Racial Identity, Self-Esteem, and the Impostor Phenomenon Among African American College Students

Abstract

The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) is marked by an individual's persistent perception of incompetency despite contrary evidence. The presence of IP has been found to negatively affect many college students, but literature on IP among African American college students, specifically, is limited. Previous literature has emphasized a positive association between racial identity and self-esteem for African Americans, and an inverse association between selfesteem and IP among non-African American samples. However, few studies have examined these variables in African American undergraduate samples. Objectives: The current study examined the relationships between racial identity, self-esteem, and IP among African American undergraduate students. It was hypothesized that self-esteem would mediate the relationship between racial identity and IP. Method: The participants were 112 (74% female) self-identified African American undergraduate students who completed an online survey. Results: Mediation testing via bootstrapping revealed support for the hypothesis-self-esteem mediated the relationship between racial identity and IP. Conclusion: University initiatives should focus on creating inclusive environments that foster racial identity development and self-esteem for African Americans to reduce experiences of IP.

An Examination of Academic Self-Esteem in Historically Black College/University (HBCU) Students: Considering Academic Performance and Task Difficulty

“…In the finding presented by Lige, Peteet, and Brown (2017), African American students' (n = 112) general self-esteem levels were found to be directly correlated with and impacted by their private regard/racial identify (assessed by participants' feelings toward African Americans and their membership in the group; p. 349); r = .46, p < .01; β = .23, p < .001, respectively. Additionally, these elements of self-esteem mediated the extent to which students displayed negative self-beliefs characterized by a persistent perception of incompetence despite contrary evident (the impostor phenomenon; Clance & Imes, 1978 -as cited by Lige et al, 2017). Given these findings, future researchers may wish to examine additional factors that relate to and influence students' self-esteem, self-efficacies, and feelings of control; particularly those relative to academic success.…”

“…Addi-tionally, this belief of academic control (e.g., personal control and self-esteem) was shown to mediate the extent to which internalized racial oppression impacted male students' value of higher education Ross & Broh, 2000). In the finding presented by Lige, Peteet, and Brown (2017), African American students' (n = 112) general self-esteem levels were found to be directly correlated with and impacted by their private regard/racial identify (assessed by participants' feelings toward African Americans and their membership in the group; p. 349); r = .46, p < .01; β = .23, p < .001, respectively. Additionally, these elements of self-esteem mediated the extent to which students displayed negative self-beliefs characterized by a persistent perception of incompetence despite contrary evident (the impostor phenomenon; Clance & Imes, 1978 -as cited by Lige et al, 2017).…”

“…Finally, this study presents a need for newer research to examine students' perceptions of task rigor as a potential factor in self-esteem and academic success. Far too often, the literature has sought to determine how esteem and self-concepts impact academic performance; however, experiences of success and failures may inevitably impact aspects such as students' intrinsic motivation, levels of self-efficacies, as well as risk of learned helplessness Lige et al, 2017). Only through a holistic analysis can researchers, policymakers, and educators help to bring about change higher student academic-self-esteem and academic achievement.…”

Contextualizing the Impostor “Syndrome”

“…Although findings are mixed regarding gender differences in impostor feelings (for a recent review see Bravata et al, 2019), both in academic literature, and in popular media outlets, the impostor phenomenon is often linked to women and members of ethnic minority groups (e.g., McGregor et al, 2008;Peteet et al, 2015). Despite impostor feelings being linked to these social groups, and the unique challenges that members of these groups face (Cokley et al, 2015(Cokley et al, , 2017Lige et al, 2017;Bernard et al, 2018), we show that scholars have predominantly depicted and empirically examined the phenomenon at the individual level of analysis (e.g., Bernard et al, 2002;Rohrmann et al, 2016;Bravata et al, 2019). More importantly, we identify significant limitations that arise from this tendency to over-individualize the impostor phenomenon.…”

Impostorism in third-year medical students: an item analysis using the Clance impostor phenomenon scale

“…The phenomenon has been associated with psychological attributes such as perfectionism, anxiety, and neuroticism; and lower self-discipline, perceived competence, conscientiousness, and resilience [4][5][6][7][8]. It is observed in a variety of populations including ethnic minorities, workers, and university faculty [6,9,10].…”