Obesity and Self-Esteem in African American Youth

Presenter Information

Carly Wagner
Abhilasha Kumar
Dawn Witherspoon

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Dawn Witherspoon

Faculty Sponsor College

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Sponsor Department

Psychology

Location

SOARS Virtual Conference

Presentation Website

https://unfsoars.domains.unf.edu/2021/posters/obesity-and-self-esteem-in-african-american-youth/

Keywords

SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Archives; SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Posters; University of North Florida -- Students -- Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Office of Undergraduate Research; University of North Florida. Graduate School; College students – Research -- Florida – Jacksonville – Posters; University of North Florida – Graduate students – Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Department of Psychology – Research – Posters; Psychological sciences – Research – Posters; Honorable Mention Award Winner

Abstract

Honorable Mention Winner

African Americans (AA) have the highest rates of obesity among all other ethnic groups (CDC, 2020). Male and female AA’s are disproportionately impacted by obesity and have an increased risk for health disparities (Abraham et al., 2013). Obesity is characterized as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater (Chooi et al., 2019). Self-esteem (SE) is an individual’s subjective evaluation of the self (Abdel-Khalek, 2016). Obese youth have lower levels of SE than youth at a healthy weight (Gow et al., 2020). The association between low SE and high BMI is more pronounced in AA females than AA males (Borders et al., 2006). The aim of the study was to examine how obesity relates to self-esteem in AA youth. We hypothesize that youth who are obese will have lower levels of self-esteem. We also believe that females will have lower levels of self-esteem and have higher rates of obesity than males. 235 male (50.6%) and female (49.4%) youth (mean age 13.2) from low-income, predominantly AA urban communities participated. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) was self-administered to assess self-esteem. To measure obesity, BMI was calculated, and participants were categorized by percentiles for their weight status. There was a significant difference between normal weight and obese individuals in self-esteem [mean difference = 0.40 (CI = 0.09, 0.70) p = .01]. Additionally, there was a significant difference between overweight and obese individuals in self-esteem [mean difference = 0.47 (CI = 0.01, 0.94) p = .05]. Age and gender were not significant.

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