Self-Concept and Ethnic Group Membership among Public School Students

Abstract

Wylie (1961, p. 62) pointed out that there has been an increasing number of empirical studies on self-concept since 1949, revealing a bewildering array of operational definitions, hypotheses, instruments, and research designs. Investigators have studied the relationship of self-concept with such variables as achievement, socioeconomic status, I. Q., sex and, more recently, ethnic group membership. The relationship between self-concept and ethnic group membership has received increasing attention but is still unclear. Several sources have postulated a lower self-concept for Negro children than for white children (Ausubel and Ausubel, Bernard, Erickson, Katz, Kvaraceus, Witty), and several studies have yielded what appear to be corroborative findings (Clark and Clark, Deutsch, Henton, Lansman, Long, Radke-Yarrow, Williams and Byars; Wylie, 1963). However, several other studies have found no significant difference between the self-concepts of Negro and white children (Coleman,