Self Esteem Body Image Satisfaction And Self Perception Level Differences In Relation To Body Mass Index Among African American And Caucasian Females

The current study was conducted to determine if differences between Caucasian and African American women's self-esteem; body image satisfaction, and self- perception relative to body mass index scores (BMI) would disappear when SES, and urbanicity are taken into consideration. Sixty-five Caucasian and 47 African American female students from a midsize university in East Texas volunteered to participate in the study. All volunteers were unmarried and ranged in age from 18 to 25 years. Participants completed several measures: The Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire (Cash, 2000a) and Body-image Questionnaire (Cash, 2000b), Self-Perception Profile for College Students (Neeman & Harter, 1986), Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Social Status, and a demographic data sheet. Participants' actual weight, ideal weight, and height were obtained in order to compute their BMI. For the most part, the study hypotheses were supported. Specifically, African Americans reported greater scores in the majority of domains of self-esteem, body image satisfaction, and self-perception than their Caucasian counterparts. However, when SES and urbanicity were introduced as covariates, these differences disappeared for a large number of domains. Implications for future research and possible application of these findings are discussed.