Puerto Rican Early Adolescents' Self-Esteem Patterns

Erkut, Sumru; Szalacha, Laura A.; Coll, Cynthia García; Alarcón, Odette

doi:10.1207/sjra1003_6

Cited by 34 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…A gender difference in participation in sports is consistent with the literature that documents this general finding in the United States (President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, 1997) and abroad (Gibbons et al, 1997), even though, over time, the gender difference in sports participation has been diminishing in the United States (President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, 1997). Latina girls' lower general self-esteem scores obtained in this study were consistent with the AAUW (1991) results of gender differences in self-esteem among Hispanic youth but contradict Erkut et al's (2000) findings of no gender differences in general self-esteem among Puerto Rican early adolescents. The observed pattern of lower physical well-being for girls relative to boys has not been specifically examined elsewhere among Latinos or other racial and ethnic groups.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…The research of Rumbaut (1994) and Erkut et al (2000), which contrasts with the results from the combined data of "Hispanics" in the AAUW survey of 3,000 youth (American Association of University Women, 1991), strongly suggests that Latino subgroups need to be studied separately. Underscoring the value of this, Umaña-Taylor and Fine (2001) have demonstrated that commonly used measures (including Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale) have different levels of internal consistency and concurrent validity among Latino adolescents from different subgroups.…”

Section: Research On Latino Youth's Self-esteemmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Rumbaut also obtained results that showed adolescent outcomes varied with the adolescents' own and their parents' nativity (born in the United States or abroad), which suggests that acculturation may play a role in self-esteem. Erkut, Szalacha, García Coll, and Alarcón (2000) examined self-esteem as a multidimensional construct in one Latino subgroup, Puerto Rican early adolescents from the greater Boston area, using Harter's (1985) Self-Perception Profile for Children. The mean levels of self-esteem found among this sample of Puerto Rican girls and boys were generally similar to those found among Harter's sample of predominantly Anglo middle school students from the suburbs of Denver except that Puerto Rican youth did not show gender differences in overall self-esteem.…”

Section: Research On Latino Youth's Self-esteemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting Adolescent Self-Esteem from Participation in School Sports among Latino Subgroups

Erkut

Tracy

2002

Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

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Data from the in-school survey of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on girls and boys who claim a Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban heritage were employed to test two hypotheses: (1) Participating in a school-based sport is associated with self-esteem, and (2) school attachment and a sense of physical well-being mediate this relationship. The first hypothesis was partially confirmed in that participation in school sports was associated with self-esteem among Mexican American adolescent girls and boys, Puerto Rican girls, and Cuban American boys, but not among Cuban American girls nor Puerto Rican boys. The second hypothesis was confirmed in that, where there was a significant relationship between participating in a school sport and selfesteem, school attachment and physical well-being mediated this relationship. The results underscore the need to study psychosocial processes separately among Latino subgroups and to examine gender within each subgroup.One of the justifications given for funding school-based athletic programs is that they boost self-esteem. This viewpoint has gained greater prominence since 1961, when Coleman reported on the centrality of athletics for boys within the status system of American high schools. Research has since provided evidence to support the claim that sports participation is associated with higher self-esteem for both boys and girls, but some of this research did not differentiate between physical activity associated with participating in a schoolsponsored sport and physical activity in general. For example, Gruber's (1986) metaanalysis of the outcomes of physical activity showed that higher self-esteem is associated with engaging in physical activity through a variety of avenues even for elementary schoolage children (and more so for children from economically disadvantaged families and those with mental or physical disabilities). McAuley (1994) also examined the outcomes of many studies to arrive at a similar conclusion; higher self-esteem is one of the several positive outcomes of engaging in physical activity. Recent research, which employed large samples of Caucasian and African American adolescents obtained from the in-school assessment of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), has shown specifically that participating in a school sport is associated with self-esteem and that this relationship is mediated by adolescents' attachment to school and their sense of physical well-being (Tracy & Erkut, in press). Do these findings on the relationship between self-esteem and sports participation apply to youth from Latino subgroups? If they do, are the processes by which Latino youth benefit from participating in a school-based sport similar to the processes that operate for Caucasian and African American adolescents? These are the two central research questions addressed in this article. Research on Latino Youth's Self-EsteemThe body of research on adolescent self-esteem has primarily examined Caucasian youth, and to some exte...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Research On Latino Youth's Self-esteemmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Research On Latino Youth's Self-esteemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting Adolescent Self-Esteem from Participation in School Sports among Latino Subgroups

Erkut

Tracy

2002

Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

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“…For instance, Mexican Americans show significantly lower levels of self-esteem than Cuban Americans (Twenge & Crocker). In contrast, Puerto Rican adolescents exhibit comparable levels of self-esteem when compared to European Americans adolescents (Erkut, Szalacha, Coll, & Alarcon, 2000). Erkut et al suggest that varying levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and discrimination may contribute to the inconsistent findings among different Hispanic subgroups and when Hispanic groups are compared to European Americans and African Americans.…”

Section: Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Esteem Changes in the Middle School Years: A Study of Ethnic and Gender Groups

2006

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The current study investigated how ethnicity and gender affect changes in the self-esteem of early adolescents during the middle school years. Self-report data were collected from more than 4,000 early adolescents from three ethnic groups: European American, African American, and Hispanic and analyzed using a consecutive three-year cross-sectional design to investigate group trajectories. Distinct group trajectories of self-esteem from sixth to eighth grade were found for each ethnic group. African American adolescents had high and stable self-esteem across these years while Hispanic adolescents had low and stable self-esteem. In contrast, self-esteem among European Americans began moderately high in sixth grade but dropped precipitously by eighth grade. Girls had lower self-esteem than boys in the Hispanic and European American groups, but not in the African American group. We conclude that past studies that found a sharp decline in self-esteem during the middle school years may have been conducted in a largely white sample and thus obscure important individual ethnic factors.

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“…A number of studies have pointed to a relationship between the stresses of acculturation and discrimination and Hispanic adolescentsÕ adjustment (Erkut, Szalacha, Coll, & Alarcon, 2001;Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000;Portes & Zady, 2002;Romero & Roberts, 2003;Szalacha et al, 2003). De Las Fuentes and Vasquez (1999) found that differential levels of acculturation appear to create parent-child conflict which has a particularly negative effect on girls.…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Hispanic Adolescent Girls’ Attitudes Toward School

Kaplan

Turner

Badger

2007

Child Adolesc Soc Work J

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Hispanic adolescent girls are at elevated risk for dropping out of school. The authors interviewed 54 Hispanic adolescent girls who were attending after-school programs in the New York metropolitan area. The study investigated how the multiple factors of mother-daughter and friend mutuality, coping, acculturation, self-esteem, depression and family environment influenced the way these girls felt about school. The final logistical regression analysis appeared to support our hypothesis that girls who have a higher degree of mutuality with their mothers will be more likely to like school a lot. In addition, girls who liked school a lot were significantly more likely to have higher overall grades and to be somewhat religious. Findings are discussed within the context of the empirical and theoretical literature and implications for prevention of school drop-out are considered.

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Puerto Rican Early Adolescents' Self-Esteem Patterns

Cited by 34 publications

References 27 publications

Predicting Adolescent Self-Esteem from Participation in School Sports among Latino Subgroups

Predicting Adolescent Self-Esteem from Participation in School Sports among Latino Subgroups

Self-Esteem Changes in the Middle School Years: A Study of Ethnic and Gender Groups

Hispanic Adolescent Girls’ Attitudes Toward School

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