Chapter 5

Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter is composed of three parts, namely: (1)

Summary of the Problems, Methods, and Findings; (2)

Conclusions; and (3) Recommendations.

Part One, Summary of the Problems, Methods, and

Findings, provides the summary of the problem, methods, and

findings of the study.

Part Two, Conclusions, presents the generalizations

formulated based on the analysis and interpretation of

results of the investigation.

Part Three, Recommendations, presents suggestions on

the application of the findings of the study and possible

areas for future research that may be undergone by

interested researchers.

Summary of the Problems, Methods, and Findings

This survey – correlational research was conducted to

determine the level of social interaction in relation to

social anxiety and self-esteem in the new normal of Junior

High School Students in Macario Bermejo National High School

for the school year 2021-2022.

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Specifically, this study sought to answer the following

questions:

1.  What is the extent of social interactions with

family, classmates, friends, teachers, and neighbors of

Junior High School students in the new normal?

2.  What is the level of social anxiety of Junior High

School students in the new normal?

3.  What is the level of self-esteem of Junior High

School students in the new normal?

4.  Are there significant relationships among social

interaction, social anxiety, and self-esteem of Junior High

School students in the new normal?

The participants of this study were the 240 taken from

the total population of 565 Junior High School students

selected through stratified random sampling by lottery using

Sloven Formula.

In order to measure the social interaction of

students, a 99-item researcher-made Social Interaction

Questionnaire was used. To measure the social anxiety of

students, a 20-item Social Interaction Anxiety Questionnaire

adapted from Mattick and Clark (2012) was utilized. To

measure the students’ level of Self-esteem, a 10-item

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale adopted from Azmi et al (2022)

was used.
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The independent variable of the study was the social

interaction while the dependent variables were the social

anxiety and self-esteem of students.

Frequency count, percentage, mean, and standard

deviation as descriptive statistical tools were utilized for

data analyses. Moreover, the Pearson r was used as

inferential statistical tool to determine the significance

of relationships among the variables. A two - tailed test

was used at 5% level of significance for all inferential

analysis.

The major findings of the investigation are the

following:

1. Generally, the over-all level of social interaction

of Junior high school students is “moderate”. Students

reflected a “moderate” level of social interaction with

family, friends, classmates, teachers and neighbors.

2. In general, the over-all level of social anxiety of

Junior high school students is “moderate”.

3. In general, the level of self-esteem of Junior high

school students is “low”.

4. There is no significant relationship between social

interaction and social anxiety of Junior high school

students. There is a significant relationship between social

interaction and self-esteem of Junior high school students.

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There is no significant relationship between social anxiety

and self-esteem of Junior high school students.

Conclusions

In the light of the aforementioned findings of the

study, the following conclusions were drawn:

1. The over-all level of social interaction of Junior

high school students is moderate. This concludes that

students may be outgoing but are deprived of this freedom

because of the pandemic. Because of this, they might

sometimes feel lonely and miss out on some opportunities to

get along with friends and other people in the community.

Students may feel bored at times and may engage in sedentary

behavior at home since they cannot always interact with

other people outside of their homes. Their moderate social

interaction will help them realize how important social

relationships are in their lives. This will encourage them

to connect and interact more with people around them to

improve their sense of connectedness. This will make them

evaluate the people they spend time with and look for ways

to strengthened or branch out if that circle doesn’t satisfy

them. They will be able to learn from their social

experiences and develop different social skills based on

those interactions. Their interaction with others may also

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change their ways and stop being shy to make new friends and

try to be more outgoing. Through social interaction they can

also learn how to act and react to others and they will be

able to develop different skills from these lessons.

2. The over-all level of social anxiety of Junior high

school students is moderate. Because of this result,

students may sometimes feel overly concerned with how others

see them. Their moderate social anxiety would render them to

stay away from social gatherings or group meetings that may

have negative impacts on their lives. They may withdraw from

a group or their social circles if their anxiety cannot be

controlled. Furthermore, students might resort to avoidance

of doing things or speaking to people out of fear of

embarrassment. This might trigger also students to avoid

situations where they might be the center of attention

especially during social situations. It would become a

little more difficult for students to work in a group or

participate in a group activity that might negatively

influence their overall self-confidence in the long run.

