Mandara Et Al (2009) Changes in Racial Identity

The Effects of Changes in Racial Identity and Self-Esteem on Changesin African American Adolescents Mental Health

Jelani MandaraNorthwestern University

Noni K. Gaylord-HardenLoyola University Chicago

Maryse H. RichardsLoyola University Chicago

Brian L. RagsdaleWalden University

This study assessed the unique effects of racial identity and self-esteem on 259 African American adolescentsdepressive and anxiety symptoms as they transitioned from the 7th to 8th grades (ages 1214). Racial identityand self-esteem were strongly correlated with each other for males but not for females. For both males andfemales, an increase in racial identity over the 1 year was associated with a decrease in the prevalence ofdepressive symptoms over the same period, even with self-esteem controlled. It was concluded that racialidentity may be as important as self-esteem to the mental health of African American adolescents, and itexplains variance in their mental health not associated with feelings of oneself as an individual.

A critical developmental task of adolescence is theformation of a cohesive and positive sense of self.Adolescents higher in self-esteem tend to have bet-ter mental health and are more resilient in the faceof adversity compared to those low in self-esteem(Compas, Hinden, & Gerhardt, 1995; DuBois et al.,2002). In the early research on African Americanidentity development, self-esteem was commingledwith racial preferences and racial identity to such adegree that it was difficult to determine the impor-tance of ones beliefs and feelings about their per-sonal attributes relative to their beliefs and feelingsabout their racial group (Whaley, 1993). Counter tothis perspective, several theorists have long arguedthat ones self-concept consists of an individualidentity domain and a group identity domain,which are related but also conceptually distinct(Cross, 1991; McAdoo, 1985; Spencer, 1982). Thesetwo-factor models of identity suggest that Afri-can American youth have the ability to separate orcompartmentalize feelings toward their race from

feelings about themselves as individuals. Thus,many theorists questioned the assumption thatones perceptions and feelings of their racial group,or racial identity, is a proxy for ones self-esteem(Cross, 1991; McAdoo, 1985; Spencer, 1982).

Once self-report measures became more stan-dard, two important strands of research emerged.One strand directly assessed the effects of self-reported self-esteem on African American adoles-cent and adult mental health, without regard toracial identity. Another strand attempted to furtherdisentangle racial identity from self-esteem andexamine their interrelation, as well as the impor-tance of racial identity to African American adoles-cent and adult mental health in general (see Cross,1991, for a review). Many important findings aboutthe identity development of African Americansemerged from this research (Murray & Mandara,2001). However, many of the most theoretically andpractically important questions have yet to beanswered. For instance, few studies have examinedthe joint influences of racial identity and self-esteemon African American adolescents mental health(McMahon & Watts, 2002). Their affects could becumulative or one component could explain theeffects of the other. Furthermore, virtually no stud-ies have examined the effect of changes in racial

This research was funded by Grant R01-MH57938 from theNational Institute of Mental Health awarded to Maryse H. Rich-ards. The authors acknowledge the contributions of the projectdirectors, Cathy Flynn, and Phil Hammack, and the students,school administrators, teachers, and parents who volunteeredtheir time to participate in this research.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed toJelani Mandara, Program in Human Development and Social Pol-icy, Northwestern University, 2120 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL60208. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected].

Child Development, November/December 2009, Volume 80, Number 6, Pages 16601675

! 2009, Copyright the Author(s)Journal Compilation! 2009, Society for Research inChildDevelopment, Inc.All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2009/8006-0007

identity and self-esteem on changes in mentalhealth. Understanding how racial identity and self-esteem each affects adolescent mental health overtime may have important implications for develop-mental theory and prevention interventions. Thepurpose of this study was to help fill these gapsand assess the unique effects of racial identity andself-esteem on African American adolescents men-tal health as they transitioned between the seventhand eighth grades.

Self-Esteem Development During Adolescence

Most modern theorists define self-esteem as theaffective and evaluative dimension of ones self-concept. It essentially refers to ones generalizedappraisal of their positive or negative attributesacross different domains (Harter, 1999). Researchsuggests that self-esteem becomes most salient dur-ing the transition to adolescence (Greene & Way,2005). A number of studies have examined thedevelopmental trajectory of self-esteem during ado-lescence, but little consensus exists. For instance,some studies examined mean-level changes in self-esteem at multiple time points and found increasesin self-esteem during adolescence (Hirsch &Rapkin, 1987; OMalley & Bachman, 1983), whereasothers show decreases (Brown et al., 1998). Onestudy of self-esteem using growth curve analysisfound that self-esteem increased in preadolescence,began decreasing in early adolescence, andincreased again during late adolescence (Baldwin &Hoffman, 2002). Another growth curve analysis ofself-esteem in a multiracial sample provided evi-dence of a general increase in self-esteem for ethnicminority adolescents during adolescence (Greene &Way, 2005). In a study of over 800 students fromvarious racial backgrounds, researchers used theexperiential sampling method to assess feelings ofself-worth and found that it dramatically reducedbetween the 6th and 10th grades, and then began toslowly increase by the end of high school (Moneta,Schneider, & Csikszentmihalyi, 2001). Thus, the evi-dence suggests that self-esteem greatly changesfrom early adolescence to later adolescence, but thetrajectory of those changes are still unclear.

Self-Esteem and African American AdolescentMental Health

Self-esteem is generally thought to be one of themost important psychological constructs for adoles-cent mental health (Mann, Hosman, Schaalma, & deVries, 2004). One prevalent theory suggests that self-

esteem benefits adolescent mental health by actingas a psychological buffer from negative environmen-tal stressors (Compas et al., 1995). This is thought tooccur because high self-esteem makes adolescentsmore emotionally resilient and feel as if they havethe capability to overcome obstacles (Mann et al.,2004). Therefore, having a positive image of oneselfas an individual may be a particularly importantresiliency factor for African American adolescentsgiven their exposure to environments that oftendevalue their worth (Spencer, 1995).

