SelfEsteem scale for children13 defined from Maslow’ hierarchy of needs motivation. The selfesteem scale comprised of seven subscales such as self-confidence, capability, self-awareness,
prestige, self-acceptance, self-reliance, and independence.
3. Intervention included the two-hours group activities for four sessions as
following:
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week 1, activities including: cooking competition, receiving positive recognition
from parents in each dormitory, receiving necessity information for living , and using personal
note for planning personal development
week 2, activities including: role play, reflective thinking, group discussion and
receiving information about attachment
week 3, activities including: using reflective feeling of unconditional love,
receiving information about the human relation and relationship and the body language
guessing game
week 4, activities including: the reflective thinking game, training to use the
imagination and creativity, providing information about gift and attempt, and group activities
about gift and attempt
In the activity lead to the lesson for each session, adolescents need to summarize the
ideas related to lesson and got collective score. They also watched VDO summarized group
activities from previous sessions for five minutes.
4. Personal note was used for recording group activities and helping to evaluate
self reflection accurately (using as homework or during free time)
week 7 activities including: completing questionnaires such as physiological
needs, security needs, love needs and self-esteem
In comparison group, adolescents participated in the usual activity in the foster home.
After finishing seven week of the program, the researcher collected personal note from
comparison group. Adolescents in comparison group also involved in two sessions of group
activities: 1) the cooking competition and reflective thinking about “attachment”, and 2) the
group activity relating to reflective feeling of unconditional love , and group activities about
seeking gift and building attempt. Each session took two hours and thirty minutes.
Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using SPSS version 11.5. Statistical analysis was performed by
using percentage, mean, standard deviation, Paired Sample t test and Independent Sample t-test
with the significant level of .05.
Results
The results of the research
1. Demographic data
The general information of early adolescences
There was no difference in sample characteristics such as age and period of staying in
foster home. Adolescents about three in four stayed in foster home less than five years. Most of
them studied in elementary school. Before staying in foster home, half of adolescents lived
with their mother or father and the rest stayed with relatives and other people. Two in three of
adolescents were sent to foster home by parents; the rest of them were sent to foster home by
other people and relatives respectively. Two in three of adolescents reported that parents were
their significant person; the rest of them report that the significant person was relatives. Two
in three of adolescents consulted parents and the rest of them consulted foster home personals
when they need advices. Adolescents in experimental group had high ability in sport, art, show,
and computer respectively. The comparison group had high ability in computer ability, sport,
art and show respectively. The SDQ mean score at the beginning of the program in both groups
was 13.0 (standard deviation[S.D] 3.1) and 12.1 (S.D = 2.2) respectively. There was the
significant difference in the SDQ scores between experimental group and comparison group (pvalue = .903).
The general information for parents in foster home
The parent characteristics such as gender and marriage status between experimental
and comparison group were not different. However, parents in experimental group worked in
foster home longer than parents in comparison group. The amount of working hours per week
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was not different. Usually, parents in foster home worked two days and took two days off.
The parents in experimental group had more experience on taking care of early adolescents
than the comparison group. The work responsibility of parents in the foster home was the
same.
The research hypothesis testing
1. After four weeks of intervention, the experimental group had significantly higher
scores in physiological needs, security needs, sense of belonging and love needs as well as
self-esteem than comparison group.
The results after four weeks of intervention were as following:
1.1 There was no difference in the scores for physiological needs between
experimental and comparison group (p-value = .934).
1.2 There was no difference in the scores for security needs between
experimental and comparison group (p-value = .078).
1.3 There was no difference in the scores for sense of belonging and love needs
between experimental and comparison group (p-value = .165).
1.4 The experimental group had significantly higher scores for self-esteem than
the comparison group (p-value = .001).
2. The experimental group had significantly higher scores for physiological needs,
security needs, love needs and self-esteem in post intervention than in pre intervention.
2.1 The experimental group had no different scores for physiological needs
between pre- and post- intervention (p-value = .121).
