Puerto Rican early adolescents' self-esteem patterns

This study examines self-esteem as a multidimensional construct in 1 Latino subgroup, Puerto Rican girls and boys during early adolescence, using Hart er's (1985b) Self-Perception Profile for Children. The results show that in its English and Spanish versions-the latter developed by the present resea rch team-the Self-Perception Profile for Children has adequate reliability for use with 13- to 14-year-old Puerto Rican youth living on the mainland. Results obtained in this study of Puerto Rican early adolescents, which con trasts with the results from the combined data of "Hispanics" in the Americ an Association of University Women (1991) survey of 3,000 youth, strongly s uggests that Latino subgroups need to be studied separately. The mean level s of self-esteem found among Puerto Rican girls and boys were generally sim ilar to those found among Harter's sample of predominantly Angle middle sch ool students from the suburbs of Denver except that Puerto Rican youth did not show gender differences in overall self-esteem. Gender differences in m ean levels of self-esteem in different domains were similar to those of Ang le youth, regardless of the Puerto Rican youth's individual level of psycho logical or behavioral acculturation. When differences by acculturation emer ged, psychological acculturation appeared to play a more protective role fo r girls (Hispanic- or Latino-oriented girls reported being better behaved a nd having greater confidence in their scholastic abilities) and behavioral acculturation operated as a risk factor for boys (boys with preference for English reported low Behavioral Conduct and Scholastic Competence scores). On the other hand, greater acculturation (both psychological and behavioral ) was associated with girls' lower confidence in their physical attractiven ess. Finally, the structure of self-esteem varied by gender, and psychologi cal and behavioral acculturation.