Beginning in the early 1960s with the develop-ment of self-report measures, a slew of studies onAfrican American self-esteem and well-being testedthese assumptions. The accumulated research isstrikingly clear. Self-esteem has been negativelycorrelated with cigarette smoking, drug use, andother risky behaviors among African Americanyouth (Botvin et al., 1993; Unger, Kipke, Simon,Montgomery, & Johnson, 1997). Most importantlyfor the current study, self-esteem is also negativelyrelated to suppressed anger (Johnson & Greene,1991), anxiety symptoms (Matthews & Odom, 1989;Youngstrom, Weist, & Albus, 2003), and depressivesymptoms (Caldwell, Antonucci, Jackson, Wolford,& Osofsky, 1997) in African American children andadolescents. One recent study assessed over 1,500African American adolescents and found that self-esteem was negatively related to depressive symp-toms, even with family socioeconomic status (SES),grades, and exposure to violence accounted for(Fitzpatrick, Piko, Wright, & LaGory, 2005). More-over, self-esteem was a stronger correlate of depres-sive symptoms than any of the other variables.Another study of 681 low-achieving AfricanAmerican adolescents found that self-esteem anddepressive symptoms were related each of 4 years(Repetto, Caldwell, & Zimmerman, 2004). Thus, aswith other adolescents, self-esteem has a strong andconsistent relation with African American adoles-cents mental health.

Racial Identity Development During Adolescence

Racial identity is a multidimensional constructthat has been defined in a variety of ways. Themajor assessment devices include subscales thatmeasure: (a) an understanding and acceptance ofones socially constructed racial label, (b) knowl-edge of ones racial groups history and culturalnorms, (c) a sense of shared activities, (d) beliefsabout the social position of ones racial group, and(e) feelings of pride regarding ones racial group(Phinney, 1992; Sellers, Rowley, Chavous, Shelton,

Racial Identity and Self-Esteem 1661

& Smith, 1997; Vandiver, Cross, Worrell, & Fhagen-Smith, 2002). The nature of African Americansracial identity development during adolescence iseven less clear than self-esteem developmentbecause very few studies have assessed changes inracial identity during this period. However, thereare two related perspectives on African Americanracial identity development that guide mostresearch in the area.

The cognitive development perspective suggeststhat racial identity is developed as one becomescognitively able to make sense of the multitude ofsocial messages about race they encounter (Murray& Mandara, 2001; Wardle, 1992). Children in theearly stages of cognitive development can identifyracial symbols such as skin color and even haverudimentary understandings that such symbols areassociated with social currency, but they do nothave complex ideas about their own racial identity.The cognitive perspective further suggests that aschildren mature into early adolescence (i.e., ages1014), they begin to process societal messagesabout preferences for certain phenotypic features,race-based hierarchies in wealth and academictracks, and the plethora of racial stereotypes theywill encounter (Murray & Mandara, 2001; Spencer,1982, 1984). These messages are either challengedor reinforced by parents racial socialization strate-gies, peers, teachers, and media. Thus, as Murrayand Mandara (2001) argue, ones cognitive readi-ness determines when they are capable of develop-ing a more sophisticated notion of racial identity,but the social context determines the form of racialidentity they will develop.

A second set of theories propose stage or statusmodels of racial identity development similar toEriksons (1968) stages of identity development,although they have a few different assumptions(e.g., Cross, 1991; Helms, 2007; Phinney, 1989).These models suggest that one is in the first stagewhen parental and societal beliefs about ones raceand racial identity are accepted without criticalreflection. African American parents can raise theirchildren to have positive racial pride, but this per-iod is usually described as a time of uncriticallyaccepting negative stereotypes and beliefs aboutAfrican Americans (Phinney, 1989). This initialstage is usually followed by some period of explo-ration, where individuals question their earlier,usually negative views and assumptions aboutAfrican Americans. The exploration, or immersionstage in Crosss (1991) model, is characterized by agreat desire to learn about ones heritage and con-nect with members of their group. Individuals tend

to focus on the positive stereotypes of their groupwhile downplaying and often reacting to negativestereotypes. According to the stage models, the bestoutcome is for one to reach an achieved stage inwhich they have attained a more secure sense ofoneself as a member of their racial group. This finalstage is characterized by a lack of defensivenessregarding racial matters and a genuine comfortable-ness with the racial aspects of their identity (Cross,1991; Phinney, 1989).

Although little evidence exists regarding the ageat which one typically enters each stage, a fewstudies have shed light on this question. Forinstance, Phinney & Tarver (1988) found thatalmost 30% of 8th-grade students could be classi-fied into the exploration stage. Another study of10th-grade non-White students found that 55%could be classified as being in pre-explorationstages, 23% in exploration, and 22% in an achievedstage of racial identity (Phinney, 1989). Also consis-tent with most stage models, Pahl and Way (2006)followed a small group of African American andLatino adolescents throughout high school andfound that exploration began to decelerate after the10th grade. Another recent study used cluster ana-lytic methods and found they could classify AfricanAmerican adolescents into four groups similar tothose suggested by the stage models (Seaton,Scottham, & Sellers, 2006). They also found thatover a 1-year period, adolescents changed acrossstages at a fairly high rate. Other longitudinal stud-ies did not focus on the stage of identity develop-ment but on growth in racialethnic pride duringthe adolescent years. One large longitudinal studyfound that Canadian ethnic minority adolescents inthe 7th to 10th grades exhibited a linear increase intheir perceptions of ethnic pride over a 15-monthperiod (Perron, Vondracek, Skorikov, Tremblay, &Corbie`re, 1998). Similarly, a recent study usingcohorts of middle- and high-school-aged adoles-cents found a significant linear increase in racialethnic group esteem among African Americans andLatinos over a 3-year period in both cohorts(French, Seidman, Allen, & Aber, 2006). Therefore,although the evidence is limited, the few studies inthis area suggest that African Americans racialidentity significantly changes throughout theadolescent years.

