Self-Esteem and Achievement of Black and White Adolescents

Abstract

This study measures the self-esteem and academic achievement of 798 black and white adolescents as they move from sixth to seventh grade in a large Midwestern city. Our findings, in many instances, do not fit widespread preconceptions, but support other recent, large-scale quantitative studies. The basic findings involving selfesteem are as follows: (1) black children appear to have higher, rather than lower, self-esteem than whites; (2) girls of both races demonstrate lower self-esteem than do boys, with white girls exhibiting the lowest self-esteem of all; (3) among black children, those from broken families fare worse in terms of self-esteem in desegregated than in segregated schools. In terms of academic achievement, school desegregation is related to the marks the black children receive in school and their achievement in standardized tests. The black children in segregated schools receive somewhat higher marks than their desegregated peers, but score significantly lower in national standardized tests even when parental occupation, parental education, family structure and the child's educational aspirations are held constant.