Gender, Ethnicity, and the Structure of Self-Esteem: An Attitude Theory Approach

Consistent with attitude theory, self-esteem was considered in this study to be an attitude toward self, with component self-beliefs that associate or dissociate self with a desired or undesired attribute. It was hypothesized that the structure of self-beliefs underlying self-esteem is different across ethnic and gender boundaries. This hypothesis was tested by measuring the overall self-esteem and specific self-belief components in a sample of 643 (305 African-American and 338 White) middle school students in two small rural southern towns. In a series of regression analyses within ethnicity by gender groups, the self-esteem measure was predicted from indices representing specific self-beliefs associating self with different attributes. Substantial differences were found between the ethnicity by gender groups in the type of beliefs that best predicted self-esteem.