From TheRoot.com
July 27, 2011
You'd think that the groups who face the most discrimination in the United States would have the lowest self-esteem, but a new report published earlier this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests otherwise.
According to researchers at Switzerland's University of Basel, whites trail both African Americans and Latinos in self-esteem by age 30. The researchers arrived at this finding by analyzing surveys of 7,000 Americans between the ages of 14 and 30 taken from 1994 to 2008.
African Americans experience greater self-esteem than whites as both teens and young adults. In contrast, Latinos have lower self-esteem than whites and blacks as teens but as adults report higher self-esteem than whites.
Considering that blacks in particular endure a series of psychological assaults on a regular basis, thanks to media portrayals of African Americans as aggressive, criminal, uneducated and physically undesirable, it's surprising that the black community reported higher levels of self-esteem than whites or Latinos, who also face negative media portrayals and racism but haven't been the focus of racial animus in the U.S. to the extent that blacks have. Add in the fact that Latinos and black typically don't have as high incomes or as much education as whites and the study's findings grow even more perplexing.
After all, if self-esteem is related to how much one has accomplished in life or if one fits certain ideals, conventional logic would indicate that members of minority groups would suffer from low self-esteem due to the institutional barriers that have historically locked communities of color out of the so-called good life. But the Swiss researchers used different criteria to measure self-esteem.
"We tested for factors that we thought would have an impact on how self-esteem develops," explained Ruth Yasemin Erol, the study's lead author, in an American Psychological Association press release.
Four factors--conscientiousness, emotional stability, a feeling of mastery and extroversion--have the most influence on a young person's self-esteem, according to the researchers. Socioeconomic status is not a contributing factor. If it were, whites would surely report higher self-esteem than blacks and Latinos at all ages.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Thursday, July 28th 2011 at 11:51AM
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