Introduction
We live in a society where we have a lot of adolescents with physical disability but these adolescents tend to fall behind not because they are not capable of doing the same thing adolescents without adolescents do but because these adolescents tend to face a lot of things in their life that affect their esteem. Adolescents with a physical disability, experience social discrimination, denial, anger and depression when it comes to self-acceptance and self-esteem. According to Kontakt, (2018) Amputation or traumatic loss of a limb is typically equated with loss of spouse, loss of one’s perception of wholeness, symbolic castration and even death. This may affect one emotionally and result in poor quality of life and this may cause distress not only due to the loss of a body part but also due to the role limitation and need to adjust to the changed lifestyle options.
CAUSES OF LOW SELF-ESTEEM AMONG ADOLESCENTS WITH DISABILITY.
ATTACKS ON IDENTITY:
It is always a bad experience for an adolescent with a physical disability to receive hurtful messages about himself. It can shake this young person’s pride in a fundamental part of their identity such as their culture, race, sexuality, gender, or socioeconomic class. Those with chronic medical illnesses, physical impairments, learning disorders, or mental health conditions face similar challenges
SOCIETAL MARGINALIZATION.
People with physical disability in Uganda are marginalized and tend to face a lot of problems due to their disability. Most of them do not have access to health, education, rehabilitation and employment. They face and experience hardship due to cultural, social and economic prejudices, while some of them go through abuse and violence.
POOR SELF-PERCEPTION.
Physically challenged adolescents in general had lost relationships with others because of negative self-esteem and level of physical disability. Supporting, guiding and caring for adolescents with physical disability helps them to feel appreciated and helps them adjust and be confident.
ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES.
These events that occur during a child’s development may be traumatic, such as neglect, witnessing violence, the death of a family member, or the imprisonment of a loved one. It becomes worse for adolescents with disabilities as they will feel helpless.
SOCIETAL PRESSURES AND EXPECTATIONS.
As society determines what is good and what is bad and we are all constantly exposed to the successes of friends and family on social media. These adolescents are exposed to abuse and segregation and this affects their lives more so self-esteem. Society’s unreasonable and unattainable expectations are damaging to self-worth.
Most adolescents with physical disability in Uganda have an amputee form of disability which indicates that most adolescents have lost their arms or legs cut off or missing, this affects their well-being and early medication and interventions like rehabilitation can reduce causes of amputation in Kabale Uganda among adolescents.
Recommendations
Adolescents in Uganda should also take caution whenever they are doing activities that make them lose their physical parts to reduce the prevalence of forms of physical disability in the study area. Also, government policies like facilitating the availability and utilisation of assistive devices and services to people living disabilities to make them independent and productive in development activities should be fully implemented to ensure full support to adolescents with disabilities.
Counselling sessions to improve their self-esteem levels and help them to accept themselves the way they are. Having them participate in social and cultural activities improves their self-esteem hence improvement on perceived self-esteem which in turn results in having less impact on their lives. Peers, on the other hand, should also be counselled on the importance of having inclusive social behaviour among themselves, either disabled or not. This enhances the chances of having adolescents with disability improve on self-esteem hence resulting in a view of life in a positive direction.
Conclusion
Adolescents with physical disability should be treated with most socio-psychological care and should be accepted. This will improve their self-esteem hence resulting in improvement in how they perceive themselves no matter the level of disability. It is recommended that by providing psychological support to physically challenged adolescents, the activity of daily functioning of disabled adolescents may improve especially those due to psychological conditions.
