Gender Effects on Self-Esteem, Family Functioning and Resilience among Juvenile Delinquents in Malaysia

Resilience is a very important aspect of each individual’s life. Individual characteristics such as self-esteem and family characteristics such as family adaptability and family cohesion pose both risk and protective factors in an individual’s environment. The objective of this research is to determine the relationships that exist between resilience, self-esteem, family adaptability and family cohesion of juvenile delinquents while considering the effect of gender. Respondents were 134 juvenile delinquents (44 males and 90 females) from two juvenile delinquent schools in Malaysia who took part in this exploratory cross-sectional survey research design by responding to The Resilience Scale, The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales II. Results showed that self–esteem, family cohesion and family adaptability together with gender did not produce a significant interaction effect with resilience