Racial Identity and African American AdolescentMental Health

Similar to self-esteem and other aspects of onesidentity, racial identity is considered by most

1662 Mandara, Gaylord-Harden, Richards, and Ragsdale

theorists to be of particular importance during theexplorative phases of adolescence (Phinney, 1989).Many modern theorists suggest that a positiveracial identity helps adolescents cope with thestresses of discrimination (Caldwell, Zimmerman,Bernat, Sellers, & Notaro, 2002; Rowley, Sellers,Chavous, & Smith, 1998; Sellers, Copeland-Linder,Martin, & Lewis, 2006). For instance, Spencers(1995) phenomenological variant of ecological sys-tems theory (PVEST) suggests that normativedevelopment for African American adolescentsinvolves exposure to environments that often deva-lue their racial group. Chronic exposure to thesehigh-risk environments can be damaging to AfricanAmerican adolescents self-esteem and generalmental health. According to PVEST, a positive viewof ones racial group is as an adaptive copingresponse to such environments and buffers AfricanAmerican adolescents from the negative psychoso-cial consequences of discrimination (Spencer,Dupree, & Hartmann, 1997).

A related notion is that racial identity helps indi-viduals avoid internalizing negative stereotypes ofones racial group (McLoyd, Cauce, Takeuchi, &Wilson, 2000; Spencer, 1995). Media exposureamong American adolescents is quite high (Roberts,Foehr, Rideout, & Brodie, 1999a), and AfricanAmerican youth tend to be exposed to media highin negatively stereotypical portrayals of AfricanAmericans (Ward, 2004). According to the prevail-ing social identity and reflected appraisal theories,if society views a group negatively, then membersof the group tend to view themselves negatively(Tajfel & Turner, 2004). This negative media expo-sure should then result in more negative stereotypi-cal group perceptions, which is correlated withmental health problems (Arroyo & Zigler, 1995).However, a positive racial identity may allow indi-viduals to not be as concerned about the percep-tions of others and thus avoid defining their groupin terms of the medias portrayals (McLoyd et al.,2000). Therefore, modern notions of racial identitysuggest that it facilitates mental health among Afri-can American adolescents because it helps protectthem from the difficult social circumstances theyhave to navigate.

Nonetheless, unlike the studies of self-esteem,the relation between African American child andadolescent racial identity and mental health hasbeen much less consistent in the empirical research(Sellers et al., 2006). For instance, in a sample ofover 1,200 African American sixth- to eighth- grad-ers, D. Roberts et al. (1999) and R. E. Roberts et al.(1999) found that a revised version of Phinneys

(1992) Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM)was positively correlated with their coping but onlyhad small correlations with their self-esteem anddepressive symptoms (i.e., .14 and ).07, respec-tively). Another recent study of 10- to 12-year-oldAfrican Americans also found that the MEIMassessed at the individual level did not correlatewith depressive symptoms (Simons et al., 2002).Arroyo and Zigler (1995) found that the endorse-ment of stereotypical beliefs about African Ameri-cans was positively correlated with lower collectiveesteem among African American high school stu-dents, but it had no relation with their depressiveor anxiety symptoms. A study that used the racialcentrality and private regard subscales of the Multi-dimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI; Sell-ers et al., 1997) also found that they did notcorrelate with the depressive or anxiety symptomsof African American adolescents (Caldwell et al.,2002). Similarly, Sellers et al. (2006) found that thepublic regard subscale of the MIBI did not correlatewith African American adolescents depressivesymptoms, stress, or general well-being.

Counter to these findings, other studies havefound significant relations between adolescentracial identity and mental health. A study of 10- to15-year-old African American adolescents foundthat the MEIM was negatively related to depressivesymptoms and aggressive behaviors, as well as pos-itively related to self-esteem and coping (McMahon& Watts, 2002). Similarly, the affirmation andbelonging subscale of the MEIM was negativelyrelated to depressive symptoms and general psy-chological distress among African American adoles-cents around 12 years old in another study (Yasui,Dorham, & Dishion, 2004). In the same study thatdid not find significant effects of public regard,Sellers et al. (2006) did find that the private regardsubscale of the MIBI was related to depressivesymptoms and general well-being. Studies thatused similar measures also found that they werepositively and strongly related to African Americanadolescents self-esteem (Rowley et al., 1998;Townsend & Belgrave, 2000) and psychologicalresiliency (Wong, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2003).

One of the main differences between the two setsof findings is that the studies that found relationswith racial identity tended to use measures of thedegree to which adolescents feel prideful of AfricanAmericans, whereas those that did not find anysignificant effects of racial identity tended to usemeasures of the degree to which one has culturalknowledge, ethnic identity exploration, ethnicspecific behaviors, or adolescent thoughts about


what others think of their racial group. Rowleyet al. (1998) also argued that measures of racialpride or racial esteem were the subscales that bestrelate to African Americans mental health. Theytheorized that the affective and evaluative aspectsof the racial pride subscales may be tapping intothe affective components of the self-esteem anddepressive symptoms measures. Thus, much of theinconsistency in findings regarding the relationbetween racial identity and African Americanadolescent mental health may be explained by thedifferent measures and subscales used to assessracial identity (Helms, 2007).

