Investigation of self-esteem and social support perception of young unemployment people in Turkey: Example of Trabzon

Facing with the problem of unemployment during youth, which is an important part of life, also affects young people psychologically. In this study, the relationships between self-esteem and perception of social support of youth unemployment was examined. A total of two thousand seventy five youth unemployment between the ages of eighteen- twenty four (x̄=21,94 ± 2.08) living in the province of Trabzon participated in the study. "Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale" developed by Rosenberg (1965) and "Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support" devepoled by Zimet and friends (1988) were applied to determine self esteem and perception of social support, respectively."Personal Information Questionnaire" we prepared was used to obtain personal information. The analysis of the data was performed by using t- Test, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal Wallis H Test, Mann- Whitney U Test, Pearson Corelation Analysis and descriptive statistical methods. As a result of the study, it was found that there is a positive significant relationship between social support perception and self-esteem. There is a significant negative relationship between the social support perception of the participants and the variables of gender and unemployment period. The self-esteem and social support perception of the participants and the age variable has a positive and significant relationship. Participants' perception of social support differed significantly in terms of age, marital status, duration of unemployment and educational status. The self-esteem scores of the participants are significantly different from the duration of unemployment variable. Key Words: Youth Unemployments, Self-Esteem, Perception of Social Support.