What does self-esteem have to do with behavioral health among low-income youth in Chicago?

ABSTRACT

Many studies have examined risk factors associated with poorer behavioral health among low-income African American youth, such as low school engagement, delinquency, mental health problems, drug use, and risky sex. However, fewer studies have examined protective factors for such behavioral health risk behaviors. This study sought to address this gap by examining whether high levels of self-esteem were associated with better behavioral health factors for this population. A survey was administered to a sample of 638 low-income African American adolescents in Chicago to examine the degree to which high self-esteem was associated with less delinquency, substance use, and sexual risk behaviors, and more school engagement, and whether such associations varied by gender. Stepwise linear and logistic regression models were estimated to assess the influence of self-esteem. Higher self-esteem for this sample of low-income African American adolescents was associated with lower rates of delinquency, drug use, and risky sexual behaviors and increased rates of school engagement. Gender moderated only a few of these relationships. These findings suggest that programs that promote high self–esteem alone or in combination with other resilience factors may promote better behavioral health factors for African American adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Drugs
• ethnicity
• higher education
• self esteem
• sexuality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the University of Chicago Center for Health Administration Studies and the STI/HIV Intervention Network awarded to principal investigator Dexter Voisin. This article was also supported by AHRQ grant T32HS000078, which funded Sarah Bassett.