There are also other limitations with prior stud-ies that prevent more definitive statements aboutthe effects of racial identity on African Americanadolescents mental health. One glaring omission isstudies that examine the joint or simultaneous rela-tions of racial identity and self-esteem with mentalhealth. This is critical to understanding whatunique features of self-esteem and racial identityaccount for variance in mental health. If, forinstance, self-esteem accounts for the effects ofracial identity on mental health, then it can be con-cluded that racial identity does not add anythingsocially relevant over and above self-esteem. Ifracial identity does account for variance in mentalhealth beyond that accounted for by self-esteem,then this will have important implications for ourtheoretical understanding of the identity develop-ment of African American youth (McMahon &Watts, 2002).

Only a few studies have examined this question,and they have had ambiguous results. In theMcMahon and Watts (2002) study, racial identityand self-esteem were simultaneously entered into aset of regression models to assess their effects onadolescent coping, depressive, and anxiety symp-toms. They found that racial identity was correlatedwith coping, but self-esteem was not. Conversely,the relation between racial identity and depressivesymptoms was nonsignificant once self-esteem wasaccounted for. With both in the model, self-esteem,but not racial identity, significantly correlated withanxiety symptoms. Thus, it is still unclear if racialidentity has a unique effect on African Americanadolescents mental health.

Probably the major limitation with the researchin this area is that all but a few studies have beencross-sectional. An important advantage of usingmultiple waves is that one is able to assess theeffects of changes in self-esteem and racial identityon changes in mental health (Duncan & Duncan,2004). One study examined the 1-year effects of Afri-

can American adolescents racial salience and theirperceptions of what others think about AfricanAmericans on a composite of depressive and anxietysymptoms (Sellers, Caldwell, Schmeelk-Cone, &Zimmerman, 2003). No correlations above .13 werefound between the variables at the same time orbetween changes in racial identity and changes inmental health. However, as discussed earlier, theseparticular subscales usually do not correlate withmental health; therefore, no conclusions about theeffects of changes in racial pride or racial esteem canbe derived from that study.

Another issue that has almost never beenaddressed in prior studies is the potential moderat-ing effects of gender (Chavous, Rivas-Drake,Smalls, Griffin, & Cogburn, 2008). This is a criticalconcern given that male and female African Ameri-can adolescents tend to experience the constructsdifferently as evidenced by their different means onmany of the variables. Some studies show thatfemale African American adolescents have higherlevels of racial pride compared to male adolescents(Martinez & Dukes, 1997). Conversely, female Afri-can American adolescents are slightly more at riskfor experiencing depressive (Fitzpatrick et al., 2005;Repetto et al., 2004) and anxiety (Kingery, Gins-burg, & Alfano, 2007) symptoms than male AfricanAmerican adolescents. Therefore, it is possiblethat the relations between these variables are alsodifferent for male and female adolescents. Asalmost none of the prior studies analyzed theresults separately by gender, gender differencesmay explain much of the reason why some studiesfind significant effects of racial identity and othersdo not.

The Current Study

The purpose of this study was to assess theunique effects of self-esteem and racial identity onAfrican American early adolescents depressive andanxiety symptoms while addressing some of thelimitations in prior studies. The participants wereassessed during early adolescence because it iswidely considered to be one of the most criticalperiods in the development of ones identity(Brinthaupt & Lipka, 2002). Although the exactform of identity development during early adoles-cence is still unclear, significant changes in racialidentity and self-esteem are expected during thisperiod (French et al., 2006; Moneta et al., 2001).Thus, this period when greater cognitive aware-ness, physical maturation, and novel race-basedsocial pressures converge is an opportune time to


assess the effects of changes in racial identity andself-esteem on mental health.

Based on Cross (1991) and other theorists(McAdoo, 1985; Spencer, 1982) two-factor modelsof identity described earlier, it was expected thatself-esteem and racial identity would each accountfor unique variance in depressive and anxietysymptoms. These models imply that AfricanAmerican adolescents have the ability to compart-mentalize positive or negative feelings about theirracial group from feelings about themselves asindividuals. As a result, most of the variance inAfrican American adolescents mental healthaccounted for by self-esteem should be separatefrom the variance accounted for by racial identity,and vice versa.

A further purpose was to determine if 1-yearchanges in self-esteem and racial identity betweenthe seventh and eighth grades would correlate withchanges in depressive and anxiety symptoms overthe same period. Based on the models of racialidentity development and the consistent self-esteemliterature described earlier, it was expected thatracial identity and self-esteem would correlate witheach other and depressive and anxiety symptomsat both time points. We also expected increases inracial identity and or self-esteem to correlate withreductions in symptoms. Similar to Rowley et al.(1998), we argued that the inconsistent findingsregarding the relation between racial identity andmental health are due in large part to the differentdimensions of racial identity assessed in priorstudies. The racial pride or racial esteem compo-nent of racial identity was the most consistentcorrelate of African American adolescent mentalhealth in prior studies. Thus, this study includedreliable measures of racial pride and self-esteem.The potential moderating effects of gender werealso assessed.

Method

Participants

Participants included 100 male (39%) and 159female (61%) sixth-grade African American stu-dents from six public schools in Chicago. Of the519 asked to participate, 301 (58%) agreed to partic-ipate in the first wave. Of the 301 participants inthe sixth grade, 259 of the youth were able to belocated in either the seventh or eighth grades. Thenonretained youth were similar to the retainedyouth in terms of annual household income(p = .92), depressive symptoms (p = .43), anxiety

symptoms (p = .46), and self-esteem (p = .96) dur-ing the sixth grade. Because racial identity was notassessed in the sixth grade, this study onlyincluded data from the seventh- and eighth-gradewaves. The students had a mean age of 12.55(SD = 0.69) in the seventh grade. The youth wereprimarily from low-income households with a med-ian family income between $10,000 and $20,000.Most parents (83%) had at least a high schooldegree, with 10% reporting a college or graduate orprofessional degree.

