In this pilot study, the authors tested the hypothesis that a generalized sense of self-efficacy mediates the relationship between racial identity attitudes and self-esteem among African American women. The Racial Identity Attitude Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale were administered in counterbalanced order to 70 African American women volunteers from two local agencies: a church and a private misdemeanor probation institution. Generalized self-efficacy (GSE) mediated the relationship between pre-encounter racial identity attitude and self-esteem. Lower pre-encounter attitude predicted higher GSE, which predicted higher self-esteem. Higher emersion attitudes predicted higher self-esteem and GSE more strongly in the probation subsample. This and other significant differences among the subsamples suggest that racial identity attitudes may play a different role in self-esteem in different groups of African American women.
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