Academic Achievement and Self-Esteem Among Black and White College Students

Most studies on self-esteem among black and white Americans include samples of elementary school and high school students. In the present study, data on 298 black and white college students and an examination of the relationship between student's grade point average and self-esteem were presented. Several findings corroborate earlier research on school-age children. Self-esteem scores of blacks and whites were not significantly different, despite blacks having significantly lower grade point averages than whites. The relationship between grade point average and self-esteem, however, was negligible among blacks and among white males, suggesting that academic achievement is not critical to the self-concept of college students