Self-Esteem and Attitudes of Girls Orphaned to HIV/AIDS towards Education in Kampala, Uganda

Aims: To examine the relationship between self-esteem and attitudes to education among orphaned and non-orphaned adolescent secondary school girls in Kampala.
Study Design: Cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Institute of Psychology, School of Education, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda between June and October 2005.
Methodology: Questionnaire including the socio-economic indicators, Rosenberg General Self-Esteem Scale and the Attitude Scale were administered to 225 students who were selected by simple random sampling in six secondary schools in Kampala, Uganda.
Results: Orphaned girls had lower self-esteem and most had a negative attitude to education compared to non-orphans. However, girls orphaned to HIV/AIDS had a higher self-esteem compared to those orphaned by other causes and there was a positive correlationship between self-esteem and attitude towards education among orphaned adolescent girls in Kampala, Uganda.
Conclusion: Non-orphaned girls have a higher self-esteem than orphaned girls. Non-orphaned girls have a more positive attitude to education compared to orphaned girls. Girls orphaned to HIV/AIDS have slightly higher self-esteem than those orphaned by other causes, but had the worst attitude to education.
Recommendations: A special needs program should be designed to support orphan girls in secondary school so as to enable them perform better in their education. Additional study should be conducted among secondary school boys to compare the effects of orphan hood to their education and to see whether there are some disparities in the two genders of the same age group.