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ERIC Number: ED222616
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 11
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Mental Health Among Blacks: The Relevance of Self-Esteem, Commitment to Social Change, and Paradoxical Attributions.
Barbarin, Oscar A.; And Others
This paper evaluates models of positive mental health for their applicability to blacks and describes three studies that examined self-esteem, locus of control, and commitment to social change as critical dimensions of effective functioning and mental health among blacks. The first study examined racial differences in self-evaluation by subjecting black and white students to a memory task and having them evaluate themselves. No racial differences were found in self-evaluation, but blacks' responses to feedback suggested that blacks, more than whites, may rely on cues from the social environment. The second study explored associations between social commitment, self-esteem, and psychosocial competence among black adolescents. A complex pattern of relationships was found among the three variables; based on this pattern, two models for describing black coping styles were developed. The third study investigated how locus of control predicts political activism among black undergraduate students in a predominantly white university. A somewhat paradoxical effect was found in that more activist blacks felt personally responsible for what happened to them individually but saw the external system as a major determinant of what happens to blacks generally. (Author/MJL)
Not available separately; see UD 022 565.
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper originally given at the Annual Community-Clinical Workshop (6th, Lanham, MD, November 4-6, 1976).