Procedure

Letters and a short demographics survey weresent home asking parents for their consent to allowtheir early adolescent to participate in a multiyearstudy. Parents and students were informed thatstudents would receive prizes such as gift certifi-cates, sports equipment, and games at the end ofeach data collection. Each student returned to theirschool the completed demographics survey andsigned consent form in a sealed envelope. Research-ers went to each school everyday for 1 week toadminister surveys in small groups. All the partici-pating students in each school were assessed by theend of the week. One year later, when participantswere in the eighth grade, they were invited to againparticipate in the study and the same procedurewas repeated.

Measures

Depressive symptoms. Participants completed the27-item Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI;Kovacs, 1985), a self-report instrument on whichyouth rated their level of depressive symptoms forthe 2 weeks prior to administration on a scale from1 (I am sad once in a while) to 3 (I am sad all the time).The widely used CDI was chosen because of itsease of use and excellent psychometric propertiesin multiracial samples of early adolescents (Kovacs,1985). The seventh- and eighth-grade Cronbachsalphas for the current sample were .84 and .80,respectively.

Anxiety symptoms. The trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC;Spielberger, Edwards, Montuori, & Lushene, 1973)was used to assess anxiety symptoms. The STAICis a 20-item measure on which youth rate the fre-quency of anxiety symptoms on a scale from 1(hardly ever) to 3 (often). Example items include, Iworry about school and I get a funny feelingin my stomach. The instrument was used in the


current study because it was specifically designedfor late elementary and middle school and has beenshown to have very good psychometric propertieswith African American children (Papay & Hedl,1978). The scale yielded a Cronbachs alpha of .90each year of the current study.

Racial identity. A modified version of the five-item affirmation and belonging subscale of theMEIM (Phinney, 1992) was used to assess racialethnic identity. This subscale was chosen because itrepresents the affective and prideful component ofracial identity and because it consistently relates toAfrican American adolescents self-esteem andmental health in most prior studies. To more specif-ically assess racial pride or esteem, the MEIM wasmodified by replacing phrases such as, my ethnicgroup with phrases such as Black people. Theitems were: (a) I have a lot of pride in Black peo-ple; (b) I have a strong sense of belonging toBlack people; (c) I feel a strong attachmenttowards Black people; (d) I am happy to be amember of the Black group; and (e) I feel goodabout my cultural or ethnic background. Itemswere rated using a 4-point Likert-type scale rangingfrom 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly disagree).Cronbachs alphas in the seventh and eighth gradeswere .80 and .73, respectively.

Self-esteem. To assess self-esteem, adolescentscarried watches for 1 week that were programmedto signal at random times. After each signal, theyouth completed a brief self-report form in a book-let they carried each day. The youth in this study

responded to a median number of 42 signals,yielding an 82% compliance rate. Respondents wereprompted with the question, How were you feel-ing when you were signaled? and rated feelingsabout how important, tough, respected, and pride-ful they felt on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (notat all) to 4 (very much). This experiential samplingmethod was used to assess self-esteem becauseprior research suggests that it is more reliable andmore sensitive to changes between the 6th and 12thgrades compared to dispositional measures (Mone-ta et al., 2001). The scale had a very strong reliabil-ity in the 7th (a = .94) and 8th grades (a = .93).

Analysis Plan

To test the main hypotheses of the study, latentvariable growth models were assessed with struc-tural equation modeling (SEM) using Amos 5.0with maximum likelihood estimation (see Figure 1).These models assessed the effects of the racialidentity and self-esteem intercepts and slopes (i.e.,linear changes between the seventh and eighthgrades) on linear changes in mental health over thesame period. Although the purpose was not to testa theoretical model, but get better estimates ofeffects than could be provided by ordinary leastsquares (OLS) regression, model fit was assessedwith the goodness-of-fit v2, the comparative fitindex (CFI), and the root-mean-square error ofapproximation (RMSEA). Established criteria sug-gest that a nonsignificant v2, an RMSEA < .06, and

Figure 1. Latent variable growth model illustrating the paths to test the effects of baseline and changes in racial identity and self-esteem on changes in mental health.


a CFI of 0.95 or better indicates a very good fit ofthe model to the data (Hu & Bentler, 1999).

The measurement models for racial identity, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms at each wavewere tested with exploratory and then confirmatoryfactor analyses. Each was found to be unidimen-sional and had high internal consistencies (see theMethod section). The composites of each factorwere used as single indicators of their latent vari-able in the SEM analyses at each wave. To accountfor measurement error, the residuals were fixed totheir error variances times their variances (Loehlin,1998).

To assess the potential moderating effects of gen-der, the multiple-group analysis facility in Amos5.0 was used to fit the data simultaneously to bothgenders. This analysis helped answer two ques-tions. First, the multiple-group analysis assessed ifthe path diagram fit the data equally well for bothmales and females, and if so, if the regressionweights were different between the genders. Themultiple-group analysis in Amos 5.0 proceeds byautomatically generating several nested models.Each lower level model adds additional constraintsand can be tested for differences from the previousmodels (Arbuckle, 2003). For our purpose, only thecompletely unconstrained model and the modelthat constrained the regression weights to be equal(i.e., the structural weights model) were important.A test of the unconstrained or first level modelassesses the fit of the data to both groups. If theunconstrained model fits the data well, the test ofthe structural weights model gives an estimate ofthe degree to which the regression weights are sim-

ilar in both groups. The facility also computes criti-cal ratio tests for each parameter in both samples(Arbuckle, 2003).

