Participating in religious activities and adolescents’ self-esteem: empirical evidence from buddhist adolescents in Thailand

Abstract

This paper aims at quantifying the relationship between participating in Buddhist religious activities and Buddhist adolescents’ self-esteem. It uses Thailand as a case study as Buddhism is the predominant religion of this country. Using ordered-probit regression models with a national survey of 1,648 Thai Buddhist adolescents, our results show that participating in Buddhist religious activities that involved maintaining mindfulness, including prayer and meditation, is found to have a statistically positive relationship with higher self-esteem among Buddhist adolescents in Thailand. Participating in relaxed and not-too-strictly regulated activities is found to have a statistically positive relationship with higher self-esteem of adolescents as well. Therefore, governments and related agencies should initiate policies that encourage adolescents to participate more in these types of activities. Integrating activities related to mindfulness development in a school setting, such as homeroom or after-school programmes, can be one of the best options.

Keywords

• self-esteem
• adolescents
• buddhist religious activities
• family supports
• prosocial behaviour