2.2 The experimental group had no difference in score for security needs between
before and after intervention (p-value = .616).
2.3 After intervention, the experimental group had significantly higher scores for
sense of belonging and love needs than after intervention (p-value = .013).
2.4 After intervention, the experimental group had significantly higher scores for
self-esteem than before intervention (p-value = .001).
Table 1 The comparison of mean difference scores for the physiological needs, security
needs, sense of belonging and love needs between the experimental and
comparison group after four weeks of the intervention.
Variables
Physiological Needs
Security Needs
Sense of belonging and
love Needs
Self-esteem Needs
Experimental
group (n=34)
đ*
S.D
-0.97
3.5
0.41
4.7
Comparison
group (n=33)
đ*
S.D.
-0.18
3.2
-0.94
3.3
2.29
6.4
-0.21
0.1
4.9
4.1
3.0
3.7
p-value
t
-1.387
-0.529
df
65
65
.170
.598
2.525
6.810
65
65
.014**
.001**
* = mean difference scores after intervention - mean difference scores pre-intervention
** = significant, p-value < .05
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Table 2
The comparison of mean difference scores for the self-esteem between the
experimental and comparison group after four week of the intervention
Experimental
Comparison group
group (n=34)
(n=33)
p-value
đ*
S.D.
đ*
S.D.
t
df
Prestige
0.7
2.6
0.2
2.5
0.894
65
.375
Self-confidence
2.7
2.9
-1.0
2.5
5.535
65
.001**
Self-acceptance
-0.3
2.7
0.4
1.8
-1.219
65
.227
Capability
1.6
2.7
0.1
2.5
2.455
65
.017**
Self-reliance
-0.1
2.0
-0.1
1.4
0.068
65
.946
Independence
0.6
1.5
0.2
2.0
0.992
65
.325
Self-awareness
1.2
2.4
-.1
2.1
2.153
65
.035**
Self-esteem
6.4
4.1
0.1
3.7
6.810
65
.001**
* = mean difference scores after intervention - mean difference scores pre intervention
** = significant, p-value < .05
Variable
Discussion and Conclusion
Physiological Needs
There was no difference in mean scores for physiological need between the
experimental and comparison group before intervention (p-value = .07) and four week after
intervention (p-value = .934). There was no difference in scores for physiological need
between pre- and post- intervention in experimental group (p-value = .121). This result
indicated that both foster home could fulfill adolescents’ physiological need level and treated
adolescents for the four basic human needs. In addition, both foster homes had the similar
physical environment. Parents in the experimental group had been working in foster home
longer than the comparison group. From various activities in the intervention, adolescents had
reflective feeling activity and received positive reflection from other people . These activities
influenced on adolescents’ feeling. In this study, researcher provided information on how to
stay in a healthy life and keep on a good shape as well as emphasize on note-taking activity
which adolescents could use to evaluate themselves. From group activities, the early
adolescences could assessed their self image and had positive feeling. So, adolescents opened
their mind to perceive goodwill and had the flexibility which could improve physical, mental
and psycho-social development. Adolescents had enthusiasm and good feeling for themselves
to survive; they had internal motivation to develop themselves to higher level of needs
(Maslow, 1970). Maslow believes that humans have responsibility for their life. They have
freedom to choose what they interest in order to respond to the basic human needs from
hunger and survive until balancing their satisfaction.
