Effects of Family Strength on Social Competence, Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement of Second-Generation Felda Settlers' Children

This study was designed to determine the effects of family strength on social competence, self-esteem and academic achievement of children. The simple random sampling was utilized to identify 200 married second generation FELDA settlers who had at least one child between the age of 7 to 12 years living in FELDA schemes in Negeri Sembilan and Pahang. Respondents were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire which included demographic data and several instruments to assess the study variables: 1) Family Strength = Australian Inventory of Family Strengths (adapted for Malaysian context) (Geggie et al., 2000); 2) Economic Strain = Economic Strain Scale (Pearlin et al., 1981); 3) Marital Quality = Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (Rumaya,1997; Schumm et al., 1986); 4) Parental Nurturance = Parental Nurturance Scale (Buri, 1989); 5) Social Competence = Social Competence Scale (Corrigan, 2002); 6) Self-Esteem = Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg,1965); 7) Academic Achievement = Total of scores in four selected subjects: Malay Language, English, Science, and Mathematics. Descriptive statistics were computed for respondents’ personal characteristics, family characteristics, family strength and child outcomes variables, and a correlation matrix examined the relationships between all variables. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the relative strength of the independent variables in predicting family strength and child outcomes (social competence, self-esteem and academic achievement). The results indicated that slightly more than half (54.5%) of the respondents had low level of family strength. Overall, children of second generation of FELDA settlers had high levels of social competence, self-esteem and academic achievement. Regression analyses revealed that several factors were found to correlate significantly with family strength: parental nurturance (β = 0.26, p < 0.01), marital quality (β = 0.30, p < 0.01), economic strain (β = -0.25, p < 0.01), and number of children (β = 0.16, p < 0.01). Nonetheless, respondents’ age, level of education and duration of marriage were not significantly related to family strength. This study found that children with higher level of social competence came from families with higher level of family strength (β = 0.24,p < 0.01) and longer parental duration of marriage (β = 0.15, p < 0.01). More positive parental nurturance (β = 0.28, p < 0.01) and lower level of economic strain (β = -0.16, p < 0.01) predicted higher level of children’s self-esteem. Parental level of education (β = 0.20, p < 0.01) was significant predictor of children’s academic achievement. The study concludes that family characteristics were significant correlates of the family strength. Contrary to expectation, personal characteristics were not correlated to family strength. Family strength had positive impact on children’s social competence and self-esteem but not on academic achievement. The findings imply that family strength could be influenced by family characteristics and in turn, influences children’s social competence and self-esteem. Further research is necessary to investigate whether these relationships are upheld over time and with larger and more diverse samples.

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