Roundtable Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

What Does Self-Esteem Have To Do With Behavioral Health Among Low-Income Youth In Chicago? (#221)

Sarah M Bassett 1 , Dong Ha Kim 2 , Lois Takahashi 3 , Dexter R Voisin 4
  1. Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  2. Department of Social Welfare, Chungwoon University, Hongseong, Chungnam, Republic of Korea
  3. Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States
  4. School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States

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 delinquency, anxiety/depression, cocaine/crack use, likelihood of risky sex, and school engagement. 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 (B=−0.18; 95% CI=−0.23, −0.13), lower levels of anxiety/depression (B=−0.62; 95% CI=−0.76, −0.48), lower likelihood of crack/cocaine use (AOR=0.86; 95% CI = 0.79, 0.93), lower likelihood of risky sex (AOR=0.90; 95% CI=0.83, 0.96), and increased rates of school engagement (B=0.20; 95% CI=0.12, 0.28). These findings suggest that programs that promote high self–esteem may promote better behavioral health factors for African American adolescents.