FEMALE ADOLESCENTS’ COOPERATION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THEIR SELF-ESTEEM DEVELOPMENT IN STATE UNIVERSITIES IN CAMEROON

This study was designed to examine female adolescents’ cooperation and its influence on their self-esteem development in state universities in Cameroon. The study was guided by two objectives which examine how peer influence and group work influence female adolescent students’ self-esteem in the early years of university studies in Cameroon state universities. The survey research design using the exploratory approach was adopted for the study. The population comprised of undergraduate female adolescents of ages 17 to 19 years in the University of Buea, in the South West, Dschang, West region, Douala, Littoral and Bamenda, North West Regions of Cameroon. The sample size of the study consisted of 703 undergraduates female adolescent age 17-19 using the simple random sampling technique. The instruments use for data collection were a questionnaire and an interview guide. Data from the questionnaire was analysed using SPSS 23.0, with the aid of descriptive and inferential statistical tools while open ended questions were analysed thematically. The hypotheses of the study were tested using a non-parametric test (Spearman’s Rho test) presented at 95% level of confidence interval with alpha set at 0.05 levels accepting 5% margin of error. Findings reviled that majority 73.8% of female adolescent students agreed that peers influence their self-esteem in the early years of their university studies while 26.3% of them disagreed and the overall mean of 2.95 below 3.0 on a mean scale of 1-4 implies that peers influence for a significant proportion of students is not high and 74.2% of female adolescent students like to work in groups while 25.8% of them do not and the overall mean of 2.92 below 3.0 on a mean scale of 1-4 implies that group work for a significant proportion of students is not high. Hypothetically, there is a significant and positive relationship between cooperation and self-esteem development of female adolescent students (R-value 0.466**, p-value 0.000 < 0.05). The positive sign of the correlation value denotes that self-esteem of the female adolescent students increases with increase in their ability to cooperate with others and decreases with decrease in their ability to cooperate with others. Therefore, it was generally recommended that, educational institutions in Cameroon actively promote and implement cooperative learning strategies within their curricula. Given the significant positive relationship between cooperation and the self-esteem development of female adolescent students, fostering collaborative environments can greatly enhance both academic performance and personal growth. Institutions should design group activities that encourage peer interaction, idea sharing, and mutual support.