The Influence of Confucianism on the Self-Esteem of the Adolescents with Self-Destructive Behaviour: A Vietnamese Phenomenological Study

Confucianism has a substantial impact on the Vietnamese family culture. Over many generations, Confucianism in the Vietnamese family has been distorted, affecting the behavior and mental health of family members. This paper presents the influence of Confucianism on the self-esteem of adolescents with self-destructive behavior. The study applied a phenomenological study approach in qualitative research to find out the essence of the adolescents’ self-destructive behavior and how it affected to the adolescents’ mental health. An in-depth examination of three typical cases was implemented to triangulate the data and obtain the trustworthiness. The findings showed that self-destructive behavior stemmed from the participants’ needs for being recognized and loved by parents that were not satisfied due to loose family attachment caused by their parents’ Confucian ideology. This reason led to consequences that the adolescents’ self-esteem appeared to be incomplete and that they tended to exhibit negative behaviors. As a result, the essence of self-destructive behavior is the consequence of prejudices about Confucian ideology in family education that still exists in Vietnamese family culture. These findings offer an essential reference source for counseling and mental health care services in supporting those with self-destructive behavior caused by family.