Security Needs
There was no significant difference in mean scores for security need between the
experimental group and comparison group before (p-value = .082) and after intervention (pvalue = .078). There was no difference in mean score for security needs before and after
intervention in experimental group (p-value = .616). This result indicated that both foster
homes could fulfill and respond to adolescences’ security need level. 38.2 percents of
adolescents in foster home reported that the parents in foster homes were their significant
persons. Both groups had the same pattern of security need score for each subscale and sum
score. The reflective feeling activity showed that adolescents had negative feeling more than
positive feeling. Some adolescents had negative experiences in the past. These adolescents
were confuse; they had rapidly emotional change, negative expectation about others and
mistrust. Thus, it was difficult to understand these adolescents and appropriately respond to
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their emotional need. The reflective thinking activity about the real life situation could help
adolescents developing positive thinking for themselves and improve interpersonal
relationship. The use of disciplinary treated adolescents in the same way could help adolescents
anticipating the situation and develop emotional certainty. Note-taking was used to describe
adolescent’s feeling and to reflect real situation. So, adolescents could release from anxiety or
distress. After the intervention, the security need mean scores in the experimental group
enhanced to middle and high level. High level of mean scores resulted from the friendly
relationship during group process. Self-regard and self-acceptance contributed to appropriately
decision making and created internal motivation atmosphere for improving adolescents’
behavior to higher level.
Sense of Belonging and Love Needs
There was no statistically significant difference in the mean score of proximity love
need between the experimental group and comparison group before (p-value = .123) and after
intervention (p-value = .165). After intervention, there was statistically significant difference in
scores of proximity love need in experimental group (p-value = .013). This result might occur
due to the first and second group activities which helped adolescents improving their positive
self-image, positive emotion and trust. The peer acceptance and reflection of unconditional
love encouraged sense of belonging and love of others. When adolescents perceived the love
feeling, they released negative emotion. In consequence, adolescents produced positive selfimage. After intervention, there was statistically significant difference in the mean scores for
proximity love need in the experimental group (p-value = .01). The sincere admiration from
others could develop positive self-image and improved self-love in adolescents.14 So, the praise
from parents in foster home helped to improve adolescents’ self confidence and ability. The
group activity influenced on adolescents’ emotional need and improved communication skill
on how to show their love to parents in foster home. From this activity, adolescents developed
positive relationship and care as well as appreciated others. It was very important for
adolescents learning to accept and understand other people as well as respond to other people’s
need. After adolescents can fulfill their basic need, they can develop to fulfill the higher level
of need.
Self-esteem Needs
Before intervention, there was no significant difference in scores for self-esteem
between the experimental and comparison group (p-value = 0.246). After intervention, there
was the significant difference in the mean score for proximity self-esteem need between the
experimental and comparison group (p-value = .001). In the experimental group, the selfesteem mean scores in post intervention was significantly higher than pre intervention (p-value
= .001) (see table). From the reflective humanity activity, adolescents realized that there were
important persons. The self-image reflection video during the learning process and imagination
training helped adolescents to think around. The seeking factors to achieve target-goal activity
helped adolescents understanding their strength, weakness and capability. They could set their
goal and confidently plan for achievement. When adolescents experienced success, they had
motivation for personal development. There was the significant difference in scores for selfesteem such as self-confidence (p-value =.001), capability (p-value =.017), self-awareness (pvalue =.035) between the experimental and comparison group. There was no significant
difference for self-esteem need such as prestige (p-value =.375, independence (p-value =.325),
self-acceptance (p-value =.227), and self-reliance (p-value =.946) between the experimental
and comparison group. Some questions had high score more than 60.0 percentages. This result
could be the consequence of intervention which helped adolescents developing sense of
belonging in foster home, accepting others, having internal motivation and developing selfconfidence. Thus, adolescents changed their attitude to seek the meaning for their living and
considered that they could make contribution to society. In addition, they realized that other
people care for them which was very important for adolescents to understand the goal of life:
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for living, for love, and for creating works. Foster home should support adolescents to involve
in various activities such as song, music, reading and listening activity, game, art, the use of
television and video as well as group activity to develop creative thinking in adolescents.
Adolescents need to be trained to have internal motivation to practice analytical thinking, to
develop self-confidence, to make decision, and to overcome their weakness. In conclusion,
creative thinking could improve particular characteristics in adolescents such as having selfconfidence, feeling scare less for uncertain things and having positive self-image. In addition,
adolescents had internal motivation for personal development such as self-respect, self-esteem,
analytical thinking, capability, emotional management and interpersonal relationship. These
characteristics could help adolescents growing up to be affective persons.
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