Introduction: Given the prevalence of chronic diseases and their consequences, supporting and empowering patients with such diseases and their families seems necessary. Family-centered support is one of the recent trends to change the role of families in giving care to patients. One aspect of the family-centered empowerment model is self-esteem. The aim of this study was to determine different aspects and characteristics of self-esteem in chronically ill patients.

Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in two university hospitals located in Ardabil and Khalkhal, northwest of Iran, from May 2015 to March 2016. Data were collected through holding personal semi-structured interviews with eighteen participants including chronically-ill patients, family caregivers, and nurses. Data analysis was performed concurrently with data collection through the directed qualitative content analysis.

Results: After analysis of the data, 239 codes about self-esteem of patients with chronic diseases that is a dimension of the family-centered empowerment model were extracted. Then, these codes were included in the subcategories of resilience, supportive family, and supportive society.

Conclusions: The findings of this study show the dimensions of self-esteem in patients with chronic conditions that according to these dimensions, with planning and selecting effective ways to promote these dimensions, a key step can be taken to empower the chronically ill patients.