Family Structure, Racial Socialization, Perceived Parental Involvement, and Social Support as Predictors of Self-Esteem in African American College Students

Abstract

The present study was a correlation survey examination of self-esteem among African American college students. The constructs of racial socialization, parental involvement, social support, family structure, and self-esteem were examined among 98 African American college students residing in the central region of North Carolina. To examine these relationships, Pearson product correlation, multiple regressions, and ANOVA were run to analyze data. Conventional wisdom suggested that changes in family structure such as the dissolution of a two-parent family would have short-term and long-term effects on children and a wide range of psychosocial outcomes. However, the current study found no significant mean differences in self-esteem across family structures. By examining self-esteem in the sample population, this study identified that social support and parental involvement were significant factors that contributed to the development of self-esteem in African American adults.