Research in Community and Public Health Nursing

Original Article

[English] Associations between Self-esteem, Social Support, Family Empowerment, and Health Empowerment among Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Hye-Jin Kim; Res Community Public Health Nurs. 2025;36(1):49-58. Published online March 31, 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/rcphn.2024.00794

Abstract PDF: Purpose
This study aimed to identify associations between self-esteem, social support, family empowerment, and health empowerment among children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted among fifth- to sixth-grade children and their parents who were recruited from C elementary school in Gangwon-do, South Korea. The health empowerment, self-esteem, and social support as reported by children were measured by the Korean version of Health Empowerment Scale (K-HES), Self-Esteem Scale, and Perceived Social Support, respectively. The family empowerment as reported by parents of children was measured by the Family Empowerment Scale. Linear regression analysis was performed.
Results
Of the participants, children’s self-esteem (β=.46, p<.001) and social support (β=.47, p<.001) and parents’ family empowerment (β=.27, p=.008) were significantly and positively associated with children’s health empowerment.
Conclusion
Among children in health-vulnerable environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing interventions for improving health empowerment needs to be considered as a nursing strategy for self-esteem, social support, and family empowerment at the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels.

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