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Official and non-official public health advocates continually preach the virtues of raising self-esteem for the well being of the individuals. Indeed, one of the ways that campaigners promote a particular issue is by linking it to its alleged benefits for self-esteem. Mission statements justify a bewildering variety of activities on the ground of raising self-esteem.

To take a few examples. It is frequently claimed that single-sex schools and classes 'help promote girls' confidence and self-esteem'. A major project promoting gardening for its therapeutic effects, by the charity Thrive, claims that one of the main benefits of this activity is that it 'increases self-esteem'.

The National Cycling Forum in its strategy document, Promoting Cycling: Improving Health boasts that 'studies have shown that regular cyclists, compared with inactive people, have improved well being, higher self-esteem and greater confidence in their ability to perform active tasks'.

Outdoor Education claims that guided experience of the outdoors 'increases self confidence and self-esteem'. The National Pyramid Trust aims to reach 'as many children as possible and to establish routine check of their emotional health needs' in order to help them build 'their self-esteem and resilience'.

The IPPR, one of Britain's leading think tanks, advocates business support for women from deprived areas because 'enterprise activity' can 'increase self-esteem'. Groundwork, a charity devoted to environmental regeneration claims that the 'process of identifying, planning and implementing improvements to the local environment offers an excellent opportunity to improve the self-confidence and self-esteem of young people'.

SureSlim a commercial company helping people manage their weight, tells potential customers that the 'rewarding end product' for people who lose some weight is 'the boost in morale and self-esteem'. The Communities United Project that involves young people in football aims to 'improve the self-esteem of adults by offering them the opportunity to get involved and run individual schemes'. The Nationwide Foundation supports volunteering programmes that focus on 'raising the confidence and self-esteem of the volunteers themselves'.

Construction of the problem

Given the widespread usage of the term self-esteem in everyday life, it is easy to overlook the fact that the problems associated with it are of relatively recent invention. Until the mid-eighties, the term was conspicuously absent in public discourse and did not enjoy the status of a publicly recognised idiom.

A Factiva search carried out on all UK papers failed to find any citation for this term between the years 1980 and 1985. In 1986, there were 3 citations of the term. A year later, it grew to 15 and by 1990 there are 103 citations of the term self-esteem. It was in the mid-nineties that self-esteem became a widely used word in public discourse.

In 1995 there are 456 citations, which more than doubled a year later. During the past seven years, citations increased every year and stood at 3349 in 2001. A breakdown of citations in four key newspaper sources indicates a common pattern of steady increase in the usage of the term.

The four papers selected reflect the political divide between left/liberal (The Guardian, The Observer) and right/conservative (The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph). Although all 4 papers show an increase in citation, the expansion of the usage of the term is more marked in the liberal papers.

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