Before any formal analyses, missing data wereanalyzed. To be included in the study, participantshad to have data at one of the two time points foreach variable. This resulted in a maximum sampleof 259 adolescents. The percentages missing foreach variable are presented in Table 1. Overall,16.9% and 16.7% of data points were missing formales and females, respectively. The pattern ofmissing was very similar for males and females aswell. Littles MCAR test showed that the data weremissing completely at random, v2(102) = 126.45,p = .05. We therefore imputed missing data withthe expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. Thismethod replaces missing values with iterative max-imum likelihood estimations based on the availabledata. Schafer (1997) discusses more details of theEM algorithm.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

The means, standard deviations, and zero-ordercorrelations by gender are presented in Table 1.Contrary to our predictions, females racial identitywas not related to their self-esteem or anxiety symp-toms. By modern effect size standards (Hemphill,2003), racial identity had a small relation with girlsdepressive symptoms in the seventh grade and amoderate effect on depressive symptoms in the

Table 1

Means, Standard Deviations, and Zero-Order Correlations Among Study Variables in the Seventh and Eighth Grades

Variables (grade) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. Racial identity (7) .04 ).16* ).09 .34** ).03 .03 .042. Self-esteem (7) .28** ).24** ).18* .04 .81** ).28** ).23*3. Depression (7) ).35** ).17 .50** ).19* ).21** .65** .44**4. Anxiety (7) .06 .04 .54** ).08 ).19* .31** .59**5. Racial identity (8) .56** .39** ).44** ).21* .03 ).32** ).156. Self-esteem (8) .27** .84** ).23* .03 .45** ).17* ).18*7. Depression (8) ).32** ).29** .63** .40** ).55** ).28** .52**8. Anxiety (8) .13 ).18 .38* .47** ).20* ).22* .42***M 3.30 3.30 1.18 10.99 3.44 3.29 1.08 10.33

SD 0.67 0.65 1.24 7.79 0.52 0.68 1.02 7.59

Percent missing 21 20 17 23 6 17 10 18

Note. Females correlations are above the diagonal (n = 159) and males correlations are below (n = 100). Values in parenthesesrepresent seventh- and eighth-grade assessments. Means, standard deviations, and percent missing are for the total sample.*p < .05. **p < .01.


eighth grade. Self-esteem in the seventh and eighthgrades was negatively related to depressive andanxiety symptoms in both years for girls. The resultswere somewhat different for boys. The correlationbetween racial identity in the seventh and eighthgrades was slightly larger for boys than it was forgirls. However, racial identity was a very strong cor-relate of boys self-esteem and depressive symptomsin both years. Racial identity in the eighth grade hada small effect on anxiety symptoms in the expecteddirection, but they did not correlate in the seventhgrade. Self-esteem also had small negative relationswith boys depressive and anxiety symptoms ineighth grade, but not in the seventh grade.

Independent samples t tests were conducted toassess gender differences in mean levels on each ofthe variables in the study. No significant differ-ences were found between males and females.Paired samples t tests were also computed to assessmean differences on the identity and mental healthvariables between the seventh and eighth grades.Those results showed that racial identity signifi-cantly increased between the seventh and eighthgrades, t(258) = 3.43 p = .001. No other changeswere found.

Effects of Changes in Identity on Changes in DepressiveSymptoms

The first set of analyses assessed the effectsof racial identity and self-esteem on depressivesymptoms as participants transitioned from theseventh to the eighth grade. The results of the mul-

tiple-group analysis showed that the unconstrainedmodel fit the data adequately, v2(2) = 3.60, p = .17,CFI = 1.0, RMSEA = .06. This indicates that theoverall path model fit well for both genders. How-ever, when constraining the regression weights tobe equal, there was a significant decrease in modelfit, Dv2(13) = 27.35, p = .01, which indicates that theoverall pattern of regression weights were signifi-cantly different between girls and boys (seeFigures 2 and 3). An examination of the criticalratios for the differences between the regressionweights showed that the relation between racialidentity and self-esteem was significantly larger forboys than for girls (z = 1.99, p < .05). Furthermore,the path from the self-esteem intercept to the racialidentity slope was significantly larger for boys(z = 2.24, p < .05). The depressive symptoms inter-cept also had a significantly larger negative effecton the depressive symptoms slope for boys com-pared to girls (z = 3.04, p < .01). There were noother significant differences between males andfemales for the same path.

The overall pattern of results generally supportedthe main hypotheses. The higher the seventh-graderacial identity (e.g., the intercept), the lower the sev-enth-grade depressive symptoms for both malesand females, even after seventh-grade self-esteemwas accounted for. The reverse was only true forfemales. Initial self-esteem did not correlate withdepressive symptoms for boys. Seventh-grade racialidentity also had a strong negative effect on thedepressive symptoms slope for boys. The highertheir racial identity in the seventh grade, the less

Figure 2. Latent variable growth model illustrating the effects of baseline and changes in racial identity and self-esteem on changes indepressive symptoms for males, v2(1) = 3.25, p = .07, comparative fit index = 1.0, root mean square error of approximation = .15.**p < .01.


likely they were to increase in depression betweenthe seventh and eighth grades. Self-esteem in theseventh grade did not predict changes in depressivesymptoms for boys or girls.

The results also showed that an increase in racialidentity from the seventh to the eighth grade wasassociated with a large decrease in depressivesymptoms over the same period once baseline fac-tors and increases in self-esteem were accountedfor. This was consistent for both males and females.Conversely, an increase in self-esteem was associ-ated with a significant increase in depressive symp-toms only for girls.

