BLACK PEOPLE have higher self-esteem than white people, according to a new report.
The study, carried out by the University of Basel in Switzerland, found that black people had more self-esteem than their white counterparts in adolescence and in young adulthood.
By age 30, it is said that white people still trail behind black and Hispanic people in the self-esteem department.
Authors of the report published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology earlier this month (July 4), made their finding after analysing U.S. survey data of more than 7,000 young adults from 1994 to 2008.
Over the course of 14 years, the study authors examined how five personality traits, including openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, affected a person’s self-esteem. Participants ranged in age from 14 to 30 years.
In addition, the researchers also looked at the participants’ sense of life mastery, risk-taking tendencies, gender, ethnicity, health and income.
“We tested for factors that we thought would have an impact on how self-esteem develops,” the study’s lead author, Ruth Yasemin Erol, said in news release from the American Psychological Association.
“Understanding the trajectory of self-esteem is important to pinpointing and timing interventions that could improve people’s self-esteem.”