2015/01/27 by Michael Hughes, Michael D. Hughes, K. Jill Kiecolt +2 · 203 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Critical Race Theory in Education #Developmental psychology #Gender studies #Identity (music) #Mental health #Perspective (graphical) #Psychology #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Racism #Self-concept #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social group #Social identity theory #Social psychology #Sociology
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0190272514554043
published in Social Psychology Quarterly 78(1), 25-48 (SAGE Publishing)
crossref issued 2015/01/27 · crossref published 2015/01/27 · crossref published-online 2015/01/27 · openalex publication_date 2015/01/27 · crossref created 2015/01/28 · crossref published-print 2015/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/05/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01 · crossref indexed 2026/08/01
How racial identity influences self-esteem and psychological well-being among African Americans remains unresolved due to unexplained inconsistencies in theoretical predictions and empirical findings. Using data from the National Survey of American Life (N = 3,570), we tested hypotheses derived from social identity theory and the internalized racism perspective. Findings support social identity theory in showing that African Americans strongly identify with their group and view it very positively. In addition, those who identify more with their group and evaluate it more positively have greater self-esteem, greater mastery, and fewer depressive symptoms. However, findings also support the internalized racism perspective by showing that when group evaluation is relatively negative, racial identification is related to lower mastery and higher depressive symptoms. We conclude that both social identity theory and the internalized racism perspective are necessary for understanding how racial identity is related to self-attitudes and mental health among African Americans.