Effects of Changes in Identity on Changes in AnxietySymptoms

The same analyses were conducted for anxietysymptoms. As with the depressive symptoms, theresults of the multigroup analyses showed that themodel fit equally well for males and females,v2(2) = 3.41, p = .18, CFI = 1.0, RMSEA = .05. Alsolike the depressive symptoms data, when constrain-ing the regression weights to be equal, there was asignificant decrease in model fit, Dv2(13) = 25.78,p = .02 (see Figures 4 and 5). The critical ratios forthe differences between the regression weightswere also similar. The relations between racial iden-tity and self-esteem (z = 1.99, p < .05), between theintercept of self-esteem and the racial identity slope(z = 2.25, p < .05), between the anxiety symptomsintercept and slope (z = 2.12, p < .05), and betweenthe anxiety symptoms intercept and racial identity

slope (z = 2.16, p < .05) were significantly strongerfor boys.

However, the overall pattern of results wassomewhat different for anxiety symptoms com-pared to depressive symptoms. The seventh-graderacial identity and self-esteem did not predict theanxiety intercept or slope. This held up for malesand females. Partially in support of our prediction,the results showed that an increase in racial iden-tity between the seventh and eighth grades wasassociated with a significant decrease in anxietysymptoms over the same period. This effect wassignificant for females only, but the coefficient wasthe same size for the males. Counter to our expecta-tions, changes in self-esteem did not relate tochanges in anxiety symptoms.

Discussion

Prior research shows that higher levels of self-esteem and the racial esteem or pride component ofracial identity are related to lower levels of mentalhealth problems among African American adoles-cents. This study was designed to build on thisprior research and address some voids in the litera-ture by assessing the unique effects of racialidentity and self-esteem on African Americanadolescents depressive and anxiety symptoms asthey transitioned between the seventh and eighthgrades. The results tended to support the generaltheme of prior research, but several distinctive find-ings also emerged.

Figure 3. Latent variable growth model illustrating the effects of baseline and changes in racial identity and self-esteem on changes indepressive symptoms for females, v2(1) = 0.35, p = .56, comparative fit index = 1.0, root mean square error of approximation = .00.*p < .05. **p < .01.


We found some support for the main hypothesisthat both racial identity and self-esteem wouldhave unique effects on mental health, but thisdepended on the gender of the adolescent andwhether the outcome was depressive or anxietysymptoms. The higher males racial identity in theseventh grade, the lower their depressive symp-toms in the seventh or eighth grades tended tobe. Moreover, the higher males racial identity inthe seventh grade, the less likely it was that theyexperienced an increase in depressive symptomsover the 1 year. These findings persisted after

accounting for self-esteem. The results for femaleswere in the same general direction, but they werenot as strong. Self-esteem did not have the samestrong unique effect on depressive symptoms asdid racial identity. Seventh grade self-esteem didcorrelate with depressive symptoms in the seventhgrade for girls, even with racial identity accountedfor, but this was not found for boys. For boys, racialidentity accounted for all of the self-esteem effecton depressive symptoms.

A related finding was that 1-year increases inadolescents racial identity were associated with

Figure 5. Latent variable growth model illustrating the effects of baseline and changes in racial identity and self-esteem on changes inanxiety symptoms for females, v2(2) = 3.60, p = .17, comparative fit index = 1.0, root mean square error of approximation = .06.*p < .05. **p < .01.

Figure 4. Latent variable growth model illustrating the effects of baseline and changes in racial identity and self-esteem on changes inanxiety symptoms for males, v2(1) = 3.04, p = .17, comparative fit index = .99, root mean square error of approximation = .14.**p < .01.


decreases in the prevalence of depressive symp-toms over the same period. Those adolescents whoincreased their prideful feelings of African Ameri-cans as they transitioned from the seventh to theeighth grades also experienced a relatively largedecrease in depressive symptoms over the sameperiod. This finding held up even with baselineself-esteem and changes in self-esteem accountedfor. This was the same pattern of results for themales and females. Given the cross-sectional andthe change model findings, it seems clear that thepride young African American adolescents have intheir racial group is an important correlate of theircurrent depressive symptoms and changes indepressive symptoms beyond their general feelingsof personal esteem. The better they feel about theirracial group, the less depressive symptoms theyseem to experience.

Unlike the results with depressive symptoms,racial identity did not have the same clear effectson anxiety symptoms. Racial identity in the seventhor eighth grades did not correlate with anxietysymptoms in the same year. This is consistent withmost previous studies that have found that racialidentity does not correlate with anxiety symptoms(e.g., Arroyo & Zigler, 1995; Caldwell et al., 2002).McMahon and Watts (2002) also found that racialidentity did not correlate with anxiety symptoms,but it did with depressive symptoms. However, wedid find that increases in racial identity were corre-lated with reductions in anxiety symptoms for girls.Although the relation was not as strong as it wasfor depressive symptoms, the effect was significantand important. The effect size was the same forboys, but it was not significant for them. Therefore,changes in racial identity may have a unique effecton changes in anxiety symptoms, but the overallrelation between racial identity and anxiety symp-toms is not very strong.

One plausible reason for the differences betweenthe depressive and anxiety symptoms findings isthat racial identity, self-esteem, and depressivesymptoms share an affective component. Forinstance, each measure assesses the degree to whichone feels positive about themselves, their racialgroup, or their emotional experiences. This affectivecomponent is less prevalent among anxiety symp-toms, which tend to be more focused on physicalsymptoms and fears (Spielberger et al., 1973). Thismay explain why racial identity did not account foras much variance in anxiety symptoms as it didwith depressive symptoms. Future studies mayfind that other components of racial identityaccount for variance in anxiety symptoms not

accounted for by affective components of racialidentity.

