Do ethnicity and sex-role ideology influence self-esteem among US and West-African young adults: An exploratory cross-cultural study

Abstract

We explored ethnicity and sex-role ideology influences on self-esteem among young adults contrasting self-report data by university students from West-Africa (n = 144; females = 58.33%) and the United States (n = 57; females = 73.68%). The students (N = 201) completed measures of sex-role ideology and personal and collective self-esteem. Following regression analysis, we found ethnicity differences in self-esteem. US students scored higher than West-African students did on three self-esteem measures. Sex-role ideology did not predict self-esteem both between and within cultural settings. Findings may be explained by the conflation of ethnicity and sex-role ideology in the study sample.

Keywords:

• Ghana
• Nigeria
• self-esteem
• sex-role ideology