3. The level of self-esteem of students is low. Because

of this, students would be needing higher affirmation and

constant encouragement for them to do well in an activity or

task. This would also result to students avoiding situations

where they think there’s risk of failure, embarrassment or

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making mistakes which can involve school work, making

friends, and trying new activities, which are all important

parts of a healthy teenage life. Students may experience

relationship troubles or difficulty making friends because

of their low self-confidence. They may also often suffer

from negative moods such as feeling sad, anxious, ashamed or

angry which may trigger negative behaviors such as drinking

alcohol and/or taking drugs to feel better. Because of their

low self-esteem, students will more likely be having

negative thoughts about their worth and value as a person.

They might avoid new things and not take up opportunities.

This might also result to feeling unloved and unwanted among

students and would not be able to deal with normal levels of

frustration. Their low self-esteem might also make students

to have low levels of motivation and interest towards life

in general including their studies. This low level of self-

esteem might also act as triggers for students to become

introvert and shy away from challenging activities or tasks.

4. There is no significant relationship between social

interaction and social anxiety of students. Because of this,

students can still continue interacting with others without

worrying too much on the consequences. This will encourage

students and make them realize that their social anxiety is

not a hindrance to keep on interacting with other people.

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This concludes that even if students do not have a high

social interaction with their family, friends, classmates,

teachers and neighbors, this will not result to high levels

of social anxiety among students. Students can therefore

increase their social interaction with others without

worrying that their anxiety may also increase. Students’

social interaction cannot therefore be used as basis in

determining the social anxiety that students may experience.

There is a significant relationship between social

interaction and self-esteem of students. Because of this

result, students’ self-esteem will be positively affected by

the level of their social interactions. Students who have

higher social interactions would tend to possess higher

self-confidence than those who are not socially connected.

As a result, when students have good social interaction with

people around them, this will make them more confident and

felt more valued. High level of self-esteem would likewise

make students to increase and widen their social

interaction. They would become more enthusiastic and will

foster positivity in dealing with other people. Their self-

esteem will facilitate in making new friends, building new

social circles, and participating actively and confidently

in social activities and gatherings.

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On the other hand, the no significant relationship

between social anxiety and self-esteem will make students

understand that how they see themselves and their own worth

is not measured by the amount of social anxiety they

experience. Because of this, students can still become

confident about themselves even if they sometimes feel not

comfortable talking or being with other people. Also, social

anxiety will not hinder them from having positive image of

themselves. They can still achieve greater things despite

the social anxiety they may sometimes encounter.

Recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusions, the following

recommendations are hereby endorsed:

1. Since it was found out that the over-all level of

social interaction of students is moderate, students may

increase their social interaction by frequently keeping in

touch with friends, classmates, teachers and neighbors

through the use of social media apps if in-person meeting is

not possible. They may join activities in their locality,

neighborhood or school to get a chance to meet and interact

with other people. They may participate in sports activities

organized by the barangay and other community projects to

enhance their social interaction. They may also collaborate

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with teachers especially during the Brigada Eskwela and

homeroom meetings to increase their social interaction.

Teachers may insert weekly activities that give

opportunities for students to work collaboratively with one

another. They may involve students in homeroom PTA projects

and other group activities to spend more time interacting

with the students by scheduling regular online classes and

virtual activities that create a feeling of social

connectedness among students. They may encourage students to

nurture their friendships and remain in communication with

their classmates by giving activities that foster group

bonding such as online group study or online

study/accountability partners. They may also let students

engaged with extracurricular clubs and affinity groups

online, as well as participate in school-sponsored online

social activities. They may organize also conduct regular

home visitations to those students who have no internet

connection to attend virtual meetings.

Parents may support and foster a positive and nurturing

relationship with their children. They may encourage their

children to interact with their neighbors and other people

in the community by participating together in community’s

donation drive, food packing and sports. They may also

create a family outing or recreational time every weekend to

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improve family bonding. They may allow their children to

join group contests or school activities to make them more

connected with their peers.

School administrators are encouraged to organize school

activities that can help improve social connectivity among

students, teachers and people in the community. They may

launch fund raising games, contests and projects that

encourage participation from different stakeholders for the

benefit of the students. They may also conduct regular

virtual orientation to parents and students to strengthen

social connection and partnership.

2. Since it was found out that the level of social

anxiety of students is moderate, students may engage in

activities that can improve their socialization skills such

as organizing a friend’s party, participating in tree

planting project in the barangay, and joining the other

youth in a sports contest in the community. They may start

first with their very close friends and gradually try to

mingle with others to lessen their social anxiety. They may

also seek the help of their family members, teachers, or

even guidance counselors how to overcome social society.