Overall, the findings from this study support thenotion that developing positive feelings about onesracial group is related to reductions in mentalhealth problems. As some African American ado-lescents develop more prideful feelings about theirracial group, they simultaneously experience fewersymptoms of some mental health problems. Asdescribed earlier, theorists suggest that racial iden-tity is associated with mental health because it mayhelp African American adolescents avoid internal-izing negative stereotypes (McLoyd et al., 2000;Spencer, 1995), and it may buffer them from theeffects of racial discrimination (Caldwell et al.,2002; Cross, Parham, & Helms, 1998). In support ofthese theories, a few recent studies have found thatvarious aspects of racial identity moderate theeffects of perceived racial discrimination on AfricanAmerican youths mental health (Sellers et al., 2006;Wong et al., 2003). Thus, a positive racial identitymay allow individuals to not feel as if discrimina-tory practices are a result of shortcomings of theirgroup. There may be other mediators of racial iden-tity as well. This will be an important topic forfuture studies.

Important gender differences were also found inthis study. Although males and females did nothave mean differences on any of the variables, therelation between racial identity and self-esteemwere different. Racial identity and self-esteem hadmoderate to large positive correlations with eachother for the boys in both the seventh and eighthgrades. They did not correlate at all for the girls ineither year. One possible explanation is that raceduring this age may be more salient for AfricanAmerican males than it is for females, and this dif-ference explains the stronger racial identity andself-esteem relation among boys. For instance,some studies suggest that self-esteem and racialidentity are only correlated when race is a salientaspect of ones identity (Phinney, 1991; Rowleyet al., 1998). Moreover, other studies imply thatrace may be more salient for African American ado-lescent boys compared to girls. For instance, a fewstudies found that African American boys are morelikely than girls to receive racial socialization mes-sages concerned with preparing them for racial dis-crimination (Bowman & Howard, 1985; Thomas &Speight, 1999). Other studies found that AfricanAmerican adolescent males perceive more discrimi-nation from peers and teachers than AfricanAmerican girls (Chavous et al., 2008). Thus, if thesedifferent racial socialization and discrimination


experiences made race more salient for AfricanAmerican males, it could explain why racial iden-tity and self-esteem only correlated for boys duringthis age.

Quite surprisingly, increases in self-esteem werecorrelated with increases in depressive symptomsfor girls once racial identity was accounted for. Thisdoes not imply that self-esteem is a negative con-struct for this population, because self-esteem wasnegatively correlated with depressive symptoms ateach time point for males and females. However,there is some evidence that at least a few AfricanAmerican girls experience both higher than averageself-esteem and depressive symptoms in the gen-eral population. For instance, in the general popula-tion, female African American adolescents tend tohave high levels of self-esteem compared to otherfemale adolescents (Twenge & Crocker, 2002), butthey are equal to or even slightly more likely toexperience depressive symptoms than otherfemales during middle to later adolescence (Frankoet al., 2005). Thus, there is some evidence that thetwo are positively related for many African Ameri-can girls. This could be due to the amount ofresponsibilities expected of African American ado-lescent females. They tend to have a great burdenof household chores, caring for younger siblings,and other adult responsibilities compared toAfrican American boys and other adolescents(Burton, 2007; Dodson & Dickert, 2004). Theseresponsibilities may result in the girls feeling moreconfident in their abilities but also more pressuredand stressed from taking on adult responsibilitiesat a young age (Burton, 2007; Dodson & Dickert,2004). If this is the case, then it could result in a sit-uation in which at least some girls simultaneouslyincrease in self-esteem and depressive symptoms.Future studies should examine this possibility.

Limitations of this study should be noted. Aswith the majority of studies on this topic, the adoles-cents in this study were primarily from lower SESinner-city backgrounds. Adolescents in this situa-tion may have different views of racial identity andself-esteem compared to African American adoles-cents from middle-class backgrounds and thoseliving in less threatening environments. Forinstance, issues of race at school may be less salientfor adolescents in this study as almost all of theirclassmates were African American, whereas thosereared in the suburbs are likely exposed to moreracially heterogeneous environments. Futureresearch should begin to compare these results todifferent subpopulations of African Americanyouth.

The two waves of data in this study have manyadvantages over cross-sectional studies, but thisdesign still does not allow one to make the claimthat the changes in identity caused changes insymptomology. Moreover, only having two timepoints limits our ability to describe nonlineargrowth curve models (Duncan & Duncan, 2004). Inlieu of randomized experiments, finding that differ-ent types of identity growth curves predict similartypes of growth curves in mental health would bethe strongest evidence for causation. Thus, studiesthat measure the variables from an earlier periodand follow the participants for a longer period oftime have the potential to significantly increase ourunderstanding of these important developmentalfactors.

In spite of these limitations, there are someimportant implications of this study. It has beenestablished that self-esteem is a critical feature ofoptimal adolescent development and mental health.As suggested by the two-factor models of identity(Cross, 1991), this study implies that racial identitycorrelates with mental health as strongly as self-esteem and accounts for variance in African Ameri-can adolescents mental health not associated withself-esteem. Although they are correlated in adoles-cent males, it does not seem as if racial identity andself-esteem are proxies for each other. Thus, thesefindings underscore the importance of includingboth personal and group-level components of iden-tity in research on adolescent development.

We believe that the results of the change modelsin this study are some of the strongest evidence todate of the correlation between racial identity andmental health for African American adolescents.Although the causality of the relations are stillquestionable, and thus it is not clear exactly howprotective racial identity actually is, it is evidentfrom this study and the extant literature that racialidentity is not a risk factor for mental health prob-lems. Therefore, randomized prevention interven-tions that incorporate sound models of racialidentity development should be implemented(McMahon & Watts, 2002; Wills et al., 2007). Suchexperiments will help answer questions about thecausal effects of racial identity and may help reducethe prevalence of symptomology in this population.Based on the research findings in this area, the pre-vention interventions should primarily focus on thedevelopment of pride and esteem in ones heritage.Those who focus on teaching African Americanadolescents about racism, public regard for othersbeliefs, and or just performing ethnic specificbehaviors are likely not going to be efficacious.


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Documents

Mandara Et Al (2009) Changes in Racial Identity