Self-esteem among African Americans

A large body of research on African Americans and self-esteem has focused on factors that contribute to self-esteem. However, most studies have utilized samples of children or adolescents rather than adults. Although studies of children and adolescents provide important insights about sources of self-esteem for African Americans, this research has examined a limited number of variables and as a result, have not fully explored the impact of some variables that may have greater impact on blacks’ selfesteem in adulthood. Clearly research identifying potential factors that may be an important source of self-esteem among African American adults is needed. One potentially, significant factor that has been neglected in the literature as an important source of self-esteem for black adults is health status. Prior research indicates that health (e.g., self-rated health, chronic health conditions and functional limitations) may have a significant effect on self-evaluation for blacks (Ferraro & Feller 1996).