Self-esteem and student nurses: a cross-cultural study of nursing students in Thailand and the UK

Abstract Self-esteem is a key feature in a person's perception of their own worth. This report is of a study of the reported self-esteem levels of two groups of student nurses: one in Thailand and one in the UK. Purposive samples of 120 Thai students and 101 UK undergraduate nursing students were given the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory (CFSEI-2). The CFSEI-2 is a self-reported inventory, which measures an individual's perception of self. The findings of the study indicate that the perceptions of own self-esteem in undergraduate student nurses in the UK and in Thailand were comparable to the normal ranges of self-esteem as assessed by the instrument. An independent sample t -test revealed that there were no significant differences in mean overall and subscale self-esteem scores between UK and Thai nursing students. There were no indications of differences in levels of self-esteem for UK and Thai nursing students experiencing different parts of their training.