Teachers may make use of this result to support the

development of strong and positive socialization skills

among students to help overcome social anxiety. They may

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provide guides to students how to stay socially confident by

providing small tasks and requiring students to perform

small group activities that require students to mingle with

others. Teachers may also encourage students to practice

asking and talking with their close friends or classmates

about a particular topic to increase social skills and

reduce social anxiety among students as much as possible.

Parents may make use of this result to sustain their

active role in keeping their children connect socially in a

more confident manner. They may enroll their students in a

workshop or personal development sessions to help them gain

higher self-confidence to avoid being anxious when dealing

with other people. They may also set a daily schedule with

their children talking about their feelings or assisting

them in their activities that can develop better

communication and help decrease social anxiety among

students.

School Administrators are encouraged to conduct

seminars and orientations to students which focused on

overcoming social anxiety. They may invite resource speaker

and experts to tackle about the issue. They may identify

students who are suffering from severe social anxiety and

refer them for counselling interventions.

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3. Since the level of students’ self-esteem is low,

students may assess themselves what causes this low self-

esteem among them and seek help as much as possible. They

may coordinate with their teachers and friends to make them

overcome the negative feelings about themselves. They may

engage themselves in worthwhile activities that promote high

self-esteem such as participating in sports, arts, or any

activities that they excel. They may spend time with close

friends that could influence them positively and avoid those

which make them feel bad about themselves.

Teachers may provide guidance and mentorship for

anything in their realm of expertise such as making students

understand their real worth by capitalizing on their

observed strength. They may assign them as leaders in group

work or projects to boost their confidence. They may also

talk with the parents how to assist students at home. They

may post encouraging and inspiring quotes in their group

chats daily, invite students to follow a certain page that

foster importance of good self-esteem, and upload videos

that can encourage students to have a positive image of

themselves no matter what their situation in life is.

Parents may expose students to simple activities that

foster a sense of accomplishment among them. They may let

students join workshops and group activities that focused on

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developing high self-esteem such as arts, sports, and dance

classes. They may create a loving, supportive and

encouraging home environment for the students to boost their

self-esteem. They may refrain from shouting or scolding

their children at home, and instead talk to them in a soft

manner and ask what is wrong or if they have any problems.

They may foster open communication with their children to

make them feel valued and cared for. They may assist

students on things that they find difficult to deal with and

give praises and encouragement regularly to increase their

self-esteem.

School administrators may implement plans and programs

that foster nurturing environments for students to possess

high self-esteem even in this time of pandemic.  To

cultivate such an environment, school heads may navigate and

promote collaboration across complex network of stakeholders

such as education authorities, teachers, students, parents

and local communities to hold everyone together in reaching

targets. They may implement programs and projects aimed at

improving students’ self-esteem such as conduct of sports

activities in school, community reading centers, and

barangay help desk that can assist students in their needs.

4. Since social interaction is not significantly

correlated to social anxiety but significantly connected to

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self-esteem, it is recommended that students focus on

improving their self-esteem to facilitate in their better

social interaction. They may engage in activities that can

develop good self-concept, self-confidence and self-worth

such as team-building, recollection, and bible-study

sessions. They may seek help from parents and close friends

every time they feel bad or if something is bothering them

that can affect their self-esteem. They may strengthen their

social interaction to improve self-esteem in the process.

Teachers may find ways how to support students

socially and psychologically to keep them strongly connected

with others to build their good self-esteem. They may focus

on strengthening protective factors for creating health

safety net around students such as developing students’ life

skills and resilience, fostering connectedness and

belonging, and promoting help-seeking behaviors. They may

create group chats or be active in social media to

frequently monitor students’ conditions. They may also post

inspiring quotes daily, or make positive feedbacks with

students regularly to foster high self-esteem among them.

Parents may help improve their children’s self-esteem

by praising them every time they have done something good

and encourage them when they fail in something. They may

give attainable tasks for their children at home to foster a

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sense of achievement. They may foster a more positive and

secured environment at home, develop stronger bonds with

their children, guide students in their daily routines, and

provide needed resources to prevent them from getting

anxious and bored. They may bring their children to shop

together, buy foods in the market or cook and do home chores

together to make them feel more connected and make

opportunities for development of good self-esteem.

School administrators may use this result to craft

plans in strengthening acquisition of good self-esteem among

students without worrying on their social anxiety. They may

refer the result of this study to higher DepEd officials to

create appropriate actions to safeguard students’ well-being

in times of crisis. They may encourage teachers to conduct

similar studies and action research to further strengthen

the result of this investigation.

A replicate of this study may be conducted utilizing

different variables for further data collection and

investigation.