Ethnic and American identity as predictors of self-esteem among African American, Latino, and White adolescents

In order to examine ethnic and American identity as predictors of self-esteem among adolescents we surveyed 669 American-born high school students (372 Latinos, 232 African Americans and 65 Whites). participants completed measures of self-esteem, ethnic identity, American identity, attitudes toward other groups, and demographic variables. Multiple regression analyses of self-esteem were carried out separately for each ethnic group using ethnic and American identity, other-group attitudes, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and grade point average as predictors. Results indicated that for all groups ethnic identity was a significant predictor of self-esteem. For the White students only American identity was a strong predictor of self-esteem and was highly correlated with ethnic identity. Other predictors varied across ethnic groups. Although ethnic identity was a significant predictor of self-esteem, it accounted for a relatively small proportion of the variance, suggesting the importance of other influences on self-esteem.