Child and Adolescent Mental HealthCharacteristics Associated With Low Self-Esteem Among US Adolescents
Section snippets
Recruitment
A detailed description of recruitment methods has been previously published.29 Briefly, a national random-digit-dial telephone survey recruited 6522 10- to 14-year-old US adolescents for a national study of media and substance use. Westat, a national research organization, conducted baseline and follow-up surveys using computer-assisted telephone interviews. The baseline survey was conducted in 2003, with 3 follow-up surveys at 8-month intervals. Parental consent and adolescent assent were
Sample Characteristics
The study sample is described in Table 1.
Factors Associated With Low Self-esteem: Bivariate Analysis
Table 2 lists characteristics associated with low self-esteem in bivariate (chi-squared) analysis. The percentage of teens with our definition of low self-esteem was greater in older adolescents and in females. Differences were found by race, with proportionally fewer black teens having low self-esteem compared with whites, and Hispanic teens having a higher rate of low self-esteem. Obese teens had particularly high rates of low self-esteem (30%). Teens
Discussion
This population-based correlational study examines multiple factors associated with low self-esteem, identifying important modifiable variables. This study furthers previous research by utilizing a large national sample and assessing multiple covariates concurrently, allowing for multivariate and subgroup analyses and better control of possible confounding. Our findings confirm that although there are a number of sociodemographic risk factors that are associated with low self-esteem, including
Acknowledgments
This study is funded by grant AA015591 (James D. Sargent, MD) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and by grant CA077026 from the National Cancer Institute.
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