Gender, ethnicity, and the structure of self-esteem: an attitude theory approach.
Consistent with attitude theory, self-esteem was considered in this study to be an attitude toward self, with component self-beliefs that associate or dissociate self with a desired or undesired attribute. It was hypothesized that the structure of self-beliefs underlying self-esteem is different across ethnic and gender boundaries. This hypothesis was tested by measuring the overall self-esteem and specific self-belief components in a sample of 643 (305 African-American and 338 White) middle school students in two small rural southern towns. In a series of regression analyses within ethnicity by gender groups, the self-esteem measure was predicted from indices representing specific self-beliefs associating self with different attributes. Substantial differences were found between the ethnicity by gender groups in the type of beliefs that best predicted self-esteem.
Tashakkori
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College of Education, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 70803.
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*