There Are Differences in Self-esteem Between African-American and Caucasian Women Living in the United States

Self-esteem is an internal belief system about one's self (Wilson 1). Our basic self-esteem develops during childhood to the age of about 12 (Wilson 1). Some variables that can influence one's self-esteem include individual skills, interests, and talents, economic status, community and culture (Wilson 2). African-American women will say positive things about themselves that Caucasian women are not comfortable with saying about themselves (Dent 1).

Rushton found that African-American women have equal or higher self-esteem levels then Caucasians or Latinos (Rushton 9). Gray-Little found that not only African-American adult women have higher self-esteem than Caucasian women but the same is true in children and adolescents (Gray-Little 17). Abba supports the idea that African-American's hold higher self-esteem standings throughout life (Abbas 2). Differences in self-esteem between African-American women and Caucasian's are less during childhood years and grow to adulthood (Twenge 1). Support for this may be that a woman's sense of identity forms throughout her lifespan (Lafromboise 2). Contradicting information states that Caucasians develop self-concepts as a race earlier because the Caucasians having great sociopolitical power which causes less issues to work though during racial identity development (Hill 5).

Carol Gilligan found that women are more likely to determine their self worth from relationships than males (Wilson 3). Hoelter found that African-American women stressed personal relationships more than Caucasian women (Gray-Little 2). Women with higher self-esteem levels are more likely to remain virgins longer than women with lower levels of self-esteem (the reverse is true for males) (Wilson 3). Women with high self-esteem deal better with internal and external pressures (Chapman 2).